An account of the development of botanical illustration for scientific purposes
(and a continuing "work in progress")

What is scientific botanical illustration?
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Botanical illustration is the accurate pictorial depiction of plants and plant traits for a scientific purpose (Rix 2012), as opposed to flower painting, which has no further purpose than to be admired.​
The emphasis of botanical illustration is on science rather than visual art.

Botanical illustration is always a true and lifelike representation of a plant. It should highlight a plant's particular distinguishing features which enable botanists to tell one plant from another.
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See also Scientific Botanical Illustration
in the Botany Section of this site for practical tips for how to draw plants accurately.
The fundamental factor in scientific quality of a botanical illustration is not the medium the artist chooses to use or the  technology used for its representation, but the artist's understanding of plant morphology
Stephen A Harris | The Scientific Context of Botanical Illustration in 'A New Flowering'
“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 - Botanical Illustrator, Oxford Botanical Garden
Picture
Victoria Regia : or, Illustrations of the Royal water-lily, in a series of figures chiefly made from specimens flowering at Syon and at Kew by Walter Fitch; with descriptions by Sir W.J. Hooker. Scan of illustrations at The New York Public Library. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

What's required of a botanical illustration?
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Botanical illustrations should be based on:
  • observation of living plant material
  • reconstitution of dry plant material if possible
  • inspection of plant features using a microscope
  • accurate measurement of the different parts of the plant
  • work with expert botanists who can provide the necessary advice as to what aspects to emphasise
  • a very good understanding of the morphology of the plant - shapes and form are a great help in distinguishing one plant from another
  • identification of the key (unique) features of the plant - at different stages of its life cycle
  • association with a herbarium specimen (when part of a scientific collection) and notes of its habitat and growth
Standards for contemporary botanical illustration tend to be set by the professional botanical illustrators who work for the botanical gardens and professional publications.
“Anyone wanting experience in these matters must encounter the plants shoots newly emerged from the earth, plants in their prime and plants in their decline.

​For someone who has come across the shoot alone cannot know the nature of plants, nor if he has only seen the ripened plants can he recognise the young shoot at all.”
From the preface of Dioscorides ‘Materia Medica’
This is what the Royal Horticultural Society states is required of botanical illustration - in relation to the RHS Botanical Art Show
Botanical Illustration is a genre of art that endeavours to faithfully depict and represent the form, colour, character and detail of a plant, identifiable to species or cultivar level. The best botanical illustration successfully combines scientific accuracy with visual appeal. It must portray a plant with the precision and level of detail for it to be recognised and distinguished, from another species.
RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show SELECTION MEETING FACTSHEET Selection meeting: Thurs 7 July 2022
REFERENCE: Botanical Illustrators working with Botanic Gardens around the world
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PLUS The modern botanical illustration collection at the Natural History Museum
Winner of the Margaret Flockton Award 2017: Calamus pintaudii by Lucy Smith Pen and ink on bristol board
Winner of the Margaret Flockton Award 2017: Calamus pintaudii by Lucy Smith Pen and ink on bristol board 19.5 x 27 cm 2015
The video below - made by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - provides a very short introduction to scientific botanical illustration and why botanical illustrators work for botanists and at botanical gardens. Not quite sure why they called it "What is botanical art" as opposed to "what is botanical illustration.
SEE also Kew Video: What is Botanical Art? 
REFERENCE: Botanical Illustration in history and accessible in Museums
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"Contemporary botanical artists share a concern for the environment, particularly in light of climate change, as well as for drawing attention to plants. Before photography was invented, botanical illustrations were essential to understanding plants. But today, too, drawings can illuminate aspects of plants in a way photos cannot. An illustration can show various parts of a plant at the same time, something a photo really can't. It can show extra details of the fruit, for example, and what it looks like bisected."
Robin Jess | Botanical illustration: Putting a timely focus on nature | ABC News

How to have a career in botanical illustration
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​Below is a video about life as a botanical illustrator working for the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney.
REFERENCE: Articles about careers in botanical Illustration
Why fewer botanical illustrators are employed today compared to the past
Floras are not commissioned as they once were; they are laborious and expensive undertakings, botanists retire and are not replaced, and much of plant taxonomy has shifted to the molecular level.
​Bobby Angel in Botanical illustration is becoming endangered, but the job is essential

The beginnings of botanical illustration
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The development of illustrations of plants was slow and lagged behind illustrations relating to people and animals.

Illustration is associated with the discovery of the importance of plants for medicinal purposes. People draw what's important.

EGYPT - Thebes 1,500 years BC

There's some limited evidence of the illustration of plants in Egypt - in terms of stone reliefs at on the walls of the room next to the Festival Hall of Thutmose III, in the Precinct of Amun-Re, Karnak. 

The Botanical garden of Thutmose III represents the fauna and especially flora of the Egyptian empire at its peak. A stone relief contains realistic descriptions of some 275 species.
Botany is an ancient science. Botanical illustrations - drawings that make science visual – have a history thousands of years old.
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_garden_of_Thutmosis_III#/media/File:Karnak_Ajmenu_Tutmosis_III_Sala_Jard%C3%ADn_Botánico_1.JPG
A detail of The Botanical garden of Thutmose III (via Wikimedia Commons)

Resources for understanding the development of botanical illustration
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The following are links to various resources that explain and provide information about the development of botanical illustration

Museums

Articles

A Brief History of Botanical Art
Articles by Jutta Buck, with Cynthia Rice
for the American Society of Botanical Artists
All articles originally appeared in The Botanical Artist
​(issue identified after title)
Picture
Fragmenta botanica, figuris coloratis illustrata :ab anno 1800 ad annum 1809 per sex fasciculos edita /opera et sumptibus Nicolai Josephi Jacquin
This page is a work in progress.


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Find out more about the history of botanical illustration in
The Best Books about​ Botanical Art History, Artists & Illustrators