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C1822
Rafflesia Arnoldi.
Artist:
Scarce engraving the Corpse Flower from Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. The first botanist to find a specimen of a Rafflesia was the French explorer Louis Auguste Deschamps (1765-1842). He was a member of a French scientific expedition … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Rafflesia Arnoldi.
Date:
C1822
Artist:
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Stipple engraving.
Paper Size:
286mm
x 220mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1822
Description:
Scarce engraving the Corpse Flower from Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.
The first botanist to find a specimen of a Rafflesia was the French explorer Louis Auguste Deschamps (1765-1842). He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific. During the expedition he spent three years on Java, where in 1797 he collected a specimen of what is now known as R. patma. During the return voyage in 1798, his ship was taken by the British, with whom France was at war, and all his papers and notes were confiscated. They did not see the light of day until 1954 when they were rediscovered in the Natural History Museum, London. William Jack (1795-1822) who was Arnold’s successor in Sumatra, being aware that Deschamps, despite his loss of notes, could formally publish a name for the newly discovered genus at any moment, rushed to draft a description to ensure the credit went to a British botanist. This draft description was held in readiness, in case there was word that the French were about to publish, whilst waiting for the British Museum to produce a better-prepared version. The generic name, Rafflesia (given in honour of Sir Raffles), proposed by Brown (who had originally wanted to call it Arnoldii) after Joseph Arnold, was validated by S.F. Gray in his report of the June 1820 meeting of the Linnean Society of London, as published in the Annals of Philosophy in September that year. While the species Rafflesia arnoldii was officially described for the first time in 1821 by Brown, so that Arnold was commemorated after all.
References Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
Modern binomial name Rafflesia arnoldii
Common name Corpse flower
First described Robert Brown 1820
Distribution Borneo & Sumatra.
Franz Bauer (1758 - 1840)
Franz Bauer (1758-1840) His father was the Court Painter and died when his three children were infants. He was the older brother of the renowned Ferdinand Bauer who was also a botanical artist Franz's initial involvement with botanical art was through the illustration of plants for the Professor of Botany and director of the Botanic Garden of the University of Vienna. Franz illustrated works by the Baron Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and his son Baron Joseph Franz von Jacquin at the Schonbrunn Imperial Gardens. In 1788 he travelled to England by way of Prague, Dresden, Halle, Berlin, Gottingen, Mainz, Leiden, Utrect and Paris. Sir Joseph Banks recognised the talents of Bauer who he employed as a botanical artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew on an annual salary of £300. He was known by the title 'Botanick Painter to His Majesty'. ​He settled at Kew where he was to remain for the rest of his life. In England he was known by the anglicised version of his name Francis Bauer. ​The drawings he made while at Kew have much scientific value and at the same time are also a historic record of the development of botanical art, plant science and Kew Gardens at a time when it was expanding rapidly.
