Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

Catalogue of the Botanical Art Collection at the Hunt Institute

Introduction

The collection of botanical art and illustration in the Art Department at the Hunt Institute is one of the world's largest and most broadly representative. It includes over 30,000 original works—paintings (mostly watercolors), drawings, original prints and three-dimensional objects—dating from the Renaissance onward. The collection also includes decorative, horticultural and non-botanical artworks as well as several individual artist and special botanical collections. In 1979 James J. White (1941–2011; assistant curator of art, 1978–1981; curator of art, 1982–2010) with the assistance of Elizabeth R. Smith (1917–2005; assistant editor, 1966–2003) began to compile a database of the Art collection, which was published as the Catalogue of the Botanical Art Collection at the Hunt Institute (1985–1998). It was White's dream to publish the database as a color-illustrated catalogue of the Art collection. However, the cost of such a print project was prohibitive. In 2001 we launched the database on our Web site, and the "illustrated" part of White's dream gradually became reality as the uncolored, pre-1900 artworks in the collection were added. We have edged closer to fulfilling his dream as now many of the colored, pre-1900 artworks in the collection have been added, too. New information and images of the remaining collection items are incorporated as they become available.

Data fields

Art accession number

The Hunt Institute's Art Department accession number is given.

Artist name

Names of artists are given surname first. Alternative names are given in the Notes field.

Life span

Dates of birth and/or death of the artist or period in which he or she flourished are given if known.

Nationality

The nationalities given are not necessarily those of legal citizenship. Dual nationalities are listed for some artists associated significantly with more than one country.

Gender

The gender of the artist is given if known.

Image

We continue to add thumbnail images of artworks in the collection and in-copyright images as permission is granted. Copyright and credit information for specific images are included within the database. To improve download speeds and enhance the usability of the database, we have moved the digitized public domain images to a separate database. The identifying information (accession number, artist name, nationality, taxon, etc.) is contained in both databases. The thumbnail images remain in the main Catalogue of the Botanical Art Collection at the Hunt Institute database while the full image for downloading is in the Catalogue of the Botanical Art Collection at the Hunt Institute: Digital Public Domain Images database. Also, the Torner Collection images are in the public domain and can be downloaded from the Torner Collection of Sessé and Mociño Biological Illustrations database. To inquire about publishing other images, please contact the Art Department.

Copyright

When known, copyright information for the image is given. Copyright may be held by the artist or the estate of the artist. The image may be out of copyright and now in the public domain. A credit line is to be used for images noted as in the public domain or for images that upon request are supplied by the Hunt Institute.

Title

Titles of artworks (usually binomials, sometimes with common names) are transcribed from the works themselves or their publication contexts.

Taxon

The scientific binomials of the plants depicted (generic names and specific epithets) are listed only if known with some certainty (often, genus only), based on authoritative accompanying notes, publications or subsequent specialist identifications. In the eight cases where there is a preferred and a conserved name, we list both names as follows: Arecaceae alt. Palmae; Asteraceae alt. Compositae; Brassicaceae alt. Cruciferae; Poaceae alt. Gramineae; Clusiaceae alt. Guttiferae; Lamiaceae alt. Labiatae; Fabaceae alt. Leguminosae; Apiaceae alt. Umbelliferae.

Graphic content

Indicates if subject of work is a plant portrait, decorative, horticultural or primarily non-botanical. See the Taxon field for scientific binomials of plants. See the Description field for descriptions of decorative and horticultural subjects and some taxon information for non-botanical subjects.

Description

For plant portraits, a brief description of the subject is included when only a portion of the plant is depicted (e.g., a single leaf, flower or fruit, winter twig, floral details) or when a special feature is included (e.g., a conspicuous insect). The description is omitted if the work adequately represents the plant as a whole (including fertile material in the case of a seed plant). For decorative, horticultural, and some non-botanical subjects, a terse description (e.g., flowers; roses in vase; pruning; gardener's tools) is included. For non-botanical subjects, taxon information also may be included.

