The UK has a number of major Art Galleries and Museums,
which hold botanical art exhibitions and have permanent collections of botanical art and illustration
which hold botanical art exhibitions and have permanent collections of botanical art and illustration
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This page has details about botanical art EXHIBITIONS at:
The Permanent Collections (UK) Page has information about botanical art and illustration in public and private collections |
I would advocate the holding of small exhibitions, changed every six months, of fine illustrated botanical books and original drawings. It ought not to be too difficult to find space in one of the museums in Kew Gardens; and the Natural History Museum has the materials for something even more impressive on similar lines |
Banner: View of Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery October 2018-March 2019 (details below)
Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
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Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is located within the grounds of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. It is the first art gallery in the world dedicated solely to botanical art.
The Shirley Sherwood Gallery celebrates its 10th anniversary in April 2018. Hours: The gallery opens at 10am each day and closes at:
Current or upcoming exhibitions are listed below. Past exhibitions are listed in the archive (see box) |
10 Years of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
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The Shirley Sherwood Gallery Exhibition Archive Page includes:
- A short bio of Dr. Shirley Sherwood
- a summary of PAST EXHIBITIONS at the Gallery. This includes links to reviews and images of the exhibitions.
Exhibitions in 2018-2019
This autumn, the Gallery will host four new exhibitions running from 6 October 2018 – 17 March 2019:
The first two relate to the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest in 1218
- Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks
- Trees: Delight in the Detail
- Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids
- Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017)
The first two relate to the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest in 1218
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Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks
A series of 20 highly intricate, large-scale graphite drawings by Mark Frith depicts Britain’s most characterful veteran oaks, many of which are more than 1,000 years old. Each breath-taking portrait shows the tree in its winter form, highlighting the architectural beauty of its trunk, bark and branches – the result of a millennium of growth. Originally commissioned by publisher, poet, and philanthropist, Felix Dennis:
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Queen Elizabeth Oak by Mark Frith
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Trees: Delight in the Detail
Discover the many different approaches of botanical artists in painting details of trees. In contrast to Mark Frith’s portraits of the oak, these exquisite works focus on the smaller details of trees, such as their leaves, seeds, cones and fruits. Selected from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the works feature close-ups of palms, pines, oaks and other deciduous species. Expect to find acorns from Japan, Borneo and the Jura, fruit from great trees found in the Amazon and Africa, and some remarkable paintings of pine needles from the USA |
Acorns from Brunei (1997) by Mieko Ishikawa. Shirley Sherwood Collection.
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Botanical Theatre:
the art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) This is retrospective of the colourful and impeccably detailed plant portraits by Pandora Sellars (1936-2017), who
Pandora’s complex compositions have been described as ‘botanical theatre’ and highlight her outstanding ability to convey texture, light and colour with incredibly lifelike accuracy. |
Gloriosa rothchildsiana (the glory lily) by Pandora Sellars
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The exhibition represents some of the key aspects of Pandora’s output with examples from the Kew and Shirley Sherwood Collections, as well as loans from RHS Lindley Library, The Postal Museum and various private collections.
Five paintings by Pandora Sellars exhibited at Kew in 2017. The exhibition opened weeks before she died in May 2017.
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Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids
Discover vibrant woodblock prints of orchids, published in 1946, that are based on the watercolours of Zuigetsu Ikeda (1877-1944) and were published in 1946 after his death by Shotaro Kaga (1888-1954), a wealthy businessman from the Kansai region. . The Rankafu prints are considered masterpieces in this technically demanding artform, and this display at Kew is believed to be the first major exhibition of the Rankafu woodblock colour prints outside of Japan. The Rankafu Collection (Ran-ka-fu = ‘Orchid Flower Album’) is on loan from the Collection of Stephen Kirby. |
Orchid #95 from the Rankafu Collection
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Images of Nature Gallery | Natural History Museum, South Kensington
Address: Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
The Images of Nature Gallery has a temporary themed exhibition each year. There are usually four rotations of artworks and illustrations during the course of the exhibition.
The Images of Nature Gallery has a temporary themed exhibition each year. There are usually four rotations of artworks and illustrations during the course of the exhibition.
