Plants & Animals Wall Art
WALL ARTBotanical and zoological illustration records the appearance of a plant or a creature accurately, made for scientific or decorative use rather than composed as a picture in its own right. The tradition runs from illustrated herbals used by physicians and apothecaries through the scientific expeditions and menageries of the eighteenth century to the detailed hand coloured plates of naturalists such as John James Audubon and Pierre-Joseph Redoute, who worked in birds and roses. Engraving and later lithography allowed these plates to be reproduced in numbered sets and sold to subscribers. A pre 1930 archive under this heading holds mainly these engraved and hand coloured natural history plates rather than paintings.
