Oswego Tea-plant
Drawing
about 1740 (painted)
about 1740 (painted)
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This watercolour seems to have been an isolated attempt by Ehret to imitate the style of the 'velins du roi', the great collection of botanical and animal portraits on vellum begun under Gaston d'Orléans, the younger brother of Louis XIII of France. Until his visit to Paris in the winter of 1734-5 to see the collection, Ehret had always painted on paper. However the studies he sent to his patron Christoph Trew, the Nuremberg botanist and physician, during his stay at the Jardin Royal des Plantes, were, as Trew noted in his memoir, painted on 'pergament' (vellum). The image was reused by Christoph Jacob Trew for his book Plantae selectae.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Watercolour, bodycolour and gold leaf on vellum |
| Brief description | Botanical study, watercolour drawing of an Oswego Tea-plant or Bergamot, Monarda didyma, Georg Dionysius Ehret, about 1740, made in London; British. |
| Physical description | Botanical study showing stem, leaves, two red-orange flower heads, and one unopened bud surrounded by a border in gold-leaf. |
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| Summary | This watercolour seems to have been an isolated attempt by Ehret to imitate the style of the 'velins du roi', the great collection of botanical and animal portraits on vellum begun under Gaston d'Orléans, the younger brother of Louis XIII of France. Until his visit to Paris in the winter of 1734-5 to see the collection, Ehret had always painted on paper. However the studies he sent to his patron Christoph Trew, the Nuremberg botanist and physician, during his stay at the Jardin Royal des Plantes, were, as Trew noted in his memoir, painted on 'pergament' (vellum). The image was reused by Christoph Jacob Trew for his book Plantae selectae. |
| Bibliographic reference | Gill Saunders. Picturing Plants: An Analytical History of Botanical Illustration (Zwemmer/V&A, London, 1995), p.10, ill. in colour |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | D.588-1886 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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