Medium

Medium indicates either the physical material applied to produce the image (e.g., gouache, ink, oil, watercolor) or the printmaking technique employed to create it (e.g., engraving, etching, woodcut).

Support

Support indicates the material upon which the image is borne (e.g., paper, illustration board, vellum).

Dimensions

Dimensions of the support upon which the image is borne (e.g., paper, illustration board, vellum) are given in centimeters and as height by width.

Image size

Image size indicates the actual image size or plate mark solely in the case of prints. Sizes are in centimeters and are given as height by width.

Edition

For a print, the first number given is its sequence number in the edition; the second is the total number of prints in the edition. When the print is an artist's proof, that designation appears instead of numbers.

Date of execution

Date indicates when the artwork was executed.

Place of execution

Place indicates where the artwork was executed.

Signature

The signature is given as it appears on the artwork and with its location (t = top; b = bottom; l = left; r = right; c = center).

Published

When known, primary publication information is given, and subsequent editions may be listed. To give a complete publication record for the artwork, other publications that included it may be listed if known. When the artwork obviously has been published but the publication is unknown, any information printed on the work is cited in quotation marks, followed by indication of its location.

Printmaker

Names of printmakers are given surname first. Dates of birth and/or death of the printmaker or period in which he or she flourished are given if known.

Notes

Additional remarks are sometimes provided.

HIBD exhibitions

We continue to add the exhibitions in the Hunt Institute gallery in which this artwork was included. While our records are incomplete for our early exhibitions, we do have complete information for our more recent exhibitions. For those, users can see the exhibition again by entering the name of a past exhibition in this field.

HIBD publications

We continue to add the printed exhibition catalogues and databases produced by the Hunt Institute in which this artwork was included. Most of the printed catalogues are available as PDFs on our Web site. Completing our transition from print, information from the printed catalogues in our International series are being incorporated and updated into the Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration database.

Credit

We credit how we acquired an artwork. This can be a gift of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, of a botanical artist generously donating their work or of a collector of botanical art. We also recognize gifts in memory of loved ones. We purchase work through the Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden Art Acquisition Fund or the T. D. Jacobsen Endowed Acquisition Fund. We note items included in our three significant historical collections: Hitchcock-Chase Collection of Grass Drawings, Torner Collection of Sessé and Mociño Biological Illustrations, or United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Collection.

Acknowledgments

Preparation and publication of this catalogue have been made possible in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency (grants 02-4420-285, 12-4420-526 and 22-4420-139). Curator of Art Carrie Roy and Curator of Art Lydia Rosenberg wish to express their gratitude to their predecessors and the other Institute staff members who have worked so hard over the years to transform the handwritten accession book into a published nine-part catalogue and then into the present fully accessible database with images. We greatly appreciate the dedication and effort by James J. White, Elizabeth R. Smith and Lugene B. Bruno (assistant curator, 1996–2009; acting curator, 2009–2010; curator, 2010–2022) to database the Art collection. We thank Emeritus Director Robert W. Kiger, Director T. D. Jacobsen and other taxonomists, who have aided in the plant identifications. We gratefully recognize the work by Frank A. Reynolds (photographer, 1982–1983; operations manager, 1983–1998; graphics manager, 1998–2020) to photograph the collection, which accommodates the inclusion of images and turns the database into White's vision of a true catalogue of the Art collection. Reynolds also was instrumental in administering the database on our Web site and incorporating the early images. The database also has been administered by Kristina Lamothe (research assistant, 2001–2003) and Donald W. Brown (assistant librarian, 2002–2003; assistant librarian and assistant bibliographer, 2003–2010; bibliographer, 2011–2024) and now by Assistant Director/Principal Data Curator J. Dustin Williams and Bibliographer/Data Curator Linda White. We especially thank all the artists, individuals and organizations who have donated works to the collection over the years.