Botanical Art - Miss Drake

Miss Drake - a skilled illustrator of orchids In celebration of Kew's Orchids Festival, Julia Buckley looks at the orchid illustrations of Sarah-Ann Drake, a prolific 19th century artist we know little about.

Sarah Drake was born in Skeyton on 24 July 1803, the same area of Norfolk as the London University botanist John Lindley and went to school with Lindley's sister Anne. As a young woman, she went to Paris, where she probably studied painting as was expected of young women of the day.