Georg Dionysius Ehret (30 January 1708 – 9 September 1770) was a German botanist and entomologist known for his botanical illustrations.

Life

Ehret was born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, a gardener and competent draughtsman, and Anna Maria Ehret. Beginning his working life as a gardener's apprentice near

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, he became one of the most influential European botanical artists of all time. His first illustrations were in collaboration with

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

and George Clifford in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and governor of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

was a keen botanist with a large herbarium. He had the income to attract the talents of botanists such as Linnaeus and artists like Ehret. Together at the Clifford estate, Hartecamp, which is located south of Haarlem in

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the fourth richest municipality of the Netherlands. History Heemstede formed around the Castle ''Heemstede'' that was built overlooking the ...

near

Bennebroek Bennebroek () is a village and former municipality in the northwest Netherlands, now part of Bloemendaal, North Holland. Before its merger, it was the smallest municipality in the Netherlands, covering an area of only 1.75 km². History Be ...

, they produced ''

Hortus Cliffortianus The ''Hortus Cliffortianus'' is a work of early botanical literature published in 1737. The work was a collaboration between Carl Linnaeus and the illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret, financed by George Clifford in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy A ...

'' in 1738, a masterpiece of early botanical literature. As a result of exploitation by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, Ehret finished only 500 plates of a 1,000 plate commission and moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where he was promoted by Sir

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

, Dr Mead and the bluestocking Duchess of Portland. “While he did not slavishly imitate what he saw, neither did he allow his feeling for the color and design of flowers distract him from the fundamentals of plant structure," Wilfrid Blunt observed in ''The Art of Botanical Illustration''. Ehret was in great demand. Engravings after his botanical paintings illustrated

Mark Catesby Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747 Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands'', the fi ...

's works on the flora and fauna of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

. Engravings from his series ''Plantae et Papiliones Rariores'', 1748-59, found their way onto

Chelsea porcelain Chelsea porcelain is the porcelain made by the Chelsea porcelain manufactory, the first important porcelain manufactory in England, established around 1743–45, and operating independently until 1770, when it was merged with Derby porcelain. ...

For

Philip Miller Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ''The Gardeners Dicti ...

he illustrated many of the more spectacular plants that were in cultivation in the

Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...

. Ehret was at the top of his profession in 1768 when the young botanist Joseph Banks returned from Labrador and Newfoundland with the botanical specimens that made his early reputation; it was to Ehret he turned for meticulous paintings on vellum.Patrick O'Brian, ''Joseph Banks, A Life'', 1987 p.60. Ehret's original art work may be found at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

in London, the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

The Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

, London, the Lindley Library at the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, at the University Library of

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inhab ...

, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

, and the

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (HIBD), dedicated as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library in 1961, is a research division of Carnegie Mellon University. History HIBD is named for Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt. She d ...

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The genus ''

Ehretia ''Ehretia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It contains about 50 species. The generic name honors German botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770). Species Accepted species and other notable t ...

'' was named in his honour.

Works

*''Methodus plantarum sexualis'' (1736) *''Hortus nitidissimis'' (in 3 volumes, 1750-1786) *''The Natural History of Barbados,'', Griffith Hughes, 1750.
''Plantae et papiliones rariores''
This was published in parts from 1748 until 1759 in folio. The eighteen plates were engraved and hand-colored by Ehret himself. Most display a combination of one or more species of plants and of butterflies.
Illustrations for ''Plantae selectae''
by Christoph Jakob Trew. Another copy of ''Plantae selectae'' a
Missouri Botanical Gardens
*Illustrations for "

The Gardeners Dictionary ''The Gardeners Dictionary'' was a widely cited reference series, written by Philip Miller (1691–1771), which tended to focus on plants cultivated in England. Eight editions of the series were published in his lifetime. After his death, it was ...

" by

, Seventh Edition, 1756-1759 (also reprinted in the Eighth, 1768), 16 plates *Illustrations for ''Hortus Kewensis'' by

William Aiton William Aiton (17312 February 1793) was a Scottish botanist. Aiton was born near Hamilton. Having been regularly trained to the profession of a gardener, he travelled to London in 1754, and became assistant to Philip Miller, then superinten ...

(in 3 volumes, 1789) *Illustrations for Patrick Browne's spectacular ''The Civil and Natural History of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

'' in three parts published in 1756.

References

A memoir of Georg Dionysius Ehret, written by himself ''Proceedings of the Linnean Society'', London, November 1984 to June 1985.

External links

Ehret Illustrations and portrait

Life

Works

References

External links

Further reading