Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"

Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"

Thomas Warner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This delicately color aquatint shows five varieties of hyacinth in a coastal landscape and comes from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature, Picturesque Botanical Plates of the new Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus" (1799-1807). Varieties described here include Diana van Epheson (double white with small red spots, at far left and center), Don Gratuit (single dark blue, at back left), La Heroine (double white at front center), Globe Terrestre (double light blue, almost hidden behind a central white stalk), and Velour Purpre (dark double blue with green edged petals, at right). Dr. John Thornton devoted his personal fortune to the project which responded to discoveries about floral reproduction recently made by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. The series represents flowers from around the globe in native habitats (although unexpectedly high costs reduced an intended seventy prints to thirty-two). Thirteen engravers reproduced paintings and drawings supplied by botanical artists, the plates were etched using a combination of aquatint, stipple and mezzotint, printed in color "à la poupée" then enhanced with watercolor additions. Size, composition and sensitive coloring here raise botanical art to a new level.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"Hyacinths, from "The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.