Plan Your Weekend: Botanical Art Exhibition Opens

Posted in Exhibitions on April 17 2009, by Plant Talk

Ehret’s Work on Public View for First Time in Decades

Jane Dorfman is Reference Librarian/Exhibitions Coordinator in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

Magnolia altissima
Hand-colored engraving
Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–70)
in Natural History of Carolina,
Florida, and the Bahama Islands
by Mark Catesby (1683–1749)
London: Printed for B. White, 1771
LuEsther T. Mertz Library

While the beautiful and luminous paintings of Georg Ehret have been admired for centuries, the last known public viewing of his work was over 40 years ago. Susan Fraser, Stephen Sinon, and I, curators of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, felt it was time to showcase the work of this extraordinary artist as part of an ongoing series of exhibits that explore the work of great botanical illustrators. Previous exhibits featured the works of Margaret Mee and Pierre-Joseph Redouté.

And so the idea to present Ehret’s work was conceived.

Starting with the rich collections of the Mertz Library, we gathered the works of Ehret and artists, scientists, and gardeners associated with him, including Philip Miller, Mark Catesby, Carl Linnaeus, and Mrs. Mary Delany, among others. As a result of this review, and in conjunction with extensive research about our subject, there emerged clearly defined exhibit themes: Ehret’s early life, his contact with Linnaeus, the influence of his patron Dr. Christoph Jacob Trew, and the role of the Chelsea Physic Garden and the horticultural world of 18th-century London that shaped and was shaped by Ehret. Based on our research, relevant images were selected.

Ficus foliis palmatis
Hand-colored copperplate engraving
Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–70)
in Plantae selectae
by Christoph Jacob Trew (1695–1769)
Nuremberg: 1750–73
LuEsther T. Mertz Library

In addition to the Library’s noteworthy holdings, we wanted the public to truly experience Ehret’s artistic mastery, and to create that experience, original artwork needed to be displayed. To that end, we negotiated loans of original watercolors on vellum and also on paper from well-known institutions as well as private collections. Many of these works have never been on view. The result is a sumptuous exhibit of floral masterpieces that narrate the story of this remarkable artist, who without formal artistic training influenced, through his accurate and delicate renderings, the scientific and artistic worlds of botanical illustration.

Georg Ehret: The Greatest Botanical Artist of the 1700s opens tomorrow and runs through July 19 in the William D, Rondina and Giovanni Foroni LoFaro Gallery. During the show, there will also be a small display in the Library’s Rare Book and Folio Room window that focuses on the Chelsea Physic Garden, the site where much of Ehret’s floral examination and illustration took place. The display will describe the role of this celebrated Garden in the dissemination of important plants such as tea and cotton.

The Gallery is open during normal Garden hours. The Library is open Tuesday–Thursday, 12–6 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 12–5 p.m., until the end of June. Summer hours are Tuesday–Friday, 12–5 p.m. (closed on weekends). The Library will be closed Saturday, May 23.

Check out all of Saturday’s programming

Check out all of Sunday’s programming