European colonial-era natural history watercolours

[anna_wing]

One of the better legacies of the era of European colonialism is the many collections of gorgeous paintings of local flora and fauna, often commissioned from local artists, some named, some not. A few of them have been published, but most remain in the collections of museums and botanic gardens, most of which retained their own teams of local botanical artists. In Southeast Asia, the predominant local styles derived either from the various Indian or the Chinese schools, and this is reflected in the work of the natural history painters.

The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, now in Singapore, has been published in 1999 and 2010 editions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Farquhar_Collection_of_Natural_History_Drawings
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=william+farquhar+collectino+of+natural+history+drawings&atb=v225-1&iax=images&ia=images

The famous watercolours of Southeast Asian fruits and flowers by the Dutch botanical artist Berthe Hoola van Nooten were published as chromolithographs in the Netherlands in 1863 and had several editions, though sadly as far as I know no modern one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthe_Hoola_van_Nooten
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=berthe+hool+van+nooten&atb=v225-1&iax=images&ia=images

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles' collection commissioned while he was in Sumatra was published by the British Library in 2009; it's out of print but available second-hand:

https://www.amazon.com/Raffles-Ark-Redrawn-Drawings-Collection/dp/0712350845

The Dumbarton Oaks collection has at two such albums, exquisitely beautiful, and viewable online:


https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/botany-of-empire/illustration-and-representation/album-of-chinese-watercolors-of-asian-fruits
https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:426038375$13i

https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/botany-of-empire/illustration-and-representation/album-of-70-asian-fruit-paintings
https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:426036981$2i

Comments

[oursin]

See also Marianne North:

She travelled on her own, having found it difficult to find a satisfactory companion. Her travel as a single woman was helped by her family's political connections. She was able to furnish "letters of introduction" to ambassadors, viceroys, rajahs, governors and ministers all over the world.

She is one reason - see also Maria Sibylla Merian - why I get very peeved when women flower painters get dissed as wishy-washy ladies messing about with water-colours in their back garden....

[anna_wing]

Yes, I've seen her work at Kew!

[sartorias]

Oh wow there are some real beauties there!!!

[shirebound]

Thank you for sharing these names, all of which are new to me.

[sovay]

The Dumbarton Oaks collection has at two such albums, exquisitely beautiful, and viewable online

I believe I have seen some of these in person, but I don't know that I knew about the other collections; thank you.