Person

Dell, Edgar (1901 - 2008)

Born
28 November 1901
England
Died
18 April 2008
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Occupation
Botanical artist

Summary

Edgar Dell is known for his accurate gouache paintings of the native flora of Western Australia. A skilled draftsman, he moved to Western Australia in 1927, initially working in orchards and on farms. In the early 1930s he was commissioned to produce a series of plates of Western Australian wildflowers. Of these, 135 were published in the Western Mail between 1933 and 1935 and then in book form in 1935. Charles Gardner's West Australian wildflowers, which was published in seven editions (1936-1951), included over 90 of Dell's paintings. A further 39 of Dell's paintings, designed as aids to identification, were included in Gardner's Poison plants of Western Australia (1937).

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Details

Chronology

1927
Life event - Migrated to Western Australia

Related People

Published resources

Books

  • Dell, Edgar; descriptions by C. A. Gardner, Poison plants of south-western Australia (Perth: West Australian Newspapers, 1937), 40 pp. Details
  • Gardner, C. A.; illustrated by Edgar Dell, West Australian wildflowers (Perth: West Australian Newspapers, 1941), 116 pp. Details
  • Gooding, Janda, Wildflowers in art : artists impressions of Western Australian wildflowers 1699-1991 (Perth, WA: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1991), 96 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Dell, John and Dell, Bernard, 'Edgar Dell, Born 28 November 1901, Died: 18 April 2008', Western Australian Naturalist, 27 (3) (2010), 184-91. Details
  • Keighery, Greg, 'Edgar Dell November 28th 1901 - April 18th 2008', Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 135 (2008), 11-13. Details
  • Mansfield, Carol, 'Edgar Dell: a singular talent', Australian garden history, 9 (6) (1998), 6-8. Details

Resources

Helen Cohn

Last modified: 13 December 2022

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