Exhibitions in 2018-2019
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Expeditions and Endeavours: Images of Nature
The exhibition content will change every four months Dates: July 2018 - October 2019 Hours: 10am - 5pm Tickets: FREE to the public every day. For centuries, scientists and artists have embarked on a succession of expeditions to document the natural world. The observations of flora and fauna made by the artists on these voyages of natural history have contributed greatly to our understanding of nature. Some of these artworks can now be explored in this exhibition. Exhibit highlights include:
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November 2018 - March 2019
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The RHS Lindley Library + RHS Gardens
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The Lindley Library only offers a small space - but it holds regular exhibitions of botanical art, some of which then tour the country to appropriate venues - including displays within the gardens - at the RHS Gardens around the country.
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Address: 80 Vincent Square, LONDON SW1P 2PE
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Healing Plants
Venue: Lindley Library Date: 10th September - 14th December 2018 Hours: 10am - 5pm (Monday - Friday). Admission: FREE Many plants grown in gardens have been put to medicinal use throughout history. Details of treatments can be found in botanical encyclopaedias, known as ‘herbals’. These promoted the use of plants for culinary, health and wellbeing purposes. Early printed herbals of the 16th to 18th centuries feature many familiar plants that still grow in and around our gardens today. Separating medicinal uses from medical myths, this small display at the RHS Lindley Library in London will look at how our understanding of these plants has changed and investigate their use for healing today. |
(partial view) Honeysuckle, hand-coloured engraved plate, 1730, after an original drawing by Jan van Huysum
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Codlings, Costards and Biffins
- Touring Venues: RHS Garden - Harlow Carr - Bramall Learning Centre (10 October - 31 December: 9.30am-6pm; 31 October - 11 November: 9.30am-4pm)
The Garden Museum
The Garden Museum reopened in 2017 after a £7.5 million restoration project. It's held on botanical art exhibition to date (see archive) and can be expected to do so again in future.
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The Garden Museum, housed in the ancient church of St Mary at Lambeth is also the burial place of John Tradescant (c1570 – 1638), the first great gardener and plant-hunter in British history. His tomb is the centrepiece of a knot garden planted with the flowers which grew in his London garden four centuries ago.
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Portrait of John Tradescant the elder, attributed to Cornelis de Neve
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Cedric Morris: Artist and Plantsman
Venue: The Garden Museum Dates: 18th April - 22 July 2018 Tickets: Free with entry to the museum The ‘artist plantsman’ Cedric Morris (1889–1982) founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing where he taught Lucian Freud. However Morris is best known for his flower paintings, which reveal his keen interest as a botanist – he cultivated over 90 new irises. The exhibition at the Garden Museum focuses on his horticultural works that took flower painting out of the taxonomic sphere, into an expressionist mode with echoes of surrealism and cubism. |
Poppies (1926) Sir Cedric Morris © Cedric Morris Estate
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Royal Collection
The Queens Gallery at Buckingham Palace
The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse
The Queens Gallery periodically displays botanical paintings which form part of the Royal Collection.
See Past Botanical Art Exhibitions in the UK for exhibitions which have included the paintings by Merian acquired by King George III
See Past Botanical Art Exhibitions in the UK for exhibitions which have included the paintings by Merian acquired by King George III
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University
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The Fitzwilliam Museum has an important collection of Botanical Art due to the bequest of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Lord Fairhaven, who donated his entire collection to the Museum in 1973. (See Permanent Collections) Every three years, as part of the terms of the bequest, the Fitzwilliam puts on an exhibition of botanical watercolours.
Floral Fantasies
Venue: Gallery 14, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, Trumpington Street, Cambridge Dates: 5 June - 9 September 2018 Hours: 10am - 5pm (Sundays 12-5pm) Tickets: FREE to the public every day. The exhibition focuses on the use of flowers within designs and motifs and various creative forms. It includes paintings by Gerard van Spaendonck (1746-1822) and Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840). |
Image from Floral Fantasies at the Fitzwilliam Museum:
Pierre-Joseph Redouté A bunch of flowers including roses, Parrot tulips, forget-me-not and auricula with an imaginary butterfly, graphite and watercolour on vellum, PD.881-1973
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The Ashmolean / Bodleian, Oxford University
The Ashmolean periodically has exhibitions of botanical art. See also Permanent Collections.
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GO TO EXHIBITIONS IN THE UK
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