NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Botanic Endeavour: RBG Sydney Florilegium Society celebrates the Banks and Solander Collections

3/5/2022

Back in 2020, one of the significant botanical exhibitions of the year was that of "Botanic Endeavour" - in Sydney. This was the second exhibition - in association with the publication of a new book (see below) - by the Florilegium Society of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (RBGS).

This, of course was the year, when public spaces were being locked down and then reopening and then locking down again. At the same time that people were being careful about where they travelled and how and which public spaces they visited. It really wasn't a great year for art exhibitions.

My recollection is that the planned exhibition was cancelled. Then in November 2020, a webinar was held to talk about the second project, the book and the paintings

It's really pleasing therefore to hear that there's going to be another chance to see Botanic Endeavour: The Florilegium Society celebrates the Banks and Solander Collections. This announcement feels like it provides another opportunity for all those who were playing it safe, not travelling and not going to exhibitions in 2020 - or 2021.

The Society will present an exhibition of 50 recent botanical paintings linking the historic Banks’ and Solander specimens held in the National Herbarium of NSW with the Living Collection of the three Gardens. This project was created to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage in the Endeavour in 2020.

Curated by Colleen Morris, the focus is on these historic specimens; drawing attention to the time and place of their collection, their history and inviting reflection on their significance to science, to the Indigenous peoples, to those collecting them and to the Gardens now.

Some of the newly digitised Banks’ and Solander collection images will be displayed along with more treasures from the Daniel Solander Library including some of the Banks’ Florilegium plates and his specimen cabinet.

Details of the exhibition are below:

Venue: The Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Dates: Saturday 7th – Sunday 22nd May 2022
Hours: 10am - 4pm daily
Cost: FREE

Public transport is recommended as parking is limited.

The majority of the Banks and Solander specimens represented in the new works were collected at Botany Bay and the remainder from several locations in Queensland. Fresh plant material was sourced in many ways; with the co-operation of the botanic gardens in Cambridge, Oxford and Kew in the UK and a specialist nursery in California as well as from the three Gardens of the Trust in Australia. One artist sourced seeds from Western Australia and grew them in Cambridge; another painted from plants on the Amahlongwana River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In Australia, some material was obtained from specialist nurseries and grown on at home; naturally, many grow in Sydney and the areas of collection in Queensland.
The Florilegium at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney by Dianne Sutherland (one of the artists)

Botanic Endeavour - the book

The First Book by RBGS Florilegium Society (published 2016)

The second book - Botanic Endeavour - published 2020

Those visiting the exhibition will have a chance to buy the Botanic Endeavour book. Those living further afield, who would like a copy can find out more about it - and the first book - on my page about the Florilegium Societies.
Just scroll down until you get to Australasia and The Florilegium Society at The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust.

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Spring 2022 Banner: Tulipa gesneriana from the Gottorfer Codex

1/3/2022

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Tulipa gesneriana (from the 'Gottofer Codex' by Hans Simon Holtzbecker bind 1, planche 55) gouache on parchment (created between 1649 - 1659)

On the first day of meteorological Spring, I've changed the banner on this website's home page and associated Facebook Page to this image of Tulipa gesneriana.

The five specimens of Tulipa gesneriana were painted in gouache on parchment between 1649 - 1659 and is yet another image from the 'Gottofer Codex' by Hans Simon Holtzbecker

You can read more about painting on vellum and parchment on this page.

Tulipa gesneriana

Tulips have long been favoured subjects for both flower painters and botanical artists.

Below are examples of other images of botanical paintings of tulipa gesneriana include the following - from the mid and late 17th century and the early 19th century by

Hans Simon Holtzbecker (1610 - 1671) I must get on and finish my dedicated page about him!
Alexander Marshall (1620-1682)

Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) from Les Liliacees (1802 - 15) 500 plates of lilies.

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Oxford Florilegium Exhibition opens tomorrow

21/11/2021

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The latest exhibition of the Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum Florilegium opens tomorrow (Monday 22nd November) at The Barn Gallery at St. John's College, St Giles, OX1 3JP.

It runs until 4th December and is open daily (12-6pm) - and there no need to book.â€‹
This exhibition helps to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of Oxford Botanic Garden.

