This is a botanical engraving of a Platain Banana, featuring nine different sections of its flower and fruit.
The original artwork is by Georg Dionysius Ehret, widely considered to be the greatest botanical artist of the 18th century. It is from 'Plantae Selectae', a collaboration between Ehret, the wealthy physician-botanist patron Christoph Jacob Trew, and master engraver Johann Jakob Haid, and published in Nuremberg between 1750 and 1773.
During the Enlightenment, European society held an intense fascination for newly encountered, exotic flora from the Americas and Asia. Because bananas and plantains could not be grown easily in European climates—and had never been tasted by the general public—Ehret meticulously documented specimens growing inside specialized English hothouses to give Europeans their very first look at the plant.
Ehret used what became known as the Linnaean style, illustrating nine distinct cross-sections of the flower and fruit anatomy alongside the primary plant structure.
Haid transferred Ehret's original vellum paintings into copperplate engravings, hand-colouring each print with watercolour and gouache.
Georg Dionysius Ehret is one of the most influential botanical artists of all time due to his development of the Linnaean style of botanical illustration.
He was alsoa prodigious artist who produced an enormous number of high quality illustrations for various botanical publications and plant collectors.He wasa German-born artistwhoinitially worked as a journeyman-gardener. Hespent his early career travelling and working across Europe prior to working closely with Carl Linnaeus at the time the latter was developing his system of binomial nomenclature - and illustrated his findings.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.
