Botanical Illustration of the 1700s
- Samantha McLennan
- Mar 8, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 3, 2024
Welcome to my messy studio!
February and March means seed starting and spring peeking tentatively around the corner. This had me thinking about 16th century botanical illustration. If you’ve never heard of 16th century botanical illustration that’s totally cool because it is an exceptionally specific topic. And you get to learn all about why I love it today! Plus there will be a little bonus interlude into the early 1900s at the end too so stay tuned.
Before photos, artists were the next best thing. The 1400s brought the printing press, and the 1700s brought the age of enlightenment. The two together brought about a yearning to create and share each other's knowledge, and some of that knowledge was all about plants. Plants have always been a big deal; plant power is not new. This enlightenment period was a mix of backyard enthusiasts and accredited scholars joining together in the delight of sharing what they know, giving us the birth of scientific botany between 1740-1840 ish. I am no historian but I’m doing my best. Typically botanical illustrations were (and still are): technical, accurate, black and white, and very detailed. Some artists went above and beyond black and whites and we will look at some of those here. I picked two of my favourite artists to chat about, and they are Elizabeth Blackwell and Georg Ehret. Plus the little bonus 20th century nugget at the end too, but her name is a secret for now.
Let’s chat about Elizabeth Blackwell. She lived in London England from 1699-1758 and her father was a painter. After she got married, her husband was sent to jail and she used her art skills to eventually bail him out. Blackwell created 250 extremely technical engraved plate prints, which she put together into a book called “A Curious Herbal” in 1737. Her work was so technical and accurate she ended up working with doctors to help them spread the medicinal uses of plants, and the identification of their poisonous counterparts. If you have no idea what I meant by “engraved plate prints” I got you. Remember talking about the printing press at the beginning? Well old printing presses used essentially huge stamps to create books. Blackwell drew her pieces on paper, transferred them onto (usually copper) plates, then hand carved them. These were then inked, warmed up and stamped onto thick dampened paper and then she would hand paint colour onto them after they were dry. A painstaking amount of work with a beautiful result. Her 250 page book took years to create, but you can still buy modern copies of it today. That work paid off when Blackwell paid her husband's debts allowing him to be released from prison. Two of my personal favourites by her are her canola and dandelion prints (how very Alberta of me).
George Ehret is the other 1700s botanical illustrator I’d like to ramble about today. He was from Germany, but spent the later half of his adult life in London England. He lived from 1708 to 1770 and his father was a gardener. Ehret was a gardener from 1728-1733 ish too. As someone who is also switching careers, I always feel comforted when I am reminded that people have been saying ‘oh, actually, nope not for me’ and changing their career path since forever. Anywho, career choices aside, George mostly painted directly onto something called vellum. Hold onto your hats if you love animals, or skip a sentence or two if animal goods bug you. Vellum was usually made from the hide of a young goat or cow, it was then treated and essentially bleached, stretched, and cured. Being made of something fauna, vellum has collagen in it making it super smooth and incredibly durable. Most constitutions were/are still on vellum today because it is so durable. Imitation vellum, also called Japanese vellum or plant vellum, came in the late 1800s as far as I can tell. If you are interested in paper like I am, my next blog is on a special type of paper that I personally adore, no animal hide required.
Alright, back to Ehret. He created a book called “Systema Naturae” and his gardening background also led to his very detailed artworks, but he also added latin descriptions and dissections to his works. One of his most famous paintings is of a flowering magnolia tree “Ehret observed the Magnolia grandiflora flowering in August 1737. Ehret travelled every day from Chelsea to observe all the different stages from bud to full flower.” (BOTANICAL ART & ARTISTS, “About Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770)”). His magnolia painting and his fig tree painting are two of my favourites.
So why do I love 1700s botanical illustration so much? I have loved both science and art my whole life. Often people will say those two interests are at odds with one another, but I disagree. The answer I always give is that if I want to accurately draw an arm, I should know the basics of what the bones do and how the muscles underneath the skin move for me to be able to draw it. 1700s botanical illustration is one of the many times science and art have married one another beautifully. A modern version of this might be medical illustrators, paleoartists, or technical illustrators. Plants are one of my favourite subjects to paint, and I’ll include some of my pieces (both finished and in progress) here too. I also love taking a chapter from the 1700s botanical illustration book by sometimes including the latin and common names for what I’m painting. I tend to make a sketch with india ink, and then acrylic or watercolour overtop of that.
Much to my delight, there has been a huge resurgence in the general public's interest in houseplants. During the lockdowns of 2020+ lots of people discovered the joy in taking care of both gardens and houseplants. There was even a new edition of Blackwell's book published in 2023 (a link is in the works cited if you’re interested). People have had a huge re-interest in things like terrariums, herbariums, and orchid culture. Books have been published with botanical-illustration-like motifs in them like in ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owens. There’s even a huge re-discovery of the Solarpunk genre, which is a topic for another blog but it’s super cool.