Below you can see and find out about some of the artists contributing to both Florilegium and this exhibition.

Participating artists

The Oxford Florilegium group consists of fourteen enthusiastic painters who have worked for a decade to produce botanical illustrations that document the living collections of the Botanic Garden and Arboretum, Oxford.

Most of the artwork and exhibits are watercolour paintings but also include botanical illustrations using coloured pencils, graphite and pen & ink.

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The fourteen artists are:

Rosemary Wise - a professional botanical illustrator who has been employed by the department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University since 1965 and has received a number of prestigious awards for botanical illustration.
- In 1995, the Linnean Society awarded her the prestigious Jill Smythies Award given annually for published botanical illustration.
- To celebrate her 50 years at Plant Sciences in Oxford, she was awarded the Sibthorp Medal for 'life time services to botany'.
- She has also recently been awarded the Engler Medal in Silver, awarded annually by the International Association of Plant Taxonomy, as joint author with Terry Pennington of the monograph on The Genus Sloanea (Elaeo- carpaceae) in America (2017). Rosemary prepared over 100 detailed illustrations for the monograph including 20 new species discovered by Terry.
Maura Allen - a graduate of the Chelsea School of Botanical Painting, London, who now lives in Tasmania
Sandra Bates - Diploma in Botanical Illustration from the Society of Botanical Artists
Maureen Bayly
Janet Collett - Awarded the distance learning Diploma from the Society of Botanical Artists. Also a member of Bath Society of Botanical Artists and the Association of British Botanical Artists
Graham Furze - a pencil artist who works in both graphite and coloured pencils (see his botanical illustrations in Oxford Plant Systematics August 2021)
Sam Gallagher
Anne Girling - Has been a practising botanical artist for over 15 years. Also a member of both the Society of Botanical Artists and the Association of British Botanical Artists.
Tracy Howell - born in Australia and lives in Oxford. She studied studying Plants and Plantsmanship and Practical Horticulture at the Chelsea Physic Garden's English Gardening School. before studying Natural History Illustration with Rosemary Wise and, in 2009, Botanical Painting at the English Gardening School, Chelsea Physic Garden. She is also a member of Amicus Botanicus and the Cliveden Florilegium.
Penny Land - Became interested in botanical illustration after a two week course at Kew with Claire Dalby over thirty years ago. Subsequently completed the Diploma in Botanical Illustration with the South West Society of Botanic Art and Joined the Oxford Florilegium about 4 years ago
Cathie Lodge - Based in Maidenhead. Ttrained as a graphic designer at the Berkshire College of Art.
Barbara McLean - helps run the Florilegium with Rosemary Wise
Gaye Norman - a graduate of he Chelsea School of Botanical Art and a member of Amicus Botanicus
Diana Tubbs

You can see more of their artwork on their Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/obg_florilegium/

The aim of botanical illustration is to produce not only a picture that is pleasing to the eye but one which is botanically accurate, comprehensive and recognisable to species level. Such works broach the gap between art and science.
Rosemary Wise

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The illustrations in the Exhibition focus on themes including:

medicinal plants,
plants selected from the 1648 border, the Merton border, and
plants with a particular association with Oxford.
trees
plants from the newly planted Mediterranean rock garden.

Each piece typically features flowers, fruits, enlargements and floral dissections.

Prof. Simon Hiscock, Prof. Stephen Harris and Dr Chris Thorogood judge the annual submissions, assessing them for botanical accuracy, execution and composition.

â€‹See also my earlier post Oxford Florilegium Exhibition marks 400th anniversary of the UK's oldest botanic garden (29th October 2021)

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Oxford Florilegium Exhibition marks 400th anniversary of the UK's oldest botanic garden

29/10/2021

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This is about an upcoming exhibition of the Oxford Florilegium which opens next month.

2021 is the 400th anniversary of Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanic garden in the UK, founded on July 25th 1621. Established as the Oxford Physic Garden for growing medicinal plants used to teach medical students, the Garden was the birthplace of botanical sciences at Oxford. It became known as the Oxford Botanic Garden in the 1830s to reflect its role in experimental botany.

