BOTANICAL ART from THE LIBRARY of OAK SPRING GARDEN FOUNDATION

From the great variety of images contained in the rare books, manuscripts, and drawings of the library of Oak Spring Garden Foundation, (OSGF) any of which could have been published alongside Darwin’s text, we enjoyed selecting just a few of from the works listed below. Informal titles for unpublished manuscripts and illustrations are indicated by quotation marks. The names of plants from each work illustrated in this book are given in parentheses after each entry.

Phaseolus brasilicus. Hand-colored engraved plate by Johann Theodor de Bry in Florilegium Renovatum et Auctum.

• The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala—James Bateman (1811–1897), one of the most renowned orchidologists of the nineteenth century, published this work in London between 1837 and 1843, during a time of European obsession with collecting and raising exotic orchids. The book is exquisite, luxurious and unusually large, 30 × 22 inches. Only 125 copies, each with forty hand-colored lithographs, were issued to subscribers. The illustrations, most newly discovered species, show the orchids life size and in full bloom. Publication continued over the six years as rare specimens came into bloom. The orchids were drawn by Sarah Anne Drake (1803–1857), Jane Edwards (1842–1898), Samuel Holden (active 1845–1847), and Augusta Innes Withers (1792–1877), and lithographed by Maxime Gauci (1774–1854). (Catasetum maculatum)
• Herbier Général de l’Amateur—Pancrace Bessa (1772–1846) was one of the greatest flower painters of his era and was associated with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He was trained and influenced by Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Gerard van Spaendonck, both of whom are also represented at Oak Spring. Bessa created 600 watercolors on vellum for eight volumes of this work by Jean Claude Michel Mordant de Launay published in Paris, 1816–1827, commissioned by King Charles X. The paintings were dispersed at auction in 1947, and OSGF has eighty-nine of the originals. (Gloriosa superba, Oxalis versicolor)
• A Curious Herbal—Elizabeth Blackwell (1700–1758) took on the task of drawing medicinal plants at Chelsea Physic Garden in London to financially support her husband, Alexander, while he was in debtor’s prison. Blackwell drew 500 species, many of which were plants discovered in the Americas, and she engraved the illustrations on copper. She wrote the descriptions and medicinal properties of each plant with her husband. A Curious Herbal was published with four plates weekly from 1737 to 1739, and she hand-colored some copies. Blackwell was one of the few eighteenth century women credited as both artist and publisher. Her work was successful and was soon re-engraved and republished in a larger two-volume version by Christoph Jacob Trew. Her paintings were purchased by the avid collector, John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute, a Prime Minister of Great Britain and a confidant of Princess Augusta whose botanic garden developed into the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. OSGF acquired seventy-two of Blackwell’s original watercolors, along with two copies of the English edition of A Curious Herbal and the edition republished by Trew. (Fragaria vesca, Orchis mascula, Pisum sativum)
• Florilegium Renovatum et Auctum—Johann Theodor de Bry (1561–1623), a German engraver and publisher, produced eighty-two hand-colored engravings for this work published in 1641 by his son-in-law Matthäus Merian, father of artist Maria Sibylla Merian. Many of de Bry’s engravings were copied from the prints of other artisans, including that of Phaseolus brasilicus, which was drawn by Giovanni Battista Ferrari (1584–1655). (Phaseolus brasilicus)
• Stirpium Imagines and Exoticarum Atque Indigenarum Plantarum—A contemporary of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Baldassare Cattrani (fl. 1776–1810) was commissioned by Empress Josephine to create a collection of masterful body color paintings. Later Cattrani returned to his homeland to draw native and exotic flowering plants at the botanical garden in Padua, Italy, the oldest botanical garden in Europe. At OSGF, there are seventy-five original drawings bound in a manuscript entitled Stirpium Imagines (Padua, 1776), with sixty-three unbound drawings (not dated) that were drawn for Exoticarum Atque Indigenarum Plantarum, and a set of seven watercolors on vellum, circa 1799. (Vitis vinifera)
