Botanical Sketchbooks

Description

While highly finished drawings and paintings frequently feature in histories of botanical art, the preparatory sketches, first impressions and creative thoughts on paper behind them are rarely seen and have often remained hidden and locked away. Botanical Sketchbooks brings these personal and vividly spontaneous records gloriously back into the light. In a series of biographical portraits organized thematically into four sections, the book illuminates a range of intriguing characters, from many different countries and cultures, including Germany, France, Italy, America, Australia, Japan and China. Sketchbooks proper are joined by notebooks, journals, albums, loose pieces of paper, works on vellum, manuscripts, letters, herbarium sheets and marginalia - even one drawing on the back of an envelope. Turning the pages of this book will be an invitation to relive extraordinary experiences, imagine lost worlds, and be immersed in the endeavours, observations and motivations of the makers of such beautiful and enchanting art.

William Bynum is a historian of science and medicine and also has a particular interest in gardening and plants and their importance in human culture and society. Together with his wife Helen Bynum he has written or edited numerous books, including Great Discoveries in Medicine and Remarkable Plants. Helen Bynum is a historian of science and medicine and also has a particular interest in gardening and plants and their importance in human culture and society. Together with her husband William Bynum she has written or edited numerous books, including Great Discoveries in Medicine and Remarkable Plants.

'Enchanting' - Kensington & Chelsea Magazine 'A pure delight ... filled with fascinating facts as well as exquisite drawings' - Reckless Gardener 'Excellent' - Daily Telegraph 'Something to treasure' - The Lady 'A portfolio of beauty' - Times Higher Education 'A tour of not only the natural world, but also the human imagination' - House & Garden