Credit: ©The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10974
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
‘Aloe africana’
Date
[c.1735]
Creator
Jacob van Huysum (1682 - 1745, Dutch) , Painter
Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770, German) , Painter
Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770, German) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 512mm
width (painting): 274mm
width (painting): 274mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Botanical study of Aloe africana, humilis, spinis inermibus & verrucosis obsita [modern taxonomy Aloe humilis], native to South Africa. The study shows the stalk, flower, and leaves of the succulent plant.
Inscribed in ink beneath the image in Ehret’s handwriting with the name of the specimen ‘Aloe africana, humilis, spinis inermibus & verrucosis obsita’, but without the artist’s signature. It has been proposed by Gill Saunders of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, that the basal rosette of leaves is by Ehret, and the flower spike by van Huysum.
Georg Dionysius Ehret was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757. Jacobus van Huysum was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. Both were botanical illustrators.
Inscribed in ink beneath the image in Ehret’s handwriting with the name of the specimen ‘Aloe africana, humilis, spinis inermibus & verrucosis obsita’, but without the artist’s signature. It has been proposed by Gill Saunders of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, that the basal rosette of leaves is by Ehret, and the flower spike by van Huysum.
Georg Dionysius Ehret was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757. Jacobus van Huysum was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. Both were botanical illustrators.
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