Credit: ©The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10973
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
'Aloe africana'
Date
[c.1735]
Creator
Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770, German) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 540mm
width (painting): 381mm
width (painting): 381mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Botanical study of Aloe africana, caulescens, foliis galucis brevioribus, caulem amplectentibus, foliorum parte interna & externa non nihil spinosa [modern taxonomy Aloe brevifolia var depressa also known as the short-leaved aloe], native to South Africa. The study shows the stalk, flower, and leaves of the succulent plant, with further detail of two flowers falling from the plant, one open, and one showing the stamens of the flower.
Inscribed in ink beneath the image with the name of the specimen ‘Aloe africana, caulescens, foliis galucis brevioribus, caulem amplectentibus, foliorum parte interna & externa non nihil spinosa’ in Ehret’s handwriting, and in the bottom right hand corner is the signature of the artist ‘G.D. Ehret pinxit’.
Georg Dionysius Ehret was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757.
Inscribed in ink beneath the image with the name of the specimen ‘Aloe africana, caulescens, foliis galucis brevioribus, caulem amplectentibus, foliorum parte interna & externa non nihil spinosa’ in Ehret’s handwriting, and in the bottom right hand corner is the signature of the artist ‘G.D. Ehret pinxit’.
Georg Dionysius Ehret was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757.
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