• Flora Londinensis—William Curtis (1746–1799), with the title of Demonstrator of Botany to the Company of Apothecaries, left his apprenticeship as an apothecary and pharmacist to pursue his passion for plants. He labored over ten years on Flora Londinensis, the first work to comprehensively describe and depict plants that grew around London. Three volumes were published between 1777 and 1796, with 306 hand-colored engravings. The elegant originals were drawn by James Sowerby (1757–1822), Sydenham Teak Edwards (1768–1819), Francis Sansom (1780–1810), and William Kilburn (1745–1818). It was considered a masterpiece by his fellow naturalists but was not a financial success, and Curtis then realized that illustrations and texts on exotic plants would be more popular with the public, leading to his next publication, The Botanical Magazine. (Linaria vulgaris, Primula acaulis)
• The Botanical Magazine—William Curtis (1746–1799) founded The Botanical Magazine in 1793 and successfully recouped his losses from Flora Londinensis. The first major journal on botany to be published in England, The Botanical Magazine has been published continuously and is now called Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. From the very beginning, it featured ornamental plants, both native and introduced, that are cultivated in gardens and greenhouses. Among the editors of The Botanical Magazine from Darwin’s era were directors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sir William Jackson Hooker and his son Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. The volumes were first issued with hand-colored copperplate engravings, later succeeded by colored lithography and then by modern color printing. Most of the early original art was created by James Sowerby (1757–1822), Sydenham Edwards (1768–1819), Walter Hood Fitch (1817–1892) and William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865). (Cardiospermum halicacabum, Maurandya scandens, Salvia coccinea, Spiranthes cernua)
• Mémoires pour Servir à l‘Histoire des Plantes—Denis Dodart (1634–1707) was a French botanist and physician who did a great deal of botanical research, including studies on plant physiology and the influence of gravity on plants. In 1675, he wrote this work, which was illustrated with thirty-nine plates, most drawn directly from life and engraved by the French artist Nicolas Robert (1616–1685). Robert worked at the Jardin du Roi at Versailles and his engravings of flowers are considered among the finest of the early seventeenth century. (Bignonia capreolata)
• Flowers, Moths, Butterflies and Shells and Plantae et Papiliones Rariores—Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770) is considered one of the greatest botanical artists whose talent and knowledge united art and science. He worked for scientists and connoisseurs who commissioned numerous botanical paintings and engravings. Ehret traveled throughout Europe as a young man, working first as a gardener and draftsman, and his collaboration and lifelong friendship with the Swedish botanist Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) helped build his reputation. In 1736, he settled in England and established himself as an artist and teacher. Oak Spring has this beautiful collection, Flowers, Moths, Butterflies and Shells, with thirty-seven water and body color paintings on vellum created between 1756 and 1769. Some of the paintings may have been intended for Plantae et Papiliones Rariores, which Ehret produced in London. His painting of Pinguicula gesneri (now considered a synonym of P. vulgaris) was most likely created for Linnaeus who coined the genus name based on the description of the leaves. (Cyclamen europaeum, Dianthus caryophyllus, Pinguicula vulgaris)
• “The Venus Flytrap Manuscript”—John Ellis (1705–1776), an English linen merchant, botanist, zoologist, and author, was a correspondent and close friend of Linnaeus who described him as “a bright star of natural history.” In 1769, Ellis sent Linnaeus a description of Dionaea muscipula along with his pen-and-ink illustration of a live fly trap that had been transported to London. Ellis’s letter announced the formal introduction of carnivorous plants to Western scientific discourse. The published description, with a colored print of the Venus fly trap, was appended to the pamphlet printed in 1770 on the transoceanic shipment of plants entitled Directions for bringing over Seeds and Plants from the East Indies and other distant Countries in a state of vegetation: Together with a catalogue of such foreign plants as are worthy of being encouraged in our American colonies, for the purposes of medicine, agriculture, and commerce. To which is added The Figure and Botanical Description of a new Sensitive Plant, called Dionaea muscipula, or Venus’s Fly-trap. The original drawing of the Venus fly trap, and Ellis’ letter to Linnaeus describing the plant, is at OSGF. (Dionaea muscipula)
