Botanical Prints: Illustrators

(1757-1822)

Born in London, Sowerby attended the Royal Academy of Arts. His talent was noticed by the botanist William Curtis, who was working on publishing what would become Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 

He is recognized for his ability to combine beautiful renderings of plants with detailed taxonomy. Sowerby's best-known work, English Botany, is comprised of 36 volumes and was published over a number of years. His later interests included fungi, fossils, and mineralogy.

(From the Linnean Society)

(1791-1862)

Curtis was raised in Norwich, England, by his mother, a flower grower, who fostered a love of nature in him as a young boy. A self-taught entomologist and engraver, he put both to use in his 16-volume British Entomology, which was highly respected in Europe and America. Each plate depicted one insect species with the plant on which its larvae were most often found.

In his later years his studied insect pests that plagued the agricultural industry. 

(From Book of the Month: Curtis's Entomology, Kings College London)

(1699-1758)

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. She later moved to London with her husband who fell into debt after abandoning his medical profession and spent two years in debtors prison there.

To pay his debts and support her family, she began work on an illustrated herbal, utilizing her artistic skill and interest in botany. Blackwell's herbal contained 500 illustrations, which she sketched, engraved, and hand-colored between 1736-1739.

The first of its kind, A Curious Herbal filled a need of physicians to identify medicinal plants and their healing properties. Though her husband was later beheaded for treason after his release from prison, Blackwell's work remains widely known and referenced. 

(From National Library of Scotland)

Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal: Containing Five Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants Which Are Now Used in the Practice of Physick is available freely online through HathiTrust and Google Books.

(1817-1892)

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Fitch accompanied Sir William Hooker to London upon his appointment as director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, where he was the sole artist for over 30 years. He is noted for his skill as well as his speed of production, sometimes even drawing directly on the lithographic stone to save time. Over his lifetime he created approximately 10,000 illustrations (about 3,000 for The Botanical Magazine alone). 

(From Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)

(1746-1799)

Prior to beginning The Botanical Magazine (later renamed), Curtis, a botanist, entomologist, and London native, published Flora Londinensis, which contained illustrations of wildflowers that grew within a 10-mile radius of London.

He is most well-known for bringing botany to a wider audience through the publication of his long-running magazine.

(From Nature Observed: The Work of the Botanical Artist by Hugh Cahill, Kings College London)