The Flowering of the Botanical Print

Special Exhibition

Saturday, March 26–Sunday, July 3, 2016

Location: 101A–B Prints and Drawings
James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Galleries

*A Group of Auriculas* (detail), 1803. Frederick Lewis (British, 1779–1856) and James I. Hopwood (British, c. 1752–1819), after Peter Charles Henderson (British, active 1799, died 1829). Color aquatint, stipple, and etching with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland 1949.415.

Featured Art

A Group of Auriculas, 1803. Frederick Lewis (British, 1779–1856) and James I. Hopwood (British, c. 1752–1819), after Peter Charles Henderson (British, active 1799, died 1829). Color aquatint, stipple, and etching with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland 1949.415.
Narcissus Tazetta, c. 1828. Pancrace Bessa (French, 1772–1846). Watercolor over graphite on vellum; 18.4 x 11.6 cm. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland 1949.411.
The Pontic Rhododendron, 1804. James Caldwell (British, 1739–1819), after Peter Charles Henderson (British, active 1799, died 1829). Color aquatint and stipple with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland 1951.276.
The American Cowslip, 1801. Warner (British, active 1800-1810), after Peter Charles Henderson (British, active 1799, died 1829). Color aquatint, stipple, and etching with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Mrs. Ralph King 1952.213.
Scarlet Flesh Romana Melon, 1812. George Brookshaw (British, active 1804–1819). Color aquatint and stipple with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in honor of Arnold M. Davis 1955.312.
Amaryllis Lutea, 1802–16. De Gouy (French, active c. 1800–1820), after Pierre Joseph Redouté (French, 1759–1840). Color stipple with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in honor of Arnold M. Davis 1955.322.
Camellia Fimbriata Alba, 1839–43. Oudet (French, c. 1800–1850), after Johann Jakob Jung (German, 1819-1844). Color stipple and engraving with watercolor added by hand. Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in honor of Mrs. William G. Mather 1955.457.
Oreilles D’ours, 1827. Langlois (French, active 1805–1840), after Pierre Joseph Redouté (French, 1759–1840). Color stipple, roulette, and engraving with watercolor added by hand; 27.7 x 21.8 cm. Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection 1964.407.

About The Exhibition

Celebrating the centennials of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Botanical Garden, The Flowering of the Botanical Print traces the history of the fruit and flower print from its humble beginnings as simple black-and-white woodcuts in late 15th-century herbals (books describing plants used for medicinal purposes) to the splendors of 19th-century color prints and the lavish publications of botanists Dr. Robert Thornton and Pierre Joseph Redouté.

More than 70 prints, drawings, and books illustrate the masterful draftsmanship and scientific accuracy of botanical artists who also explored the rhythmic patterns in each blossom, fruit, leaf, and stalk. The works reflect developments in horticultural practice from late medieval gardens of native wildflowers and formal Renaissance gardens of carefully cultivated plants imported from the Near East and the New World to famous English landscaping of the 17th and 18th centuries when “a whole nation went mad about flowers.”

At the core of the exhibition are works from the museum’s Donald Gray Memorial Collection of fruit and flower prints and related drawings, which was established by the Print Club of Cleveland in 1939 in memory of a former president who was a landscape architect. The Eleanor Squire Library of the Cleveland Botanical Garden and the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum have generously lent important books, including the earliest examples from the late 15th-century illustrated with woodcuts.