Exhibition at the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, February 2026. We are delighted that the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. has invited Clarence back. Two vellum-bound hand-painted albums (The Casa Fontanalba Visitors Books (1906) and the Book of Guests in Esperanto (1910)) and his Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Riviera (1885) will be displayed with other botanical art of his in the Botany in Print Exhibition, part of the 2026 Arts Week at Trinity. A week’s worth of events, performances and workshops runs from Sunday 22nd February to 1st March. Trinity students Audrey Campillo Perry and Cressida Massey-Cook have been putting the events together under the eye of Nicolas Bell M.A., PhD, Librarian at the Wren Library who organised Clarence’s exhibition there in 2018. (photo of Marcus Bicknell and Nick Bell in 2018 above).
Clarence Bicknell will be the subject of a talk on 7th May which kicks off a a week-long exhibition as part of the Cookham Festival on the Thames near where Susie and I live. It is billed as “Clarence Bicknell – his art driven by a passion for wild alpine flowers with his great-grand-nephew Marcus Bicknell, Thursday 7th May, 6-7pm, Gantry House Barn, School Lane, Cookham SL6 9QN. £10 including a drink. Whether you like botanically-accurate art or his later arts-and-crafts or whimsical decorative style, this introductory film, slide-show, talk and Q&A on Dorney-educated Victorian polymath Clarence Bicknell will enchant you. He is no Thames-valley meadow wanderer; Bicknell spent summers in his house high in the French-Italian Alps seeking out The Ancient King Saxifraga florulenta and other rarities and he did 4,800 watercolours which are in museums Europe-wide including the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge. Three original vellum-bound albums by him will be available for careful viewing before and after the talk. The Clarence Bicknell botanical art exhibition can also be visited during Festival events at Gantry House 11-15 May. Life-size A3 prints will be on sale. The Clarence Bicknell Association (https://clarencebicknell.com/cookham-festival-2026/) is pleased to cooperate with Edward Donald, Founder of Natural Shoots (www.naturalshoots.co.uk) in expanding awareness and in interest in alpine and native wild meadow flower species.”
Le Venezie Watercolor Festival 17 October-1 November 2026, at the historical medieval City Palace Palazzo dei Trecento in Treviso, will feature a display exhibition of water-colours of Alpine flowers by Clarence Bicknell accompanied by one or two original vellum-bound albums, artefacts and text information panels. Marcus Bicknell will serve as the Special Juror for this festival and they are establishing a Clarence Bicknell Special Award.
These were the highlights of our association’s Zoom meeting of 20 January 2026 (we do it twice a year). Download the notes in pdf here: Clarence_Bicknell_Zoom_call_notes_20Jan 2026