The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings consists of 477 watercolour botanical drawings of plants and animals of

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

and Singapore by unknown Chinese (probably Cantonese) artists that were commissioned between 1819 and 1823 by William Farquhar (26 February 1774 – 13 May 1839). The paintings were meant to be of scientific value with very detailed drawings, except for those of the birds which have text going beyond their original purpose. For each drawing, the scientific and/or common name of the specimen in

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, and, occasionally, in English, was written in pencil. A translator also penned the Malay names in Jawi using ink. The paper used was normally European paper framed by a blue frame while some have no frames at all suggesting there are two artist.

History

Most of the drawings were made in Malacca, before his tenure as Resident and Commandant of Singapore. On the basis that Raffles hired a Chinese artist from Macao to do natural history drawings (as described by Munshi Abdullah ), John Bastin conjectured that this artist and perhaps others were hired by Farquhar to paint watercolours of the flora and fauna of the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

. Kwa Chong Guan extended this conjecture via stylistic comparison to identify the artists of Farquhar's drawings as from Guandong. Farquhar donated these in eight volumes to the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland on 17 June 1826. In 1937, the Society lent six of the volumes to the Library of the British Museum (Natural History) (now the Library of the Natural History Museum), retaining the two volumes of botanical drawings in its own library. In 1991 the Natural History Museum returned the works to the Society for valuation, and on 20 October 1993 the Society offered them for sale by auction at Sotheby's in London, where they were acquired by Goh Geok Khim, founder of the brokerage firm GK Goh, for S$3 million. Goh donated the drawings to the National Museum of Singapore in 1995. The drawings was designated by the National Museum of Singapore as one of 11 "national treasures" in January 2006. As at 2011, the collection was believed to be worth at least $11 million. In 2011, 70 works from the collection were placed on permanent display in the Goh Seng Choo Gallery of the museum, named for Goh's father.

Controversy

Due to the variable quality of work done by some artists, some drawings have proved difficult to identify. Nonetheless, botanists have identified some of these problematic drawings, one a drawing of a male Raffles's malkoha in which the breast is too yellow. Others which have yet to be identified include a drawing of a climber similar to '' Smilax''. Plate 29 of the collection inscription reads ''Soogow'', probably a misspelling of "

saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...

". However, the drawing shows little resemblance to the latter. Historians suggest that many of the backdrops of the drawings were copied from drawing manuals. One such example is a drawing of the greater mousedeer, the background of which shows a leafless climber attached to a rock. Some scholars query this, as mousedeer do not live in such rocky habitats. This suggests that either the artists did not visit the habitat of the subject, or, if they did, that they were not particularly observant. In the book Natural History Drawings: The Complete William Farquhar Collection, Malay Peninsula 1803–1818 an article by Kwa Chong Guan suggest that there were two artist, one usually frames his works as seen in the illustration of the durian and one who does the opposite of the latter. Usually, the artist who draws a frame around his work does show fungi like shaped rocks while the other takes the rocks in its own natural form also the artist who draw frames usually has drawings of trees with its roots spread out while the other has its roots in a clenched like manner.

Books

The works were published in two volumes, the first being,''The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings'', published in 1999 showing 141 of these illustrations. 2 volumes A second version containing prints of all 477 works in the Farquhar collection was published by Editions Didier Millet and the National Museum of Singapore in 2010.

Gallery

File:Garcinia Mangostana; Booah Mangies; Boorong Merbo (William Farquhar Collection, 1819–1823).jpg, A watercolour drawing of the

zebra dove The zebra dove (''Geopelia striata''), also known as the barred ground dove, or barred dove, is a species of bird of the dove family, Columbidae, native to Southeast Asia. They are small birds with a long tail, predominantly brownish-grey in col ...

or barred ground dove (''Geopelia striata''; known in Malay as the ''burung merbuk'') perched on a purple mangosteen (''Garcinia mangostana''; Malay ''buah manggis'') branch. It is one of 477 natural history drawings of plants and animals of Malacca and Singapore commissioned by William Farquhar. File:Jasminum; Akar Benang; Pokok Akar Banang (William Farquhar Collection, 1819–1823).jpg, The

wild jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family ( Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely ...

(''Jasminum laurifolium'' or ''Jasminum longipetalum'', Malay ''bunga pekan'' or ''melur hutan''). File:Onka' Pootie (William Farquhar Collection, 1819–1823).jpg, The lar gibbon or white-handed gibbon (''Hylobates lar'', Malay ''ungka tangan putih''). The tree may be a

bignay Bignay may refer to: * ''Antidesma bunius'', a fruit tree :* ''Bignay'' wine, a Filipino alcoholic drink made from ''A. bunius'' berries. * Bignay, Charente-Maritime, a commune in western France * Bignay, Valenzuela City, a barangay A barang ...

(also known as the bugnay, bignai or currant tree, ''Antidesma bunius''), or it may simply be from the artist's imagination. File:Boorong Antoo; Owl (William Farquhar Collection, 1819–1823).jpg, An Oriental bay owl (''Phodilus badius''; Malay ''burung hantu'' ("ghost bird")), perched on an angsana tree ('' Pterocarpus indicus''). The illustration of the owl is highly idealized, as each feather is shown in place and separated from the others. File:Bentoorong (William Farquhar Collection, 1819–1823).jpg, The binturong or Asian bearcat (''Arctictis binturong''). File:Lava Etam (Malay); Black Pepper; Piper Nigrum (William Farquhar Collection, 1819–1823).jpg, The black pepper (''Piper nigrum'', Malay ''lada hitam'').

Notes

List of Drawings from the William Farquhar Collection Natural History Drawings
from the National Heritage Board's online collections
Description of Natural History Drawings by William Farquhar
from Antiques of Orient

References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20111016125443/http://nationalmuseum.sg/ExhibitionDetail.aspx?id=64&cat=1 Goh Seng Choo Gallery Websitebr>Natural History Drawings: The Complete William Farquhar Collection, Malay Peninsula 1803–1818
E-book preview {{Visual art in Singapore, state=collapsed Animals in art Botanical art Collections of the National Museum of Singapore Singaporean art