Botanical art originally developed as an accompaniment to scientific publications such as pharmacopoeias and botanical journals.
This section introduces works produced in the 17th century, a period when botanical art was beginning to emerge before its dramatic development in the 18th century.

European botanical gardens trace their history back to medicinal herb gardens, but with the development of botany during the Renaissance, many began to cultivate a wide range of plants. In the 17th and 18th centuries, botany and the natural sciences were prioritized by powerful monarchs in France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was established in 1759.
The British royal family maintained deep ties to Kew Gardens, where many exemplary pieces of botanical art were produced.

The Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries nourished a flourishing of philosophy, medicine, botany, and other sciences, as well as economics and commerce, leading to the start of the Industrial Revolution. In England, the royal family played an important role in the developments during this era of science and industry. In particular, Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, protected the arts and sciences and became a force behind the industrial development of her country.
This section includes a selection of Wedgwood porcelain, one of the favorites of the queen.

The “company” refers to the British East India Company, and the Indian painters who produced work for the British in India from the late 18th to 19th centuries are known as the Company School. The term Company School includes works commissioned by botanists to record their research, as well as works produced in Southeast and East Asia, where the East India Company was influential.
Exotic subjects were favored, and some works hint at the mixture of Western and Eastern styles.

The study of botany and watercolors was considered part of a woman’s education in 18th century England. Outstanding female botanical painters emerged during this era, when painting became a new option for women whose career choices were very limited.
This section introduces the work of female painters who were active in the field of botanical art.

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, first published in London in 1787, was an academic journal with a wide readership that continues to be published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, more than two centuries later. It was lavishly produced, using copperplate reproductions of outlines based on watercolors painted by the resident artists, with each illustration hand-colored. The original paintings and the hand-colored etchings are shown side-by-side in this exhibition.