The Flower and Fruit of Henry Lenny (1861)
This conversation is connected to The Flower and Fruit of Henry Lenny (1861).
Georgiana Houghton was a Victorian spiritualist artist who believed she painted under the guidance of spirits, including those of deceased relatives and old masters. The Flower and Fruit of Henry Lenny is a spirit portrait — Houghton's term for works that used floral symbolism to represent the inner life of a specific person. Tendrils curl outward, blossoms glow in layered washes of color. She exhibited these paintings in a self-funded London show in 1871, which was a financial disaster but is now considered a remarkable early example of abstract art.