P.for centuries thebotanical illustration it was the only possibility to visually portray plant species, offering an important tool for science. Although the most famous names in this art are masculine – da Pierre-Joseph Redouté to William Hooker – they were not lacking countless female talents. Curiously, in the age of digital photography botanical painting is back in fashion. And as in the past, professional and hobby painters are many. In many botanical gardens, courses are organized and there are also online lessons for those who want to learn how to portray flowers, fruits and plants.
Award winning designs
Flip through a book like Botanical illustration. The winners of the gold medal from Charlotte Brooks (Guido Tommasi Editore, 35 euros) is like being welcomed in a luxuriant garden, where the plants are perfect and wonderful. The collected drawings are the work of the winners of the highest award given to this art by the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society (Rhs)a gardening institution.
Some of them, in various editions of the exhibitions organized by Rhs, have also won the silver, bronze or silver gilt medal. William Hooker (1779-1832), famous for painting the Victoria director (today called Victoria amazonica) which flourished in Kew Gardens in 1851, collaborated with the Society from 1815. The first painting commissioned was that ofApricot Moorpark.
Apricot Moorpark designed by Willian Hooker, 1815/1816.
Treasures in the library
It is not surprising that artists were asked to paint leaves, branches, fruits, flowers with extreme accuracy. In an age when there were no apps like PlantSnap and the like, thebotanical illustration was the priority documentation to consult for identification of plants.
The paintings were kept at the Lindley Librarywhich today boasts a collection of approx 30 thousand works from the beginning of the 17th century to today. The collection also includes some images of gardens. Like those of Edith Helena Adie (1895-1947), who was a guest in 1923 of the collector Reginald Cory, passionate about botanical illustration. The watercolors he painted a Dyffryn House, in South Wales, are a precious testimony. They tell us what the garden was like before it fell into disrepair and were used to restore it.
Lost collection
In Botanical illustrationBrooks tells the curious story of this collection, which it risked being lost forever. In fact, in 1859, the Society was on the verge of bankruptcy and expensive designs were sold at Sotheby’s. Fortunately, many of them were later returned to the Lindley Library in the twentieth century and are still a source of inspiration for those approaching botanical painting. Even if you don’t have artistic ambitions, the book Botanic illustrationto enclosing these masterpieces is a feast for the eyes, one of those books that are pure beauty.
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