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The Orchid Paintings of Franz Bauer

出版	Timber Press, 1993
主題	Art / Individual Artists / GeneralArt / Techniques / PaintingGardening / Flowers / OrchidsGardening / House Plants & IndoorNature / Plants / General
ISBN	08819224399780881922431
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=SpIlAQAAMAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋A contemporary of Redoute, Franz Bauer (1758-1840) has been considered by many experts to be the greatest of all botanical artists. Yet this book is the first to gather together and reproduce any collection of his work. Until now, with a few exceptions, his paintings of orchids and his many hundreds of studies of other plants, have lain hidden away in a few institutions, most notably the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Gottingen in Germany. Bauer was born in Austria, but lived and worked for fifty years at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he was employed by Sir Joseph Banks as resident draughtsman. The Kew collection developed rapidly during this period and gave Bauer an unrivalled opportunity of studying new plants as they flowered for the first time. He became fascinated in particular by orchids and used his microscopic skill to explore and portray their detailed structure. Sixty-three superb colour reproductions of almost all his completed orchid paintings, including many beautiful enlargements of flowers, here exemplify his artistic genius. They represent European species as well as introductions from North America, Australia and the Tropics. The commentary on the history of the plant and its cultivation which accompanies each plate is by Joyce Stewart, the Sainsbury Orchid Fellow at Kew, who also provides a section on the structure and function of orchid flowers. The distinguished botanical historian, William T. Stearn, contributes a biography of Franz Bauer. For all those who love, grow or study orchids in gardens, greenhouses or the wild, as well as everyone who appreciates the best in botanical art, this is an exceptionally appealing book.