Couroupita guianensis

A botanist, writer, and collector, Shirley Sherwood (b. 1933) has been instrumental in reviving interest in botanical art beginning in the 1990s. A gallery named in her honor opened in 2008 at The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew; it showcases the collection of paintings and prints by classic and contemporary artists that she assembled over the years. Margaret Mee’s drawing of a cannonball tree is one of a number of watercolors by the artist owned by Sherwood. It is believed to be the earliest image of an Amazonian plant painted by Mee, originating in her first expedition to Brazil in 1956 when she visited the botanical garden and museum of Museu Emílio Goeldi in Belém, the capital of the northern State of Pará.