from The Temple of Flora, 1812
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Dr. Robert John Thornton |
Plate from The Temple of Flora, Robert John Thornton’s renowned botanical work. Read general information about the set here. About this particular plate, scholar Ronald King writes: "The plant shown in this picture [Selenicereus grandiflorus (L.) Britton & Rose]... is also known as the Moon Cactus, from the moon-like appearance of the fully open flower. Thornton also says that... it was sometimes called the `Torch Thistle' as it `exhibits to the observer a figure equally grotesque as terrific, with flowers possessing actually the blazing appearance of a torch.' The plant is a native of Jamaica and Cuba. This picture is one of the most arresting in the collection... The plant itself is of interest, not only for its large and beautiful flowers, but as a representative of those which, growing in a hot and dry environment, open their flowers at night for pollination by night-flying insects, pollinators being scarce in such climates during the heat of the day. This has a curious effect where public botanic gardens are concerned, since these are shut at night to visitors, who thus never see the plant in full bloom." (Ronald King. The Temple of Flora by Robert Thornton. 1981, p.74). Philip Reinagle was primarily a landscape and animal painter, patriarch of a family of British artists which included two sons, two daughters and a grandson. He lived in London, where he entered the Royal Academy Schools. Afterwards he was employed by the court painter Allan Ramsay and assisted him on portraits of George III and Queen Charlotte. He exhibited mostly portraits at the Royal Academy from 1773 until 1785, when he began exhibiting animal paintings, including the sporting scenes featuring dogs and birds for which he is well-known. From about 1805, he turned to landscape as his principal subject. He contributed 11 plates to Robert John Thornton’s The Temple of Flora and the drawings for William Taplin’s Sportsman’s Cabinet, a work on sporting dogs. His copies of landscapes and cattle paintings after Paulus Potter, Meindert Hobbema and Jacob van Ruisdael were often mistaken for originals. Condition: Generally very good with the usual light overall toning, soiling, and wear. Margins with faint mat burn, abrasions, and glue residue from former matting, can be matted out. Professionally rebacked on supporting sheet. References: Blunt, Wilfred, rev. by Stearn, William T. The Art of Botanical Illustration. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club, 1994. pp. 236-242. “Philip Reinagle.” The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/07/0712/T071274.asp (14 June 2004). Redgrave, Samuel. A Dictionary of Artists of the English School: Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers and Ornamentists. London: Longmans, Green, and Col., 1874. p. 334. |