Horticultural Heroine: Frances Daisy Maynard, Countess of Warwick

Graphite on paper 2022

The graphite drawing depicting Frances Daisy Maynard, Countess of Warwick has been shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022.

Daisy inherited the magnificent Elizabethan Estate of Easton Lodge in Essex in 1865.

Daisy championed opportunities for women during her guardianship of Easton Lodge and founded the Studley College of Horticulture and Agriculture for women. Her contribution to the development of the gardens partially remain today and are lovingly preserved and maintained by dedicated volunteers and the current owners of Warwick House. She commissioned Harold Peto to redesign many formal elements in the garden which lend a faded grandeur and beauty to the space.

This drawing is inspired by a photograph of Daisy dressed as Marie Antoinette at the Bal Poudre held at Warwick Castle in 1895. She was heavily criticised in ‘The Clarion’ a left-wing newspaper the following day which motivated her to loosen her links to high society, converting to socialism not long after