Clara Maria was the daughter of an amateur artist, Jared Leigh, and she married a painter, Francis Wheatley. She first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796, showing portraits and miniatures. She also exhibited the type of genre scenes that had made her husband's reputation, and Pedlars 'Rest could be a copy of his work. Following Wheatley's death in 1801 she married the Shakespearean actor and miniature painter, Alexander Pope.
Clara Pope began to focus on flower painting. During the eighteenth century botany became a subject of much interest. Plants were imported from the colonies and along trade routes to botanical gardens including Kew, classified according to the Linnean system, studied by amateurs and advertised in books. This, and the rise of commercial printmaking and decorative embroidery, meant there was a ready market for images of flowers. Pope was employed by Samuel Curtis, the botanical publisher, to illustrate The Beauties of Flora (London 1806-20). unfurling buds. Like Mary Moser and Mary Lawrance, Pope exhibited her flower paintings at the
Royal Academy, showing there until the year of her death. Flower painting, perceived by some as an insignificant branch of art, was thought, therefore, to be a suitable subject for women and as a result they were allowed to study seriously, and could excel. Pope passed her skills on to the aristocratic young ladies she taught to draw.
Pope combined her botanical painting with an interest in drama in two watercolours shown at The Royal Academy in (respectively) 1818 and 1835. Composition of Flowers in the Vase Presented to Edmund Keane (Nottingham Castle Museum) portrays a gift given to the actor by the Garrick Club and other Drury Lane artists.
The Flowers of Shakespeare depicts a bust of the playwright behind a basket
of blooms and was bought by the architect and collector John Soane.
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