Original hand-coloured engraving drawn by Georg Ehret and executed by J. M. Seligmann. From Christoph Trew's “Hortus Nitidissimis Omnem Per Annum Superbiens Floribus” published in three volumes over a 36 year period from 1750-1786.
Painted in a more opaque gouache to resemble a painting rather than the traditional practice of using translucent water-colours that allowed more of the engraving to show through. Each piece was meant to capture the flower at the peak of it's beauty instead of focusing solely on scientific detail.
Georg Ehret was a German-born artist who initially worked as a journeyman-gardener. He spent his early career travelling and working across Europe prior to working closely with Carl Linnaeus.
In 1736, he moved to England and became much sought after by premier botanists and collectors to record their rare plants. By 1750 he was the leading botanical artist in Europe. He contributed 44 of the 180 illustrations in the entire work and is the single most important botanical artist of the era. His fame is largely due to his development of the Linnaean style of botanical illustration which is still in use today.
George Ehret illustrated many of spectacular plants for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. In particular, he illustrated the exotic plants, which had recently arrived in Europe and which appeared strange to English eyes.
He was also able to access the collections of the exotic plants collected by wealthy plant enthusiasts and drew the unusual plants that grew in their hothouses His work appeared in a variety of publications on the rare and exotic plants, most notably the “Plantae Selectae”.
Johann Michael Seligmann trained at the Nürnberg Malerakademie, and studied with the Preisslers, a well known family of painters and engravers of Bohemian origin. After undertaking the obligatory “Grand Tour” he returned to Nüremberg, and set up a business making his reputation engraving anatomical and botanical plates.
