작품 상세

EHRET, George (1708-1770). MAGNOLIA altissima Lauro-Cerassi folio, flore ingenti Candido. Watercolor and ink on vellum. Signed and dated: "G. D. Ehret pinxt/ 1747". 17 3/4" x 11 5/8" sheet; 21 3/8" x 27 3/8" framed. The Most Important Watercolor of A Magnolia from Eighteenth Century painted by the leading botanical artist of the Age of Enlightenment This lot was preserved loosely in an album, preventing fading from ultraviolet light, thus colored precisely as Ehret intended. A rare chance to go back in time and see through 18th-century eyes. Georg Dionysius Ehret, a German botanist-entomologist, is considered the most important botanical artist of the mid-18th century. Born to poor farmers in Heidelberg in 1708, Ehret showed an early propensity for drawing, though as a young man he was employed primarily as a gardener. Having drawn the attention of noted botanical artist Johann Weinmann and noted Nuremberg physician Dr. Christoph Jakob Trew, he gained support and financial support for his work. In 1736, he met eminent botanist Carl Linnaeus, and moved to England where he remained for the duration of his life. As instructor to the hightest of English nobility, he then engaged in his publication of Plantae Selectae. Various scholars of the time praised the folio highly singling out the excellent quality of Ehret's studies. His original illustrations can be found in such prestigious institutions as the Natural History Museum in London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Royal Society, London, the Lindley Library at the Royal Horticultural Society, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The genus Ehretia was named in his honor. Starting in 1736, Ehret not only provided seeds but drawings and observations to Linnaeus. Linnaeus would sometimes request certain plants, thanking Ehret for “incomparably beautiful illustrations of new plants” and encouraging him “your talent which makes you outstanding in the botanical world.” The scientist was particularly interested in “new and strange plants” and seeds, which Ehret was procuring from the Americas via Miller. As for the magnolia, Ehret brought the plant up to him as early as 1738 telling him “he would have loved to send him a drawing of the magnolia but did not have a chance to do so.” In 1747, the year of the present watercolor, we see the magnolia return to the topic of conversation between the two. On August 23, 1747, Linnaeus wrote to Ehret: “My dear friend, I am very grateful for the wonderful gifts that you sent me. It is a shame that I have never been able to reciprocate your numerous services, especially since I am living far away. Everyone admires your drawings and your talent. I have received your Cereus Minimus, Agaricus Ramosus, and Magnolia which are masterpieces.” And, follows up with another letter in October of 1747, “I owe you a thousand thanks for your friendship and the wonderful pictures that you have sent me for years. They are precise and beautiful and they adorn my walls of my study where visitors are amazed by their quality.” These magnificent watercolors are especially significant for being early representations of American flora. Ehret was one of the first artists to focus on exotic species from across the Atlantic, and his draftsmanship was so fine that his friend and colleague, the great artist/naturalist Mark Catesby, used at least three of the German painter's botanical illustrations for his seminal Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. For the engraving of the Canada Lily, Catesby copied an earlier watercolor by Ehret of the Martagon, nearly identical to the example in this set. Today, Ehret's images are widely considered the most desirable to emerge from that monumental publication. He collaborated with Catesby in other ways, too, in the compilation of the Natural History, offering advice or adding significant elements to Catesby's initial compositions. Catesby was influenced greatly by Ehret's accomplished style, especially in the representation of three dimensionality, but the older artist was never able to attain the same high level of meticulous realism and vitality. Ehret, in turn, drew on a number of Catesby's discoveries and observations in his own work (see the Bignonia, above left). Unlike Catesby, Ehret was never able to travel to America, but became fascinated with examples of New World flora that he saw in English natural history collections, such as that of Peter Collinson, a friend and patron of both artists. Painted just at the time of the publication of Catesby's Natural History, these three watercolors are spectacular early representations of American flora. Ehret's illustrations are some of the first works to reflect the Linnaean system of classification. In England, where he eventually settled, Ehret became the only foreigner to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Though Ehret's work is best known through printed illustrations, only in his remarkably sensuous and accurate watercolors is the full extent of his mastery and sensitivity clear. Ehret's delicate modulations of tone and shadow bring a vitality to these exquisite original watercolors, belying their ostensibly documentary purpose. Ehret's distinctive style transcends scientific illustration, achieving a level of beauty that has rarely been equaled in the history of botanical art. Adding to the significance of these watercolors, they have a highly distinguished provenance, having been in the collection of the Croome Estate, and, moreover, all five are housed in matching original 18th-century frames. Beautiful pieces in themselves, these simple, stately frames contribute dramatically to the value and appeal of this unique set. These paintings represent an opportunity to obtain beautiful original works by one of the central figures of European botanical art.