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THE JOHN BRADBY BLAKE DRAWINGS IN THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON: JOSEPH BANKS PUTS THEM TO WORK
Author(s) -
Goodman Jordan,
Jarvis Charles
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
curtis's botanical magazine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1467-8748
pISSN - 1355-4905
DOI - 10.1111/curt.12203
Subject(s) - possession (linguistics) , quarter (canadian coin) , art history , natural history , art , visual arts , history , natural (archaeology) , archaeology , medicine , philosophy , linguistics
In the last quarter of the 18th century, Joseph Banks came into possession of a set of botanically accurate, western‐influenced, drawings of Chinese plants, executed in Canton by a Chinese artist and supervised by John Bradby Blake, an East India Company supercargo. Banks realized that these drawings, now in the Natural History Museum, London, would help his collectors in Canton accurately identify the Chinese species he sought as living plants for the Royal Gardens at Kew. Banks commissioned a collector's manual whose illustrations were based on the Blake drawings. In the early 19th century, William Kerr used this manual (now unfortunately lost) to continue the Blake practice – these drawings are at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. John Reeves, many of whose drawings are at the Royal Horticultural Society, used Kerr's commissions to produce the next generation of botanical art in Canton.