Arader Galleries Presents: The Plant Hunters

Friends of Arader Galleries,

Arader Galleries is proud to present a fantastic botanical exhibition in partnership with Lotusland of Santa Barbara titled: The Plant Hunters: Botanical Illustration from the 16th through 19th Centuries. This exquisite exhibit presents an overview of the history of botanical prints starting with Fuchs’s early 16th century herbals through the explosion of plant material finding its way to Europe from all over the world through trade and exploration during the 17th through mid-19th centuries. Magnificent botanical prints resulted from this newly discovered plant material. The exhibit will focus on plants that can be found at Lotusland or grow well in the Santa Barbara area. The exhibit is in cooperation with Arader Galleries, www.aradersf.com. All of the prints are for sale with of portion of proceeds going to Lotusland.

To learn more about Lotusland, please visit their website 

http://www.lotusland.org/

Artists include:
Dr. Robert John Thornton
Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Basil Besler
Leonhart Fuchs
Giovanni Battista Ferrari
Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Draakestein
Maria Sybilla Merian
Mark Catesby
Johann Wilhelm Weinmann
Georg Dionysius Ehert
and more!

Besler's 'Hortus Eystettensis'

Basil Besler (1591-1629) was an apothecary and botanist from Nuremberg, who managed the gardens of Prince-Bishop Johann Conrad von Gemmingen (approx. 1561-1612) in Eichstatt, Bavaria. The Prince-Bishop’s remarkable garden was one of the most extensive in Europe, containing a huge variety of European shrubs and flowering plants as well as exotic specimens from Asia and the Americas. Besler was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop to compile a codex of the plans in his garden. This encyclopedic resource became the basis for the Hortus Eystettensis (Garden at Eichstätt) which took sixteen years to complete (the Biship died shortly before  printing) and was published in 1613 by Basil Besler and Ludwig Jungermann. The work contains 1086 illustrations of plants from 367 copperplate engravings, most of which were depicted in their natural size. The copperplates were engraved by a group of skilled German draughtsmen and artists including Wolfgang Kilian, Dominicus Custos, and Levin and Friedrich van Hulsen and according to the oversight and drawings by Basilius Besler. The accompanying descriptive text was written primarily by botanist Ludwig Jungermann (1572–1653).

Published one hundred and fifty years before Linnaeus created his thorough system of classification, Besler’s great florilegium represents an impressive early attempt to classify plants for the benefit of botanists, doctors, and apothecaries. Each plant is given a distinct and often descriptive Latin title, and related species are grouped together on the same plate, or over a series of plates. Almost all specimens are shown complete and accurately colored, including delineations of their root systems. While Besler’s work is obviously motivated by a scientific impulse to document and describe a remarkable collection of species, the beautiful presentation and dramatic stylization of the illustrations also convey a sense of the visual grandeur of the Bishop’s great garden. Each specimen is placed on the page with an artist’s understanding of formal and spatial relations. Most notably, the stylized depiction of foliage and root systems betrays a lively baroque sensibility, as the plants seem to dance across the page.

Basil Besler’s great botanical work is a landmark of botanical documentation and pre-Linnaean classification, as well as one of the most splendidly stylized and aesthetically powerful botanical works ever produced.

The work was published twice more in Nuremberg in 1640 and 1713, using the same plates, plates which were destroyed by the Royal Mint of Munich in 1817.

Sadly, the original Eichstatt gardens were sacked by invading Swedish troops under Herzog Bernhard von Weimar in 1633-4; however reconstructed gardens were opened to the public in 1998.

French botanist Charles Plumier honored Besler posthumously by naming a climbing bush Beseleria.

These illustrations of various flowers are among the most dramatic and desirable of Besler’s illustrations. Each is in excellent condition, and would represent wonderful additions to any collection of European botanical art. Please contact Arader Galleries for further information.

History of Botanical Art

Stephanie Waskins, Director, Arader Galleries San Francisco

Catherine M. Watters

Last Thursday, September 24th, Arader Galleries hosted a reception and presentation on the history of botanical art from the 16th century to the present day in our 435 Jackson Street location in collaboration with the artist, Catherine M. Watters. Catherine has been teaching botanical illustration and watercolor at Filoli in Woodside, California since 1999 and is a primary instructor and curriculum developer for the Filoli Botanical Art Certificate Program. She lectures regularly on The History of Botanical Art and The Gardens of Normandy, and served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Botanical Artists from 2000-2006.

San Francisco gallery director, Stephanie Waskins, began the lecture showcasing spectacular examples from the Arader Gallery inventory of original botanical watercolors and prints dating as early as 1547 with illustrated texts devoted to herbals and florilegiums. The lecture included the works of Leonhart Fuchs, Basil Besler, Maria Sybilla Merian, Pierre-Joseph Redoute, and George Brookshaw among other artists. Catherine’s original watercolors of botanical subjects were shown alongside these historic examples.

We encourage you to visit the Filoli and inquire about Catherine’s classes should you have an interest in pursuing the art of botanical illustration. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to obtain a copy of a catalog from our gallery on the history of botanical art from the 16th through the 19th centuries.