• “Album of Garden Flowers, English School”—This eighteenth-century album of garden flowers attributed to the English School includes 151 water and body color paintings on vellum. The collection includes beautiful images of garden plants in full bloom that were grown in England through the seasons, spring to autumn. The highly skilled artist surely had some botanical training, as many of the paintings are inscribed with the Latin and common names. (Lathyrus odoratus, Lupinus pilosus, Ophrys apifera, Oxalis versicolor, Solanum tuberosum, Tropaeolum majus)
• “An Album of Flowers, French School”—Created in the late eighteenth century, this French School album of flowers consists of fifty-five watercolors that were probably part of a gardener’s or florist’s catalogue. (Vinca minor)
• “162 Drawings of Plants”—Dame Ann Hamilton created beautifully composed and wonderfully accurate drawings of plants in water and body color on vellum between 1752 and 1766. A daughter of a British Member of Parliament, she is an elusive artist and very little is known about her life. Her paintings are exceptional, and her style is suggestive of Ehret, who taught many young women of “good family” and may have instructed her on floral painting. The paintings are accompanied by inscriptions of the common names of the plants, and often with their scientific names. OSGF has 162 of Hamilton’s paintings. (Clematis repens, Ipomoea purpurea, Linum perenne, Mimosa pudica, Phaseolus coccineus, Primula veris)
• A Catalogue of English Plants Drawn after Nature—Lady Frances Howard executed the watercolors on vellum that are bound into this manuscript between 1762 and 1766. Little is known about Howard’s life and work, but she was a beloved pupil of Ehret and had similar skills, both exceptional and memorable. She clearly spent many hours on her work, applying sharp details and vibrant colors to her floral portraits. She indexed common and Latin names of the plants that she illustrated, suggesting she was interested in the scientific and geographic aspects of the plants as well as the artistic endeavor. The album at Oak Spring includes ninety-four watercolors on vellum and four experimental works on blue paper. (Digitalis purpurea, Drosera rotundifolia)
• Lindenia: Iconography of Orchids—This work was published in thirteen volumes between 1891 and 1897 by Belgian botanist Jean Jules Linden (1817–1898), with 304 chromolithographs. The illustrations were drawn by A. Goessens and printed by Peter de Pannemaeker. Linden traveled to Brazil and other countries in the Neotropics collecting bromeliads and other plants, especially orchids, for European horticulture. He made detailed studies of the conditions in their native habitat and, once back in Belgium, created greenhouses with varied conditions for their cultivation. (Catasetum saccatum)
• The Botanical Cabinet Consisting of Coloured Delineations of Plants from All Countries with a Short Account of Each—Conrad Loddiges (1821–1865) published this work in twenty parts between 1817 and 1833 with engravings by George Cooke (1781–1834). The work covered plants from all over the world that were cultivated in the Loddiges’ nursery at Hackney, London, and many of the illustrations were done by members of the Loddiges family. (Mitchella repens)
• Recueil de plantes copiées d ‘après nature par de Saint Aubin dessinateur du Roy Louis XV—Charles Germain de Saint Aubin (1721–1786) produced this collection of more than 250 watercolors, body colors, pastels, and ink wash drawings over a period of almost fifty years, between 1736 and 1785. Saint Aubin had wide-ranging interests and constantly experimented with new styles and techniques. Most of the paintings are exquisite studies of flowering plants, and others are skillfully composed bouquets and trompe l’oeil paintings, as well as landscapes and depictions of butterflies, seashells, monkeys, and other subjects. (Vicia faba)
• Reichenbachia: Orchids Illustrated and Described by F. Sander—Frederick Sander (1847–1920) was born in Germany and migrated to England in search of employment as a nurseryman. He saw his first orchid at the age of twenty-one and then devoted his life’s work to them. As a grower of orchids for Queen Victoria, he introduced many new varieties and around two hundred species have been named in his honor. Reichenbachia was a collaboration between Sander and English landscape painter Henry George Moon (1857–1905), who created most of the illustrations over a period of about four years. The first volume was published in 1888 and three more volumes were published at two-year intervals. Moon carved woodcut blocks, and the plates were printed as chromolithography and, in a few cases, colored by hand. In addition to Moon, other illustrators who contributed to the project were W. H. Fitch, Alice H. Loch, George Hansen, Charles Storer, J. Watton, and James Laid Macfarlane. (Angraecum sesquipedale)