As part of the Oxford Botanic Garden’s 400 year anniversary celebrations, the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and the Department of Plant Sciences are holding an Oxford Florilegium Exhibition.

Exhibition features:
- the work of 14 artists,
- a diverse range of art from throughout the Oxford Florilegium Collection
Venue: Barn Gallery, Kendrew Quad, Saint John’s College, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JP (no. 22 on this pdf map of St John's College)
Dates: Monday 22 November to Saturday 4th December 2021
Hours: 12pm - 6pm.

To date, almost 80 illustrations by members of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum Florilegium Group have been accepted into the Herbarium archive. Following the judging for this year's exhibition more will be added to the growing collection.

Note 1: The image chosen for image above is Pinus nigra, black pine © Rosemary Wise. The tree is one of the oldest in the Oxford Botanic Garden and was planted in the Garden in the 1830s and much loved by JRR Tolkien. The original tree, often referred to as ‘Tolkien’s Pine’, shed two huge branches in 2014 and had to be felled. To mark the 400th anniversary, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales planted a special tree, propagated from a seed of the black pine (Pinus nigra) on his visit to mark the anniversary on 7th June 2021.

Exhibition Judges

The work will be judged for its botanical accuracy, execution and composition by

Professor Simon Hiscock - Director, University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Harcourt Arboretum (Christ Church)
Professor Stephen Harris, Druce Curator (Herbaria), Associate Professor in Plant Science (Christ Church)
Dr Chris Thorogood - Deputy Director & Head of Science, University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum

About the Florilegium

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The Highgrove Florilegium on splendid display in Chelsea

23/9/2021

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“The Highgrove Florilegium:
Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove”

Paintings are organised according to the different parts and rooms within the garden at Highgrove

After visiting the RHS London Botanical Art & Photography Show in Chelsea on Tuesday (of which more later), I walked down to Chelsea Barracks to see what I think might be the first display in London of all the paintings completed for the Highgrove Florilegium (Volumes 1 and 2) since 2009.

“The Highgrove Florilegium: Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove” is only on until Sunday 26th September. It's also very easy to access for those visiting the Chelsea Show. The paintings are hung in the former Guards Chapel in the former Chelsea Barracks - now known as the Garrison Chapel - which is now owned by The Prince's Foundation Trust - hence the location of the exhibit.

I cannot recommend this exhibition too much. The quality of the paintings is excellent.
In fact, this is a much better exhibition of contemporary botanical art than the current RHS Botanical Art Show.

The Cottage Garden

To my mind, it's also a much better exhibition than the original one twelve years ago, which was in a very small space in the Garden Museum at Lambeth Palace. (See my original review of the exhibition Exhibition Review: The Highgrove Florilegium at the Garden Museum (14th July 2009)

This time there's much more focus on the paintings and much less on the book - which is nowhere to be seen!

The big bonus of this exhibition is that the space is large and the paintings have been hung according to the different "rooms" of the garden where the subject plants were located. As such, it's a much better representation of the garden at Highgrove - which, of course, is what a florilegium is intended to do.

The paintings also look excellent on the green walls and they benefit from both natural light and additional lighting but both are up high so there's some reflection but not too much.

The Kitchen Garden and The Nursery

The Highgrove Florilegium is the first Royal Florilegium in the UK. It contains botanically accurate watercolour paintings of the plants grown in the garden of Highgrove near Tetbury in Gloucestershire - which has been the country home of the Prince of Wales since 1980.

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A Florilegium: Sheffield’s Hidden Garden

22/5/2021

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In July, a new botanical art book about a Florilegium will be published.
A Florilegium: Sheffield’s Hidden Garden has been written by Valerie Oxley in liaison with The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.

front cover of the book

The book provides

an introduction to florilegia dating from the early herbals
a history of the Society’s Herbarium and the Gardens themselves
a selection of the botanical illustrations of plants in the garden held in the archive of The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.

The illustrations have all been drawn and painted by botanical artists who are past or present members of The Florilegium Society. In addition, each illustration included in the book is accompanied by a plant profile, stating where the plant was found in the wild and explaining something of its history, uses and botany.

