Exotica: Plant Portraits from Around the World
September 29 to November 14, 2004
September 7, 2004
On September 29, 2004, the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, will open Exotica: Plant Portraits from Around the World. This exhibition features sixty-one prints from the "Golden Age" of Western botanical art -- the period between 1600 and 1850 before photography became the most efficient and cost effective method of recording nature for scientific investigation.
Included in Exotica is a hand-colored lithograph from The Birds of America (1827-1844) by John J. Audubon (American, 1785-1851), images by Mark Catesby (English, 1682-1749) of fauna from the British colonies of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas (1731-1743), and color stipple engravings by Pierre Joseph Redouté (French, 1759-1840), who was one of the most prolific and talented botanical artists of his time.
The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century provided a means to multiply and disseminate images and text, and botanical reproductions were used as early as the 1480s to illustrate books on herbs and their uses. Sixteenth-century European botanists, then known as herbalists, made careful descriptions of many plants, particularly the medicinally important ones, and established a sound foundation for further botanical study.
During the "Golden Age" of botanical illustration, scientific study of flora burgeoned, particularly with the interest in plants from the New World. In a typical folio publication, the scientist wrote descriptions of the natural environment, the artist accurately drew the specimen, the printer carved or engraved the image onto a matrix (such as a wood block or metal plate), the colorist hand-colored each printed image, and finally the book was assembled, published, and distributed to the subscribers. These subscribers included landed gentry, physicians, merchants, booksellers, fellow naturalists, and patrons of the arts.
Some of the earliest illustrations in the exhibition are from the 1613 folio Hortus Eystettensis (Garden of Eichstatt) by Basilius Besler (German, 1561-1629). Besler chronicled a lavish garden that surrounded the castle of Prince Bishop of Eichstatt, near Nuremberg, Germany. The garden featured every known flower and shrub -- many of the exotic flowers were imported from the Americas and from the Ottoman Empire. More than just a comprehensive compendium of plant types, Besler's work was also one of the first publications to depict flowers as objects of beauty.
Another series of prints come from The Temple of Flora (1797-1810) by Dr. Robert John Thorton (English, 1768-1837). Thorton employed artists and engravers to develop the seventy plates, which would illustrate Linnaeus' discoveries about the reproductive system of plants. An ambitious project that caused him financial ruin, The Temple of Flora, with only twenty-eight engravings completed, became the best known of all flower books. Each plate situates the flowers in a fantastic or romantic setting or landscape.
Exotica was organized by the Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia. The exhibition's presentation at the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, is part of a fifteen-city national tour over a three-year period, developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, Kansas City, Missouri.
The exhibition's presentation at the Lora Robins Gallery, University Museums, and the accompanying programs were made possible in part with the support of the University of Richmond's Cultural Affairs Committee.
PROGRAMMING
Lecture, Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University Museums,
Tuesday, September 28, 2004, 7 p.m.
"A History of Botanical Illustrative Processes: Their Identification
and Care"
Jennifer Hain Teper, ‘94, Conservation Librarian, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Opening reception and preview of the exhibition, 8 to 9 p.m. (following
the lecture)
Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums
Brown Bag Lunch, Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University
Museums
Thursday, October 14, noon to 1 p.m.
"Botanical Illustration and the Origins of Botany"
W. John Hayden, Professor of Biology, University of Richmond
Demonstration and Workshop, Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature,
University Museums
Saturday, October 23, 2 to 4 p.m.
"Traditional Botanical Illustration: Pen and Ink and Watercolor"
Sheila Hayden, W'85, G'95, botanist and botanical illustrator
Admission to the University of Richmond Museums and to the events mentioned above is free and open to the public.
Also currently on view at the University of Richmond Museums:
MARSH ART GALLERY
Visions from the Soul: Woodcuts by Hans Friedrich Grohs (through October
8)
Cuba Plástica: Recent Art from Cuba (through October 8)
Martha MacLeish: Wall Constructions (through December 12)
JOEL AND LILA HARNETT PRINT STUDY CENTER
"In Praise of Folly" by Desiderius Erasmus: Wood Engraving
by Fritz Eichenberg
(through December 5)
LORA ROBINS GALLERY OF DESIGN FROM NATURE
Cheers!: Drinking Glasses from the Permanent Collection (through July
10, 2005)
"Fancy Rockingham" Pottery: The Modeller and Ceramics in Nineteenth-Century
America
(through February 27, 2005)
University of Richmond Museums comprises the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, the arts and natural sciences museum; the Marsh Art Gallery, the art museum; and the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center. Admission to all museums is free and open to the public. Call 804-289-8276 for information and directions or visit our website at http://oncampus.richmond.edu/museums. Please call at least two weeks prior to your visit to make arrangements for group visits and tours.
The Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature is located in a separate wing of the Boatwright Memorial Library with its entrance on Richmond Way. Museum hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Closed Fall Break (10/09-12), Thanksgiving Week (11/22 -11/29), Semester Break (12/17/04 - 1/03/05), and Spring Break (3/5 - 3/14).