William John Caparne, irises and art

William Caparn was born on November 17, 1855, in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. He was the eldest child of William Horner Caparn, organist and music teacher, and his wife Sophia Warwick. His grandfather and two of his uncles were flower seed merchants. William Caparn attended the Magnus Grammar School in his hometown, which had existed since 1529, where he received drawing lessons from the painter William Cubley of Newark-on-Trent. Cubley had been a pupil of portrait painter Sir William Beechey, a former pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. William Caparn taught at an art academy from the age of 16 and was hired as a drawing teacher at the Oundle School in 1877. In 1879, he married Louisa Jane Atkins. A daughter, Louisa Winifred, was born in 1880. In 1894, Caparn was dismissed by a new headmaster of the Oundle School. Caparn sold his house and settled in Dartmoor. Here he produced more than 200 watercolors. After the death of his wife in 1895, Caparn moved to Guernsey a year later, where he would paint for the next 40 years. He bought a small cottage on a cliff in the parish of Saint Martin between Bon Port and Saints Bay.

© The Gardens Trust en Guernsey Museums & Galleries

He converted an old tram, originating from the tram line on Guernsey that was discontinued in 1934, into his studio and workshop. This tramcar stood next to his cottage in Bon Port. It was during this period that he added an 'e' to the end of his surname. William Caparne, as he subsequently called himself, produced paintings and drawings in various techniques, including many watercolors.

His subjects were often based on the local environment, the sea, sky, and land, as depicted in the example above on the stamp. Flowers, both individual and in groups, appeared increasingly in his works. William was a close friend of the English daffodil grower Peter Barr. A daffodil is named after Barr. Together with Frederick William Burbidge, Barr wrote a book about daffodils: 'Ye Narcissus Or Daffodil Flower', published in 1884. In addition to painting, William Caparne was busy with plant breeding in his small nursery. Caparne's favorite flower was the iris, in which he became a recognized expert. In 1899, he was appointed a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804.

The soil and climate of Guernsey were perfect for growing flower bulbs, especially daffodils and irises. His friend and fellow iris grower, Sir Michael Foster, wrote a letter to William with some advice on breeding flower bulbs. He advised: 'Be bold when hybridizing the bulbs and dare to experiment.' His daughter, Louisa Winifred, came to live with him. As his self-confidence grew, William Caparne went on painting expeditions, where he drew and painted flowers and plants in gardens throughout Europe. In 1905, William found himself in the company of Claude Monet in Giverny, France. Together, William and Monet shared a love for flowers and painting. Monet had created a beautiful garden with a pond. Monet reasoned: 'I became an artist because of flowers.' William responded: 'There could never be art without flowers.'

By the time William died in 1940, he was impoverished and nearly blind. During his lifetime, William had introduced more than two hundred new irises through his breeding efforts at his nursery. He even had contact regarding this with a Dutch bulb grower and trader, Van Tubergen. He died on January 31, 1940, in Saint Martin on the island of Guernsey. William bequeathed his remarkable art collection of nearly 8.000 drawings and paintings to his daughter, Louisa Winifred.

In 2005, Guernsey Post commemorated William Caparne with a series of stamps featuring images of his beautiful flower paintings. Many of his works are included in the collection of Guernsey Museums & Galleries in Saint Peter Port.

During his lifetime, Caparne held only two exhibitions of his paintings. He never sold works to art galleries and regarded his paintings and drawings merely as objects of study.

The iris was named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow and refers to the very many colors the flowers can have. It is hardly possible to imagine a color that is not represented in this plant genus. It is an ancient plant genus that has been found and cultivated on Crete and in Egypt for more than 4.000 years.

William Caparne was not the only one to produce paintings depicting irises. Vincent van Gogh created a still life titled 'Irises' in the St. Paul-de-Mausole Hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in May 1890. The irises on this canvas, measuring 93 by 74 centimeters, stand in a brown flower vase, and the work is part of the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. But even more famous is his painting 'Irises,' which he created a year earlier and is depicted as the background of the stamp block dedicated to the painter by the postal service of Antigua & Barbuda. That painting is located in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, United States.

The iris appears on many more stamps, and the most well-known example among collectors is a Dutch stamp from 1953 issued in the Summer Stamps series designed by André van der Vossen.

A stamp that might raise questions is the issue depicting an iris as the 'National Flower' of the State of Palestine. Pictured here is the 'Faqqu'a Iris', named after an area in Jenin where this plant grows. In 2016, this iris was chosen as the national symbol of the State of Palestine.

Neighboring Israel also issued a stamp in 2017 jointly with Croatia, depicting an iris alongside an anemone. Approximately 18 species of irises occur in Israel, almost all of which are protected. Croatia has the Croatian Iris (Iris croatica) as its national flower, and this is depicted on the stamps. The anemone, the bright red calanit, is the national flower of Israel.

There are dozens of other countries that have issued the iris as an image on a postage stamp. Such as the 'Iris tingitana', also known as the 'Iris of Morocco' or 'Iris of Tangier'. The bulb of this iris has a circumference of as much as 11 centimeters and bears flowers in various shades of blue. However, the national flower of Morocco is the rose.

The iris, an eminently suitable plant for the garden in a bright, sunny spot, with beautiful flowers in countless color variations. The rose is the national flower of the United States of America, just as in Morocco. In addition to the stamp featuring the iris, a stamp depicting a lilac is included.

To conclude, an image of a first-day cover issued on June 15, 1961, by the Japanese postal service featuring an image of the Japanese iris, the 'Iris ensata'. This iris is found not only in Japanese gardens but also in the wild in that country. The stamp was designed by Yasundo Nozawa, a designer employed by the stamp printing office of the Ministry of Finance of Japan, and printed in an edition of eight million copies. The national flower of Japan is not the cherry blossom, but the chrysanthemum. And in the Netherlands? Naturally, the tulip, originally from Kazakhstan.