The Bauer Brothers

Book excerpt: A beautiful study of the lives and art of two of the greatest botanical illustrators of all time The art of Franz and Ferdinand Bauer was praised by the poet and botanist Johann Goethe as the perfect expression of the aims of botanical illustration. This book examines the contrasting lives of Franz (1758-1840), who for 50 years was the resident artist at London's Kew Gardens and Ferdinand (1760-1826) who led a life of travel and adventure as a natural history artist including participating in the voyage to Australia of HMS Investigator (1801-1805). It is illustrated with images from the superb archive of Bauer drawings at the Natural History Museum Library, many of which have never been published. These include beautiful and finely detailed watercolors of flowering plants collected from across the world, pioneering microscopical drawings of plant anatomy, and pictures of the newly discovered animals from the coasts of Australia.