Vintage botanical illustrations. Collection of botanical illustrations art. Flowers of the Canary Islands.

Botanical illustrations

   Botanical illustration is the art of drawing plants as accurately as possible in order to identify their species, combining scientific knowledge with visual aesthetics. Before the advent of photography, botanical drawings were the only way to record the world’s plants.
   There are two types of botanical illustration. Scientific illustration, which focuses on describing plant anatomy as accurately as possible, and is usually done in black ink, with fine lines and pointillism for the shadows. And artistic botanical illustration, which focuses on the artistic representation of plants, highlighting their aesthetic beauty, using vivid colours and expressive techniques such as watercolour or oil painting.
   Throughout history, a number of extraordinarily talented artists have excelled in this discipline, including Georg Dionysius Ehret, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Elizabeth Blackwell, James Sowerby, Pancrace Bessa and Mary Vaux Walcott.