The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

Announcements

Please note that between the second half of March to June 2012, some areas of the gallery will be temporarily closed for exhibition installation. Please contact the gallery for more information +44 (0) 20 8332 3622.

About the collection

The emergence of botanical illustration as a genre of art dates back to the 15th century, when herbals (books describing the culinary and medicinal uses of plants) were printed containing illustrations of flowers. As printing techniques advanced, and new plants came to Europe from Ottoman Turkey in the 16th century, wealthy individuals and botanic gardens commissioned artists to record the beauty of these exotics in ‘Florilegia’. At Kew, Sir Joseph Banks employed Franz Bauer as “Botanick Painter to His Majesty” and also sent artists on plant-collecting expeditions.

As well as being beautiful, botanical illustrations became important scientific records through which plants were named and classified. Franz Bauer had a particularly accurate eye for detail. An image of a pollen grain he drew in the 18th century, using only a basic microscope, was later proved by a scanning electron microscope to be entirely accurate. Other important botanical illustrators include Walter Hood Fitch, who completed 10,000 drawings while working as Kew’s principal artist between 1837 and 1877.

Kew’s archives contain 200,000 works of botanical art. These include pieces by 18th and 19th century masters, including Ehret, Redouté and the Bauer brothers, along with works by contemporary artists. In 2008 Kew opened a new gallery to display these works alongside pieces from the collection of Dr Shirley Sherwood. Dr Sherwood’s collection includes illustrations by contemporary artists living in 30 countries. Connected to the Marianne North Gallery, and with a carefully controlled interior climate, the Shirley Sherwood Gallery is the first public gallery in the world dedicated to showing botanical art.

• Find out more about Kew's Illustration collection and the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art from the Spring 2008 issue of Kew Magazine.
• