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”.
