Augusta Innes Withers

The recorded working language is English. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Employment is recorded with John Lindley and Royal Horticultural Society. Positions recorded include court painter. Works named in the authority record are The Pomological magazine; or, Figures and descriptions of the most important varieties of fruit cultivated in Great Britain. Distinctions recorded are Flower Painter in Ordinary.

• Name — Augusta Innes Withers • Birth Name — Augusta Hanna Elizabeth Innes Baker • Born — 1792 • Birthplace — Gloucestershire, England • Died — 1876 • Place of death — London • Burial Place — Highgate Cemetery • Occupation — Illustrator • Spouse — Theodore Withers

Augusta was the daughter of a Gloucestershire vicar, chaplain to the Prince Regent. She lived in London all her life and was married to Theodore Gibson Withers, an accountant, who was 20 years her senior. They were married on 23 July 1822 in Marylebone. She died in 1876 and was buried in the Withers family grave on the western side of Highgate Cemetery on the 14th August 1876.

Besides giving painting classes, she was active as a painter from before 1827 until 1865, exhibiting from 1829 to 1846 at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the New Watercolour Society as well as the Society of Female Artists in 1857 and 1858, and where she was a founder member. John Claudius Loudon commented in the 1831 Gardener's Magazine that her talents were of the highest order, and that "to be able to draw flowers botanically, and fruit horticulturally, that is, with the characteristics by which varieties and subvarieties are distinguished, is one of the most useful accomplishments of your ladies of leisure, living in the country." In 1815, in an attempt to clarify the nomenclature of cultivated fruit varieties and reduce the number of synonyms in common use, William Jackson Hooker initiated a project of fruit drawings in watercolour stretching over 10 volumes. Suffering a stroke in 1820, Hooker was unable to finish the work. Four other artists, including Augusta Innes Withers and Barbara Cotton were commissioned to complete the work, ironic since Withers had been refused a position as a botanical artist by Hooker's son, Joseph Dalton Hooker. Withers painted the 12 colour plates for Robert Thompson's The gardener's assistant.

Augusta Innes Withers was recorded at birth as Augusta Baker. The authorities additionally record the headings Augusta Joanna Elizabeth Innes Withers, Augusta Baker, Mrs. Augusta Innes Withers, Mrs. Withers and Augusta Innes Baker. Her recorded language was English.