Credit: ©The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10970
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‘Aloe africana’
Date
[c.1735]
Creator
Jacob van Huysum (1682 - 1745, Dutch) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 541mm
width (painting): 372mm
width (painting): 372mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Botanical study of Aloe africana, caulescens, foliis glacis, caulem amplectentibus [modern taxonomy Aloe arborescens, also commonly known as the krantz aloe or candelabra aloe], native to South Africa. The study shows the stalk, flower, and leaves of the succulent plant.
Inscribed in ink above the image with the name of the specimen ‘Aloe africana, caulescens, foliis glacis, caulem amplectentibus’, and towards the bottom right of the image, with the signature of the artist ‘J Van Huysum’.
Jacobus van Huysum was not a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Inscribed in ink above the image with the name of the specimen ‘Aloe africana, caulescens, foliis glacis, caulem amplectentibus’, and towards the bottom right of the image, with the signature of the artist ‘J Van Huysum’.
Jacobus van Huysum was not a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Object history
Part of a collection of 35 botanical paintings by Georg Dionysius Ehret and Jacobus van Huysum, primarily of Aloes, depicting specimens from the yearly collection sent by the Society of Apothecaries Physic Garden at Chelsea to the Royal Society. This means of capturing the specimens was initially proposed by Taylor White who presented a collection of watercolours by van Huysum in 1734. Philip Miller (1691 – 1771), Gardener to the Society of Apothecaries and Fellow of the Royal Society, was asked by the Council to select the plants to be preserved in this way in 1734, and references to this commission occur in the Society records up to 1737.
Associated place