NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

From Botany to Bouquets

23/11/2018

There are a number of publications online about botanical art in the past - if you know where to look.

From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art (1999 / 88 pages) is the catalogue of the exhibition organised by the National Gallery of Art in Washington and held between 31 January — 3 1 May 1999

You can view and/or download a digital version for free as a pdf file - View PDF (28.94MB) on the NGA website.

detail of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase - the front cover of "From Botany to Bouquets" (1999)

From Botany to Bouquets examines the origins of flower painting with a selection of botanical treatises, manuscripts, and watercolors by 16th- and 17th-century printmakers and draftsmen.

The catalogue was written by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (the recently retired Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington) and is essentially about still life art involving flower painting,. However it starts from botanical art and how this developed over time within the context of various historical developments.

It also includes some great examples of paintings of flowers. I particularly enjoyed

the section about the 16th century nature studies by Albrecht Durer - and his painting of a Tuft of Cowslips
the discussion of printed herbals and florilegia

and the paintings by:

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
Balthasar van der Ast
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues
Crispijn van de Passe the Younger
Jan and Pieter Withoos
Jacob Marrel's tulips
spring glowers by Julius Francois de Geest

The artists who created the flower still lifes in this exhibition could convey the delicacy of blossoms, the organic rhythms of stem and leaf, and the varied colors and textures of each and every plant. They could capture the fragile beauty of flowers and the sense of hope and joy they represent. Their bouquets come alive with flowers that seem so real we almost believe their aroma—and not the artist's brush—has drawn the dragonflies and bees to their petals.

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More from Brazil and New Zealand re. the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art

8/11/2018

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Catalogue cover: Expomundial Brasil

Today I added two more items to my page about the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art 2018. Each was added to their country's section of the webpage (which is organised alphabetically in continents and then countries)

an onscreen link to the Issuu version of the Catalogue for the Brazil exhibition - Expomundial Brasil - which was published today. You can view it full screen by clicking the full screen icon bottom right.
a video of 'Ngai Tipu Taketake - Indigenous Flora' - the New Zealand exhibition - which has now been uploaded to YouTube (see below)

This was the message from the Brazilian team

Here's our e-book finally completed.
We could not allow such an important event to be just a good memory. So we decided to take another step and face another challenge. It seemed simple, but it was months of work and patience of luiz berri, adjustments, wait, doubts and a lot of message exchange, e-mail, watsapp and everything else that could help get the material and information we needed.
But now we have here an important record not only of a remarkable and special moment that was the Brazil, but an overview of the current wealth of botanical illustration in Brazil. Thank you all for participation and trust.
Enjoy to inspire even more

and the message from New Zealand is

This video of New Zealand's 'Ngai Tipu Taketake - Indigenous Flora' exhibition showcases our diverse and unique flora as seen by the best of New Zealand's botanical artists.

If any other country has information or catalogues or videos that need to be added please let me know using the FORM at the bottom of the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art 2018 page

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