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Papaya

Botanical Print
1750 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This papaya is given a scientific presentation with detailed dissections of flower and plant parts.

Christoph Jacob Trew's book Plantae selectae reflects a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants in the eighteenth century. It includes about one hundred of Georg Ehret's finest studies. They range in style from the naturalistic and pictorial to the abstract and diagrammatic.

Georg Dionysius Ehret was an outstandingly successful botanical artist. He had family and professional links with the Chelsea Physic Garden so was well placed to study many exotics and new arrivals.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Papaya (popular title)
  • Carica papaya L. (generic title)
  • Plantae Selectae (series title)
Materials and techniques
Hand-coloured engraving
Brief description
Papaya (Carica papaya L.); hand-coloured engraving after a drawing by Georg Dionysius Ehret, engraved by Johann Hakob Haid (1704-67); London; 1750; for Christoph Jakob Trew's 'Plantae Selectae' (Nuremberg, 1750-1773); proof of plate vii, part 1
Physical description
Botanical print of a papaya fruit shown whole and halved; behind this a drawing showing the stem of the plant with leaves and yellow flowers, and top right dissections of the flower parts.
Dimensions
  • Height: 51.2cm
  • Width: 35.5cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Tab VII. (Upper right)
  • PAPAYA / fructu oblongo / Melonis effigie / Tournes. Instit. p. 659. Plum. / Cat. Specier. p. 20. (Lower left corner)
  • a. Flos hermaphroditus, b. flos femininus, c. fructus rudimentum / discissum, d. calyx exiguus, e. semen pellicula sua candida ad- / huc inclusum. (Centre right)
  • (Part 1 1750) / (carica) (pencil)
  • [printed image labelled with letters a - e]
Gallery label
(2011)
Georg Dionysius Ehret 1708-70
Papaya (Carica papaya L.)
1750

Christoph Jacob Trew's book 'Plantae selectae' reflects a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants. It includes about one hundred of Georg Ehret's finest studies, among them this image of a papaya. They range in style from the naturalistic and pictorial to the abstract and diagrammatic.

London
Hand-coloured engraving; by Johann Jakob Haid (1704-67)
Proof of plate vii from Christoph Jacob Trew, 'Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini...'
(Nuremberg, 1750-73)
Presented by H. Stuart Thompson
V&A: E.915-1924
Credit line
Given by H. Stuart Thompson
Subjects depicted
Summary
This papaya is given a scientific presentation with detailed dissections of flower and plant parts.

Christoph Jacob Trew's book Plantae selectae reflects a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants in the eighteenth century. It includes about one hundred of Georg Ehret's finest studies. They range in style from the naturalistic and pictorial to the abstract and diagrammatic.

Georg Dionysius Ehret was an outstandingly successful botanical artist. He had family and professional links with the Chelsea Physic Garden so was well placed to study many exotics and new arrivals.
Bibliographic references
  • Trew, Christoph Jacob. Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini (Nuremberg, 1750-1773), plate 7, issued in part 1 in 1750.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1924, published under the Authority of the Board of Education, London, 1926.
Collection
Accession number
E.915-1924

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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