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Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden: A Blossom on the Bough

Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden: A Blossom on the Bough

By James J. White and Lugene B. Bruno. 2002. 48 pp.; 27 col., 21 b&w figs.; 7 1/2 x 10"; 6 oz. Pictorial stiff paper cover. ISBN 0-913196-74-6. Out-of-print.

This illustrated catalogue of a retrospective exhibition of Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden's artwork at Hunt Institute is the only catalogue of her work representing an overview of her career as a botanical illustrator for books, magazines and reproductions. Accompanying many of the illustrations are selections from letters by Anne Ophelia to botanists, curators, colleagues and friends in her search for plants, descriptions of her challenges and delight in observing and painting them, and details about the process of creating books for publication. Included in the catalogue are an autobiographical sketch, portraits of the artist, her family and husband, and exhibition and publication information.

Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden at her apartment in Boulder, Colorado, May 1999. Photo by Lugene B. Bruno.

Pages 28–29 of the catalogue feature Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, and Tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, from Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden's The Blossom on the Bough: A Book of Trees (New York, T. Crowell, 1975).

I'm making slow but steady progress with my tree-flower paintings.… and spent our days exploring the very lovely country-side, with an eye on the basswood floers I had to "capture." Nature cooperated for once, and the buds didn't open until after I as settled at my work table.

I'm working on a tree book — an expansion of the tree-flower story I did last summer for Audubon. Am kind of frantic right now because this warm spring is bringing out the tree flowers almost a month early!

Letters to John Brindle, Curator of Art, Hunt Institute, 31 July 1972 and 17 March 1973

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