• “Botanical Manuscript with 265 Drawings of Plants”—Elizabeth Pieth Schmitz, wife of German botanist Martin Pieth Schmitz, worked in the latter part of the seventeenth century and created 265 water and body color paintings of plants. As inscribed on the first folio, all were “drawn according to nature.” The paintings are mounted onto fifty-nine folios and were bound into the manuscript around 1787, now housed at OSGF. (Cyclamen europaeum)
• A Flora of the State of New York—John Torrey (1796–1873) collected, described, and classified plant specimens throughout the United States, and one of his protégés was Asa Gray, later at Harvard University and Charles Darwin’s most important supporter in America. Torrey produced A Flora of the State of New York as part of the Natural History of New York series he published in 1843—it has 165 lithographs in two volumes, which are hand-colored in many of the published editions. In Torrey’s preface, he acknowledged his artists, writing, “Many of the earlier drawings were executed by Miss Agnes Mitchell; the remainder by Miss Elizabeth Pooley with the exception of a few that were done by Mr. Swinton. They were all respectable artists, but they were unaccustomed to making dissections of plants. The lithography was executed at the office of Mr. George Endicott.” (Echinocystis lobata)
• Plantae Rariores Quas Maximam Partem and Plantae Selectae—Christoph Jacob Trew (1695–1769) was a Nuremberg physician, bibliophile, and botanist who was both supportive and productive in working with botanical artists. He was a lifelong friend of Ehret, and had influenced him to study plants scientifically as well as artistically. Plantae Rariores Quas Maximam Partem was printed in Altdorf and Nuremberg between 1784 and 1795 as a supplement to Plantae Selectae, published by Trew between 1750 and 1773. Both publications are beautifully illustrated by several artists including Benedict Christian Vogel (1745–1825) and Magnus Melchian Payerlein (1716–1751), with one plate by Ehret. The engravings were done by Christopher Keller (1638–1707) and Adam Ludwig Wirsing (1734–1797). (Arachis hypogaea)
• The Orchid Album—Robert Warner (1814–1896), working with his publisher and coauthor Benjamin Samuel Williams (1824–1890), produced The Orchid Album by subscription in eleven volumes between 1882 and 1897. Each volume contains forty-eight lithographs, a total of 528, all of which were created by John Nugent Fitch (1840–1927), a nephew of the prolific botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch. The lithographs were printed in color and also colored by hand, depicting many of the spectacular orchid species and varieties that were then the obsession of Europe and England. The Gardeners’ Chronicle, where Darwin often published articles, described The Orchid Album as a “magnum opus … which was projected with the idea of supplying a demand for illustrations of Orchidaceous plants, with botanical descriptions of the plants figured and notes on their cultivation. … Its appearance was hailed with great satisfaction in horticultural circles throughout the world.” (Coryanthes maculata)
• British Flowers—Elizabeth and Margaret Wharton, two sisters, produced a manuscript of 320 watercolor and pencil drawings of native wildflowers, bound in two volumes. The drawings are each inscribed with dates ranging from 1793 to 1811, along with notes on the plants’ locations. In a brief biography, Elizabeth is praised for her botanical skills, which are reflected in the detail of the flower drawings. It is uncertain how the work was divided between the two sisters, but it seems that some pieces were painted together, with Elizabeth creating the bulk of the art and Margaret contributing intermittently. They produced two other volumes, one on grasses, the other on seaweeds, in the period between 1792 and 1827. (Cypripedium calceolus, Epipactis latifolia, Humulus lupulus, Pulmonaria officinalis, Trifolium pratense, Viola odorata)
• Herbarius Ad Virum Delineatus—Jan Withoos (1648–circa 1685) created this Dutch florilegium around 1670, which consists of around 263 flowers painted on vellum in three volumes. Johannes, son of the well-known painter Matthias Withoos (1627–1703), spent most of his life in the Netherlands and had a profound appreciation for the natural world. He created beautiful paintings of native flowers as well as cultivated species which are historically significant because they reflect the popularity of new plants brought to Holland from around the world. Withoos’s paintings were acquired by the bibliophile Paulo van Uchelen, who had them bound in full vellum, most likely by the Amsterdam bookbinder Albert Magnus. (Ipomoea, Passiflora caerulea)