About the Author

This book has been written by the Florilegium Society’s founding chair Valerie Oxley - in association with The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.
Valerie is a freelance tutor in botanical illustration and the current President of IAPI (Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration), who inspired students from all over the world with her enthusiasm for natural history, and plant illustration in particular. She also:

developed the first Diploma in Botanical Illustration with colleagues at the University of Sheffield
used to moderate the Botanical Illustration Diploma Course at the RBG Edinburgh
wrote "Botanical Illustration" (2008) - an instruction book for aspiring botanical illustrators botanical which I highly recommend. You can read my review on this website and my summary (below) bodes well for the new book.

An excellent manual for anybody who wants to learn more about botanical illustration with a strong botanical perspective.
Book Review: Botanical Illustration by Valerie Oxley

Details of the book

Author: Valerie Oxley - in association with The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd
Publication date: 6th July 2021
Format:

Hardback (Price £25)
e-book
ISBN-10 : 1785008943 | ISBN-13 : 978-1785008948

Number of pages: 160 pages
Number of Illustrations: 100 colour illustrations
Weight: 843 g
Dimensions: 280 x 220 x 17 mm

The Florilegium Society's website does yet not provide a profile page for the book.
If you're interested in ordering a copy from the publisher, I suggest you click the link embedded in the title at the top of this post. and order direct from the publishers.

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Spring 2021 Banner: Citrus limon from the Gottorfer Codex

1/3/2021

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Citrus limon (gouache on vellum) published by Johannes Simon Holtzbecker in the Gottorfer Codex (4 volumes published 1649-1659)

A Citrus lemon painted in gouache on vellum is the Spring 2021 banner image for Botanical Art and Artists on this website's home page and Facebook Page. The image is cropped to create the banner image as per the image below.

This post is about that painting and the Gottorfer Codex which it is part of.

Spring 2021 Banner Image - for the website and facebook page

The Gottorfer Codex

The Gottorfer Codex can be summarised as follows:

It is a florilegium i.e. a record of the very wide assortment of plants that grew in the ducal gardens at Schloss Gottorf (Gottorp) in the duchy of Schleswig. (See the engraving of the castle and garden below)
It comprises four volumes of botanical paintings
It contains images of 1,180 plants over 350 pages of vellum
by Johannes (Hans) Simon Holtzbecker (1610-1671) - a German artist and flower painter who lived in Hamburg. He was responsible for
- the Gottorfer Codex and
- the Moller Florilegium
- the Green Florilegium
Commissioned by Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
Published between between 1649 and 1659
The Gottorfer Codex is now the property of Denmark
- It is part of the Royal Collection of Graphic Art, a part of the National Gallery of Denmark.
- ownership of the Codex transferred after the Great Northern War (1700-1721) when Gottorf Castle and the duke's portion of the duchy of Schleswig were annexed to the Danish crown.
It's been restored in recent years - so that all the vellum is flat and all the paint is securely attached - and can be photographed more easily.

In 2009, a digital version of the codex was created by the National Gallery of Denmark.
VIEW a digitised version of the Gottorfer Codex on Issuu

In 2014, there was an exhibition Der Gottorfer Codex. Flowers and worldview at Gottorf Castle between 25th May and 26th October 26, 2014.

The image is of a lemon tree in blossom. The treatment of the leaves and variety of greens is sophisticated.

An engraving (1745) of the Castle and Garden in 1745 - some 75 years after the publication of the Gottorfer Codex

Neither the Gottorfer Codex nor Holtzbecker are referenced in any of the standard reference books about botanical illustration - which is interesting. It occurs to me that the fact that the only books which do reference it are in German might account for this. It's also very early. However, the current theory is that most of his work was largely unrecognised because - until relatively recently - most of it was attributed to Maria Sibylla Merian.

Holtzbecker is now regarded as one of the finest German botanical artists of the 17th century.

The Gottorfer Codex is also very definitely a real book of splendid botanical illustrations. Below are two videos about the restoration of the Gottorfer Codex by the National Archives in Denmark - in which you can see the book and original paintings and the methods used to restore the paintings, pages, binder and book covers.

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