Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt (19 July 1901 – 8 January 1987), known simply as Wilfrid Blunt, was an English art teacher, writer, artist and a curator of the

Watts Gallery Watts Gallery – Artists' Village is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. It is dedicated to the work of the Victorian-era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts. The gallery has been Grade II* listed on t ...

in Compton,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, from 1959 until 1983.

Life

His parents were the Rev. Arthur Stanley Vaughan and Hilda Violet (born Master) Blunt, of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Blunt was born at Ham in Surrey and educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

, where he was a scholar, leaving in July 1920 for

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, where he was an exhibitioner, finally at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

."Blunt, Wilfrid Jasper Walter" in ''Marlborough College Register 1843–1952'' (The Bursar, Marlborough, 1953), p. 593 He was art master at

Haileybury College Haileybury is a co-educational public school (fee-charging boarding and day school for 11- to 18-year-olds) located in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire. It is a member of the Rugby Group and enrols pupils at the 11+, 13+ and 16+ stages of edu ...

(1923–1938) and then at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

(1938–1959) and helped modify the hand-writing of British school-children, using the fifteenth-century Italian '' Cancellaresca'' ("

Chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

") script as a basis, although one of his students at Eton reminisced that after being taken off Art to improve his handwriting, Mr Blunt failed to make it any more legible. For his book ''The Art of Botanical Illustration'' in 1950 he was awarded the

Veitch Memorial Medal The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize awarded annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Goal The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement ...

by the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

. This book was considered the first comprehensive review of botanical illustration in Europe. Subsequent editions (by his co-author, Willian T. Stearn) provided coverage of more of the world and the twentieth century. The sixth international exhibition of botanical art and illustration held in 1988 at the

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (HIBD), dedicated as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library in 1961, is a research division of Carnegie Mellon University. History HIBD is named for Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt. She don ...

, USA, was dedicated to Blunt. He had been a member of the Advisory Committee to the Institute since 1964. He died in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

on 8 January 1987. His brothers were the numismatist Christopher Evelyn Blunt and

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), (formerly styled Sir Anthony Blunt from 1956 until November 1979), was a leading British art historian and a Soviet spy. Blunt was a professor of art history at the University ...

, art historian and spy for the Soviets. His namesake

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922), sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines ...

was a distant family cousin.

Books

* '' Haileybury Buildings'' (1936); 2nd edition (1966) * ''Desert Hawk: Abd el Kader and the French Conquest of Algeria'' (Methuen, 1947) * ''The Art of

Botanical Illustration Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species. They are generally meant to be scientifically descriptive about subjects depicted and are often found printed alongside a botanical description in boo ...

'' (1950) with

William T. Stearn William Thomas Stearn (; 16 April 1911 – 9 May 2001) was a British botanist. Born in Cambridge in 1911, he was largely self-educated and developed an early interest in books and natural history. His initial work experience was at a C ...

* '' Tulipomania'' (Penguin, 1950) from the King Penguin Books series * ''Black Sunrise: The Life and Times of Mulai Ismail, Emperor of Morocco 1646-1727'' (1951) * ''Sweet Roman Hand: Five Hundred Years of Italic Cursive Script'' (1952) * '' Pietro's Pilgrimage: A Journey to India and Back at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century'' (1953) * ''Sebastiano: The Adventures of an Italian Priest, Sebastiano Locatelli, During his Journey from Bologna to Paris and Back 1664-1665'' (1956) * ''Great Flower Books, 1700-1900: A Bibliographical Record of Two Centuries of Finely-illustrated Flower Books'' (1956), Sacheverell Sitwell, Wilfrid Blunt and Patrick Millington Synge,

Atlantic Monthly Press Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself " ...

(1990) * ''A Persian Spring'' (James Barrie Books, Ltd., 1957) * ''Lady Muriel; Lady Muriel Paget, her husband, and her philanthropic work in Central and Eastern Europe'' (1962) * ''Of Flowers & A Village: An Entertainment for Flower Lovers'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1963) * ''Cockerell; Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, friend of

Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...

and

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

and director of the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...

, Cambridge'' (1965) * ''

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

, Pearl of Persia'' (1966, with Wim Swaan) * ''Omar: A Fantasy for Animal Lovers'' (1966) illustrated by John Verney * '' John Christie of Glyndebourne'' (1968) * ''The Dream King, Ludwig of Bavaria'' (1970) * ''The Compleat Naturalist: A Life of

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

'' (Collins, 1971, with William T. Stearn) * ''

Captain Cook Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He complet ...

Florilegium In medieval Latin, a ' (plural ') was a compilation of excerpts or sententia from other writings and is an offshoot of the commonplacing tradition. The word is from the Latin '' flos'' (flower) and '' legere'' (to gather): literally a gathering ...

'' (1973, with W. T. Stearn) * ''The Golden Road to

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

'' (1973) * ''On Wings of Song; a Biography of

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

'' (1974) * ''England's Michelangelo: A Biography of

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as ''Hope (Watts), Hop ...

'' (1975) * ''The Australian Flower Paintings of

Ferdinand Bauer Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (20 January 1760 – 17 March 1826) was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia. Biography Early life and career Bauer was born in Feldsberg in 1760, the youngest son ...

'' (1976, with W. T. Stearn) * ''The Ark in the Park:

The Zoo ''The Zoo'' is a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson, writing under the pen name of Bolton Rowe. It premiered on 5 June 1875 at the St James's Theatre in London (as an afterpiece to W. S. Gi ...

in the Nineteenth Century'' (1976) * ''Splendours of Islam'' (1976) * ''In For a Penny: A Prospect of

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

'' (1978) * ''The Illustrated Herbal'' (

Frances Lincoln Frances Elisabeth Rosemary Lincoln (20 March 1945 – 26 February 2001) was an English independent publisher of illustrated books. She published under her own name and the company went on to become Frances Lincoln Publishers. In 1995, Lincoln w ...

, 1979, with S. Raphael) * ''Married to a Single Life: An Autobiography'', 1901-1938 (1983) * ''Slow on the Feather: Further Autobiography'', 1938–1959 (1986)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blunt, Wilfrid 1901 births 1987 deaths English art historians English curators English artists Veitch Memorial Medal recipients New Naturalist writers 20th-century English historians Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford People educated at Marlborough College