Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art at the National Gallery of Ireland

Last night was the formal opening of the Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art exhibition of Irish Botanical Art in the Print Gallery, at the National Gallery of Ireland. This exhibition:  

• celebrates artists - past and present - who have made significant contributions to art, science, and our understanding of the natural world.
• spans almost 300 years, from the 1720s to 2019
• features and highlights botanical artworks by over 15 women artists
• was inspired by Patricia Butler’s book Irish Botanical Illustrators and Flower Painters and ​celebrates three centuries of Irish botanical art
• has been curated by Patricia Butler (below) assisted by Janet McLean (National Gallery of Ireland)
• opened to the public today 7 March and continues until 21 June 2020.​ 
  
• ​Admission is free. 

Guest Curator Patricia Butler at the Private View for Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art

Many of the drawings, watercolours, prints, and books will be on display for the first time at the National Gallery of Ireland during the exhibition. Works from public and private collections include selections from the National Botanic Gardens (Glasnevin), National Museums Northern Ireland, Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) and the V&A (London).

George Victor Du Noyer (1817-1869) Engl. King. King. Musk. Turnip. Black annat. Winter Rose, 1837 Courtesy of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin

Below you can find out about the exhibition and see photos of some of the artists who have work in the exhibition.

​The exhibition ​combines the botanical artwork of celebrated Irish botanical artists of the past - many of whom were women - such as 

• William Kilburn (1745–1818) - an illustrator for William Curtis' Flora Londinensis. A few hundred originals of his water colour designs make up the Kilburn Album, housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
• Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) - specialised in seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts. She also discovered many seaweeds and mosses before her death in Cork at the age of 29.
• Lydia Shackleton (1824-1914) - the first artist-in-residence at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Dublin
• John Templeton (1766–1825) - an early Irish naturalist and botanist often referred to as the "Father of Irish Botany".
• Lady Edith Blake (1845–1926) - an Irish botanical illustrator and writer, noted for her work on the flora and fauna of countries such as The Bahamas, Jamaica and Ceylon
• Raymond Piper (1923 -2007) - his paintings of orchids were displayed in the British Museum and the Ulster Museum.
• Wendy Walsh (1915-2014)  - The Irish Times called her ' Ireland's finest practiotner of botanical art' when she died age 98. She worked closely with Dr E Charles Nelson, formerly taxonomist at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, on two volumes of An Irish Florilegium – Wild and Garden Flowers of Ireland , which were published in 1983 and 1987.   She received a number of national and international awards for her work.

alongside  a number of contemporary botanical artists (see below). 

Items have been lent by private collectors and public collections including the V&A, Kew, and National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.  

“While many Irish botanical artists ventured across the world, others barely stepped beyond their townlands. This exhibition highlights how they are bonded by a common curiosity in nature and a compulsion to record it. It celebrates centuries of looking closely, drawing carefully, and treasuring the complex beauty of plants.”
Janet McLean of the National Gallery of Ireland

Leading contemporary Irish botanical artists (see below for who's who)

The artists in the above photograph are leading Irish contemporary botanical artists. Most are active in organising exhibitions of botanical art by the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and/or at Bloom.

They are (left to right)

• Deborah Lambkin GM - The official 'Orchid Artist' to the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee since 2005. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society in 2019. 
• Lynn Stringer - Botanical artist living and working in Co. Wicklow. Exhibits botanical art with the Watercolour Society of Ireland and is Chair of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists.
• Shevaun Doherty - Won Gold Medals for her botanical artwork on vellum in the Botanical category at Bloom Botanical Art in Dublin (2014, 2015, 2016). Won Gold Medal and Best Painting in Show (Botanical category) at Bloom 2017.
• Holly Somerville - A very experienced botanical illustrator with an MA in Botany from Oxford. She has extensive experience of drawing plants from herbarium specimens and was based in the herbarium of the Botany Department of Trinity College, Dublin. Commissioned to draw new illustrations for the 7th edition of David Webb’s ‘An Irish Flora’. 
• Yanny Petters - Wicklow based botanical artist and tutor who has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and the Office of Public Works in Dublin and exhibits regularly at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin. Specialises in Verre Églomisé, or painting on glass, an old and rare technique which she has developed to suit her plant portraits. Vice Chair of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists.
• Jane Stark - a founding member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and curator of the annual Claregalway Botanical Art Expo, held in conjunction with the Galway Garden Festival at Claregalway Castle.
• Susan Sex GM - One of Ireland's foremost botanical artists - based in Dublin. in 1996, she had a solo exhibition in the National Botanic Gardens which sold out. She has won three RHS gold medals (2000, 2001, 2002) for her paintings of orchids. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society in 2010. 
• Mary Dillon - Founding Chairperson of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists 2014. Exhibits and teaches botanical art internationally. Awarded Gold Medal and Best in Show in Botanical and Floral Art at Bloom, Dublin, 2016, and a Gold at Bloom, 2017. Exhibited at the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA. 
• Siobhan Larkin - Won Gold Medals and "Best in Show" (Botanical Art) at both the 3rd (2015) and the 4th (2016) and 7th (2019) Botanical Art Exhibitions at Bloom in the Park in Dublin. Exhibited at the 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA. 
• Margareta Pertl - An Austrian born artist living in Ireland for part of the year. Since 1998, she has illustrated orchids from the collections of the National Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin, and the Botanical Gardens of the University of Vienna.

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Deborah Lambkin, Shevaun Doherty, Madeline Hutchins (great great grandniece of Ellen Hutchins), Susan Sex and John Parnell, Professor of Systematic Botany at Trinity College Dublin

The group of contemporary artists participating in the exhibition also found out last night that they are all invited to exhibit in a group show at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin in July-August 2020!

Yanny Petters, Bee Orchid, Ophrys apifera, 2014, Verre Eglomisé (Back painting on glass), Private Collection

Shevaun Doherty with her watercolour painting on vellum of Golden Eye Lichen, Teloschistes chrysophthalmus.

Thanks to various of the botanical artists participating in the show and the Olivier Cornet Gallery for details and photos.