Getty Museum

Carnations

Date

1750s

Medium

Gouache and graphite, on vellum

Culture

German

Department

Drawings

Institution

Getty Museum

This sheet shows three red and white blossoms, two from the front and one from the side, as well as six buds. In addition to the graceful and complex intertwining of two carnation stems, the sheet reveals the delicate graphite underdrawing. Due to the slight fading of the yellows and thin application of washes, Carnations allows us to get a closer look at Ehret's creative process. The sheet makes clear how he applied layer after layer of translucent watercolors to achieve his meticulous botanical portraits.

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.