Cleveland Museum of Art
The Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature: A Group of Auriculas
Robert John ThorntonLinkedCulture matchlcp-f4371757e89b
- Date
- 1803
- Medium
- aquatint, stipple, and etching with watercolor added by hand
- Culture
- England, late 18th-early 19th Century
- Department
- Prints
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 127083
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The greatest English botanical publication of the early 19th century was Dr. Robert John Thornton’s Temple of Flora. Although Thornton studied medicine, his passion was botany and he soon embarked upon a major publishing venture that brought him both fame and financial ruin. The work, New Illustrations of the Sexual System of Linnaeus, was the most sumptuous botanical publication ever produced. The third section, the famous Temple of Flora, has 28 flower portraits set not against a plain conventional background but in the full richness of their natural setting. Unfortunately the day of the great florilegia had passed and Thornton died in poverty in 1837.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
British Botanical Print PublicationsThese objects are all botanical prints from late 18th to 19th century English illustrated book series, predominantly from Robert John Thornton's "The Temple of Flora" and other botanical publications documenting plant sp
38 objects from 2 institutions
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