Plantae et Papiliones rariores: Martynia (1748): Art, History and Details

Plantae et Papiliones rariores: Martynia (1748) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Georg Dionysius Ehret (German, 1708–1770).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Georg Ehret met Carolus Linnaeus in 1736. The dominant botanical artist in the mid-18th century, Ehret settled in England where the nobility clamored to receive his instruction. He commented in his autobiography, “If I could have divided myself into twenty parts I could still have had my hands full.” Ehret struck a fine compromise between the artist and the scientist. “While he did not slavishly imitate what he saw, neither did he allow his feeling for the color and design of flowers distract him from the fundamentals of plant structure,” confirms Wilfrid Blunt, author of The Art of Botanical Illustration. Ehret’s crisp forms betray a sureness of touch, vigor of handling, and unerring instinct for design.

Object facts

• Title: Plantae et Papiliones rariores: Martynia
• Date: 1748
• Creator attribution: Georg Dionysius Ehret (German, 1708–1770)
• Culture: Germany, 18th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving, hand-colored
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1949.414

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.