Images of Nature highlights slideshow

This elegant gallery showcases some of the Museum's world-famous historic paintings, illustrations, photographs and modern scientific images. 

The artworks span more than 350 years and are arranged by theme, such as observation, recording, modelling, mapping, questioning and inspiration.

At the displays you can learn how scientists and artists observe and record the natural world, from oil paintings to digital images and geological maps. The colourful display above demonstrates a variety of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and other modern imaging techniques. 

The Dodo, Raphus cucullatus, c1626. A gallery must-see, this iconic 17th century oil painting of a dodo is attributed to the Flemish artist Roelandt Savery. Discover how the Museum’s first Superintendent, Richard Owen, used it to scientifically describe the extinct bird.

The Savery painting hangs next to a modern interpretation of the dodo in acrylic by artist and Museum scientist, Dr Julian Pender Hume.

Watch Dr Hume painting the dodo in our video

Find out the science behind reconstructing the dodo

Each year the gallery features a different temporary exhibition on display in 4 specially renovated original Waterhouse cabinets. This year we show our 18th-century First Fleet paintings and drawings. These artworks were collected by the British First Fleet in the early penal colonisation of Australia. Among those first convict settlers and sailors were artists and draughtsmen who recorded their new world.

Over 600 pictures came to the Museum as 3 smaller collections known as the Raper, Watling and Port Jackson Painter collections.

Explore the First Fleet collection and its history

Turquoise parrot, Neophema pulchella, Thomas Watling, Watercolour, c1792–1797

This watercolour and its accompanying detailed description is an example of the importance of First Fleet art in the early scientific study of Australian flora and fauna, as it often captures information for the first time. The red wing patch on this bird identifies it as a male.

Swamp wallaby, Wallabia bicolor, Port Jackson Painter/Watling collection, Watercolour and ink, c1788-1797

An extensive description by the artist accompanies this drawing in the gallery's First Fleet temporary display, and the inclusion of a scale indicates it was intended to be a scientific illustration, perhaps to be used in future published work.

Burrawang, Macrozamia communis, Port Jackson Painter/Watling collection, Watercolour and ink, c1788-1797

This drawing from the First Fleet temporary display, noted by the artist as being a fruit eaten by Aboriginal Australians, resembles a modern-day pineapple. But later investigations found that the plant in fact contains poisonous seeds.

Portrait of Nanbree, Thomas Watling, Pencil, c1792-1797

In this portrait of Nanbree (also known as Nanberry) from the First Fleet temporary display, Watling depicts him holding some traditional items including a four-pronged fishing spear over his right shoulder and a basket suspended from it behind his back.

Up In Smoke Tour, detail. Installation, Archival boxes, watercolours, oil paint, 2011.

The gallery shows 2 installations commissioned from Aboriginal contemporary artist Daniel Boyd. These new pieces are a modern response to the historic First Fleet images and the Museum's anthropology collections. Boyd's watercolours in the installation detailed above feature obscured images of Sydney's heritage framed in Museum archival boxes. 

Boyd's art comments on the loss of native cultures recorded in the First Fleet collection and on the British perception of a land and people unknown to them.

Daniel Boyd looks beyond the images - watch the video

Buddenbrockia’s cell nuclei (red) and muscles (green). Contemporary scientists still use illustrations for reference, but these sit alongside a range of technological methods for recording nature from scanning electron microscopes to satellites. Here's the tip of a parasitic worm photographed under a confocal laser-scanning microscope. The bright colours are a result of staining dyes that glow under the microscope to reveal different depths in the worm's miniature body.

Giant tortoise, Geochelone sp, Bryan Kneale. Chalk on paper, 1986.

Over the centuries, artists and zoologists have studied and drawn animal skeletons to increase their understanding of anatomy. Artist Bryan Kneale developed this tradition by conveying energy and character to his subjects. This example of his work in chalk is a haunting depiction of a giant tortoise.

Neale was Professor of Sculptures at the Royal College of Art and produced a series of these bone drawings from specimens in the Museum collections whilst there.

Explore the gallery's exhibits and more of the Museum's natural history art collection in detail at the 6 interactive kiosks in the gallery. Pictured here is the Virtual gallery kiosk where you can zoom in and examine some amazing images. All of the kiosks feature large text options and some of them also include videos.

Make your own image of nature! At the Draw it display, pick up a drawing card and pencils to create your own scientific illustrations using Museum specimens as inspiration. Children and adults can also test their observational skills with a simple interactive game.