Sarah Featon

Alectryon excelsus (1889)

Entelea arborescens

Sarah Featon (1848-1927) was an accomplished botanical artist from New Zealand.

Sarah, with her husband Edward Featon, made publishing history in 1889 with the publication of their book The Art Album of New Zealand Flora. This book was the first full-colour art book to be published in New Zealand. It contained systematic and popular descriptions of the native flowering plants of New Zealand and the adjacent islands. Sarah created all of the artwork for the book and commissioned the chromo-lithography for the book plates from the workshop of Bock and Cousins, Wellington. The challenges of the technique and the high costs involved put the firm's partnership under such financial strain that it had to be dissolved.

A copy of the book was presented to Queen Victoria during her diamond jubilee.

Sarah suffered financial hardship later in life and sold the original artwork for the book to the Dominion Museum - now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

List of works

• Works by Sarah Featon from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

References

• Platts, Una Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide and Handbook, Christchurch, Avon Fine Prints Ltd, 1980.
• Dawson, Bee Lady Painters: The Flower Painters of Early New Zealand, Viking 1999

Persondata
Name	Featon, Sarah
Alternative names
Short description	artist
Date of birth	1848
Place of birth
Date of death	1927
Place of death