Finally, here is the much promised 20th century nugget I wanted to include in this blog. The wonderfully talented Beatrix Potter, who was a part of the 1900s not 1700s, living from 1866 to 1943. Do you love mushrooms? I don’t mean just to eat but to look at and appreciate? I love fungi because it’s enigmatic. Fungi is neither a plant nor an animal but it’s own little in between category. They also have these intricate and lace-like underground mycelium roots that look like nervous systems. Well Beatrix also appreciated fungi and created many scientific papers and beautiful illustrations about it in her lifetime. These were mostly published through England's Linnean Society, which still operates today. I linked one of their lectures on Beatrix Potter in the works cited. It’s a great listen which delves more into her background and her works. In her lifetime “Beatrix wrote about fungi spores for England’s illustrious Linnean Society in 1897, but a male scientist had to submit the paper on her behalf” (Fantastic Fungi. “The Mycology Adventures of Beatrix Potter”). Regardless, she was still hailed for her attention to detail and incredible accuracy, in fact “to this day, Potter’s remarkable fungi illustrations are studied for their scientific accuracy and consulted by mycologists all over the world” (Popova, Maria). All of this being said, you might have recognised her name because she was also the author and illustrator of the famous children’s series “Peter Rabbit”.
Thanks for reading. Be curious and kind.
- Sam
P.S
I am down and out with a nasty flu right now so I will record and upload the audio of this blog at a later time. No one wants to listen to me sniffle and croak through reading haha.
Works Cited
BOTANICAL ART & ARTISTS, “About Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770)”. https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/about-georg-ehret.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
File:Ficus carica L, 1771.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ficus_carica_L,_1771.jpg Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
BOTANICAL ART & ARTISTS, “Past Masters of Botanical Art & Illustration (1500-1900)”. https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/famous-botanical-artists.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
BOTANICAL ART & ARTISTS, “The History of Botanical Art and Illustration”. https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/history.html#:~:text=Elizabeth%20Blackwell%20(1707%20%2D%201758),Linnaean%20style%20of%20botanical%20illustration. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
BOTANICAL ART & ARTISTS. “What Is Botanical Art?”. www.botanicalartandartists.com/what-is-botanical-art.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Elia T. Ben-Ari, Better than a thousand words: Botanical artists blend science and aesthetics, BioScience, Volume 49, Issue 8, August 1999, Pages 602–608, https://doi.org/10.2307/1313435 Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
FANTASTIC FUNGI. “THE MYCOLOGY ADVENTURES OF BEATRIX POTTER”. September 2020. https://fantasticfungi.com/the-mycology-adventures-of-beatrix-potter/ . Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Indigo. “A Curious Herbal: Elizabeth Blackwell's Pioneering Masterpiece of Botanical Art”. https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/a-curious-herbal-elizabeth-blackwells-pioneering-masterpiece-of-botanical-art/9780789214539.html?searchType=products&searchTerm=undefined. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Madge, B. (2001), “Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?”. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 18: 144-152. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.00330.
File:Elizabeth Blackwell - Lysimachia (Loosestrife), Plate 278 from ^A Curious Herbal^, volume II, London, 1737 - B2011.20.10 - Yale Center for British Art.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_Blackwell_-_Lysimachia_%28Loosestrife%29,_Plate_278_from_%5EA_Curious_Herbal%5E,_volume_II,_London,_1737_-_B2011.20.10_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
National Library of Scotland. “Amateur botanist and artist, about 1700-1758”. https://www.nls.uk/learning-zone/science-and-technology/women-scientists/elizabeth-blackwell/#:~:text=Although%20largely%20unknown%20today%2C%20Elizabeth,the%2018th%20century%20and%20beyond. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. “The Curious Life of Elizabeth Blackwell: Why Has History Ignored Her?” https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/event-posts/the-curious-life-of-elizabeth-blackwell-why-has-history-ignored-her/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Popova, Maria. “Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children’s Book Author’s Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms”. The Marginalian. https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/07/28/beatrix-potter-a-life-in-nature-botany-mycology-fungi/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Rennicks, Rich. “The History Of Vellum And Parchment”.
https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/the-history-of-vellum-and-parchment. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
The History Chicks Podcast. “Episode 106: Beatrix Potter Revisited and Refreshed”. 19 May 2018. https://thehistorychicks.com/episode-106-beatrix-potter-revisited/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
The Linnean Society. “Beatrix Potter's Mycological Explorations | Fred Rhoades”. YouTube Lecture. https://youtu.be/w7Pz_OxOSb4?si=To1OvK0LWMD5zUp1 . Accessed 2 Mar. 2024.
Cool Books about Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda J. Learhttps://www.amazon.ca/dp/0312377967?linkCode=gs2&tag=braipick09-20
Beatrix Potter, Scientist by Lindsay H. Metcalf
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