Mixed Media

The long tradition of plant representation combines the resources of art and science. While botanical art has been associated with aesthetic pleasure and botanical illustration with scientific documentation, both rely on close observation and convey admiration for the natural world. This section challenges the boundaries between art and illustration and draws on the work of contemporary practitioners to bring our narrative to the present day.

The set of exquisite small-format paintings by Czech artist Caroline Maschek, recently acquired by Dumbarton Oaks, provides a bridge to the late nineteenth century. Commissioned by a Bohemian nobleman to document his impressive collection of orchids, Maschek worked in gouache to capture the delicacy and appeal of living flowers. Alice Tangerini’s pen and ink illustrations, by contrast, draw on flattened herbaria specimens, field photographs or sketches, and dissection under the microscope to synthesize the scientific information vital to botanical identification. The accuracy and functionality of these drawings, which employ the technique of collage, is inseparable from their linear precision and strong compositional sense.

Trained as a biologist, Amy Lamb’s laboratories are her garden and studio, where she combines a scientist’s method with an artist’s eye for color and form. While Tangerini’s drawings are designed ultimately to fit the page of a scientific journal, Lamb scales up her images to convey the plant as a powerful presence soliciting our attention and emotion. Her works challenge “plant blindness,” our inability to recognize and acknowledge the singularity, ubiquity, and significance of plants in our environment.

Regarded as less “charismatic” than animals, plants are nevertheless vital to ecosystems. Nirupa Rao, a botanical artist from Bangalore, India, adopts the traditional medium of watercolor to further the urgent cause of conservation in her book illustrations. Her work is inspired by field visits and informed by collaborations with natural scientists to encourage use of native species and to mediate human-wildlife conflict. Her spirit of exploration breathes new life into the long tradition of women artist’s engagement with nature.