Lot Essay
Ehret's botanical illustrations represent an important advance in the scientific depiction of plants and had a wide influence not only in England but also in France and Germany. He was born on 30 January 1708 in Heidelberg, the son of a gardener, and began his career in the same profession, being apprenticed to his uncle. His father had however taught him to draw and, after a period at Karlsruhe, worked for the Margrave of Baden-Durlach. Setting off for Vienna in 1728 he stopped at Regensburg, where he obtained his first commissions and work on botanical illustrations. He reached a wide public through an introduction to Dr Christophe Jacob Trew in Nuremberg, and after travelling through Switzerland and France 1733-5 arrived in London where he was soon encouraged by Sir Hans Soane and Philip Miller, curator of the Physick Garden in Chelsea. In 1736 he made a crucial visit to Holland where he met Linnaeus, whose insistence in the scientific element in botanical illustration was reflected in Ehret's illustrations to Linnaeus's, Hostus Cliffortianus, 1737.
Ehret returned to England in 1736, remaining there until his death on 9 September 1770. During these years he worked with Soane and Miller, and also with such figures as Dr Richard Mead, Joseph Banks and Sir William Watson. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757 and of the Imperial German Academy of Naturalists in 1758, for whom he had to write his autobiograpy, an important source for his life. In 1750 he returned to gardening, moving to Oxford to work in the botanical garden, but left after a quarrel the next year. He also taught flower painting to young ladies of the aristocracy, and through his teaching the daughters of the Duchess of Portland may have indirectly influenced the botanical ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau during his stay in England in 1766-7 and, through him, the work of Pierre Joseph Redouté.
An important group of early illustrations, mainly of 1732, was subsequently acquired in Germany by the 13th Earl of Derby. The most important publications of Ehret's works were in his own Plantae et Papiliones Rariores, 1748-62, and Dr Trew's, Plantae Selectae, 1750-73, and Hortus Nitidissimus, 1750-92
Ehret returned to England in 1736, remaining there until his death on 9 September 1770. During these years he worked with Soane and Miller, and also with such figures as Dr Richard Mead, Joseph Banks and Sir William Watson. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757 and of the Imperial German Academy of Naturalists in 1758, for whom he had to write his autobiograpy, an important source for his life. In 1750 he returned to gardening, moving to Oxford to work in the botanical garden, but left after a quarrel the next year. He also taught flower painting to young ladies of the aristocracy, and through his teaching the daughters of the Duchess of Portland may have indirectly influenced the botanical ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau during his stay in England in 1766-7 and, through him, the work of Pierre Joseph Redouté.
An important group of early illustrations, mainly of 1732, was subsequently acquired in Germany by the 13th Earl of Derby. The most important publications of Ehret's works were in his own Plantae et Papiliones Rariores, 1748-62, and Dr Trew's, Plantae Selectae, 1750-73, and Hortus Nitidissimus, 1750-92