Georg Dionysius Ehret (30 January 1708 – 9 September 1770) was a German

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...

known for his botanical illustrations.

Life

Ehret was born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, a gardener and competent draughtsman, and Anna Maria Ehret. Beginning his working life as a gardener's apprentice near

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

, he became one of the most influential European botanical artists of all time. His first illustrations were in collaboration with

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

and George Clifford in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and governor of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

was a keen botanist with a large

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

. He had the income to attract the talents of botanists such as Linnaeus and artists like Ehret. Together at the Clifford estate,

Hartecamp Hartekamp, or Hartecamp, is the name of a villa in Heemstede, North Holland, the Netherlands, on the Bennebroek border. It was once the Buitenplaats of George Clifford, who employed Carl Linnaeus in 1737 to write his ''Hortus Cliffortianus'', a ...

, which is located south of

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the fourth richest municipality of the Netherlands. History Heemstede formed around the Castle ''Heemstede'' that was built overlooking the ...

near Bennebroek, they produced '' Hortus Cliffortianus'' in 1738, a masterpiece of early botanical literature. As a result of exploitation by

Johann Wilhelm Weinmann Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (13 March 1683 Gardelegen, Germany – 1741), apothecary and botanist, is noted for his creation of the florilegium ''Phytanthoza iconographia'' between 1737 and 1745, an ambitious project which resulted in eight folio vo ...

, Ehret finished only 500 plates of a 1,000 plate commission and moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, where he was promoted by Sir

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

, Dr Mead and the bluestocking Duchess of Portland. “While he did not slavishly imitate what he saw, neither did he allow his feeling for the color and design of flowers distract him from the fundamentals of plant structure," Wilfrid Blunt observed in ''The Art of Botanical Illustration''. Ehret was in great demand. Engravings after his botanical paintings illustrated

Mark Catesby Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747 Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands'', the fi ...

's works on the flora and fauna of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

. Engravings from his series ''Plantae et Papiliones Rariores'', 1748-59, found their way onto

Chelsea porcelain Chelsea porcelain is the porcelain made by the Chelsea porcelain manufactory, the first important porcelain manufactory in England, established around 1743–45, and operating independently until 1770, when it was merged with Derby porcelain. ...

For

Philip Miller Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ''The Gardeners Dicti ...

he illustrated many of the more spectacular plants that were in cultivation in the

Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...

. Ehret was at the top of his profession in 1768 when the young botanist

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

returned from Labrador and Newfoundland with the botanical specimens that made his early reputation; it was to Ehret he turned for meticulous paintings on vellum.Patrick O'Brian, ''Joseph Banks, A Life'', 1987 p.60. Ehret's original art work may be found at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

in London, the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

The Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

, London, the Lindley Library at the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, at the University Library of

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inha ...

, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

, and the

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (HIBD), dedicated as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library in 1961, is a research division of Carnegie Mellon University. History HIBD is named for Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt. She don ...

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The genus ''

Ehretia ''Ehretia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It contains about 50 species. The generic name honors German botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770). Species Accepted species and other notable ...

'' was named in his honour.

Works

*''Methodus plantarum sexualis'' (1736) *''Hortus nitidissimis'' (in 3 volumes, 1750-1786) *''The Natural History of Barbados,'',

Griffith Hughes The Reverend Griffith Hughes (1707 – c.1758), FRS, was a Welsh naturalist, clergyman, and author. Hughes wrote ''The Natural History of Barbados,'' which included the first description of the grapefruit (also known as "The Forbidden Fruit"). ...

, 1750.
''Plantae et papiliones rariores''
This was published in parts from 1748 until 1759 in folio. The eighteen plates were engraved and hand-colored by Ehret himself. Most display a combination of one or more species of plants and of butterflies.
Illustrations for ''Plantae selectae''
by

Christoph Jakob Trew Christoph Jacob Trew (16 April 1695 in Lauf an der Pegnitz – 18 July 1769) was a German botanist. He was originally a city solicitor, court physician, Count Palatine of the Holy Roman Empire, an advisor to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. ...

. Another copy of ''Plantae selectae'' a
Missouri Botanical Gardens
*Illustrations for "

The Gardeners Dictionary ''The Gardeners Dictionary'' was a widely cited reference series, written by Philip Miller (1691–1771), which tended to focus on plants cultivated in England. Eight editions of the series were published in his lifetime. After his death, it was ...

" by

, Seventh Edition, 1756-1759 (also reprinted in the Eighth, 1768), 16 plates *Illustrations for ''Hortus Kewensis'' by

William Aiton William Aiton (17312 February 1793) was a Scottish botanist. Aiton was born near Hamilton. Having been regularly trained to the profession of a gardener, he travelled to London in 1754, and became assistant to Philip Miller, then superinten ...

(in 3 volumes, 1789) *Illustrations for Patrick Browne's spectacular ''The Civil and Natural History of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

'' in three parts published in 1756.

References

A memoir of Georg Dionysius Ehret, written by himself ''Proceedings of the Linnean Society'', London, November 1984 to June 1985.

External links

Ehret Illustrations and portrait

Life

Works

References

External links

Further reading