The Woodland Trust and the Clarence Bicknell Association announce a campaign to raise funds for the Woodland Trust from the sale of celebrity-signed prints of flower watercolours by the Victorian polymath, botanist and artist Clarence Bicknell. Our photos shows celebrities signing a limited number of the pictures novelist Frederick Forsyth in the company of supporter Sally Harrison and Marcus Bicknell, the great-great-grand-nephew of Clarence and singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh.
This first announcement is an appeal … a) to friends who might alert other celebrities to the invitation for them also to sign a batch of the pictures … b) to those reading this who might put us in touch with retail outlets such as museum boutiques and art galleries where the prints could be put in sale to the public and … c) to public art galleries where a more complete retrospective of the work of Clarence Bicknell could be put on. On point (c), initial approaches are underway with the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London, the Society of Botanical Artists, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, where 405 watercolours by Bicknell are stored.
The four celebrities already signing a batch of prints are
novelist Frederick Forsyth,
broadcaster, President of the Woodland Trust Clive Anderson,
singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh and
playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn.
Bicknell’s botanically-accurate images of Alpine wild flowers are in many cases decorated with frames and elements inspired by the shape and colour of the flower. They were painted in the vellum-bound Casa Fontanalba Visitors’ Book in 1906 by Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918) who lived and worked in northwest Italy. The prints are available signed or unsigned, framed or unframed, with or without a printed caption, in a variety of flower types and a choice of frames.
For initial enquiries, please get in touch with the Clarence Bicknell Association and its chairman Marcus Bicknell via info@clarencebicknell.com 2nd April 2024