Temporary exhibitions at Tring
Our Blooming Marvellous exhibition opens on 24 May
Golden bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae, by Franz Bauer, ca 1818. Bauer is regarded as one of the most technically sophisticated botanical artists of all time.
Discover the art of plant science from the exotic to the microscopic, from early botanical illustrations to the latest imaging technology in Blooming Marvellous.
Watercolour by A H Church
Blooming Marvellous exhibition at Tring
24 May - 18 August 2013
Free
Get a glimpse of the Museum's extensive collection of botanical art including watercolours, pen sketches and drawings, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries.
Explore the beautiful images created by these early botanical illustrators as they attempted to capture the colours and shapes of plants. Some of the most eminent of these artists are on show:
- Sydney Parkinson - produced 1,000 plant drawings on Captain Cook's voyage to the South Pacific.
- Georg Dionysisus Ehret - developed a new style of illustration that showed the parts of the flowers separately.
- Franz Bauer - the first paid botanical artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
- Arthur Harry Church - developed a new style of illustration influenced by the Art Nouveau movement.
SEM image of a strawberry
See examples of preserved plants and find out how today's technology, including electron microscopy, is used to record every detail of a plant’s anatomy.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) can magnify specimens up to 250,000 times their size. This technology allows scientists to explore far beyond the reaches of the human eye to help us appreciate the scientific value and beauty of plants in an entirely new way.
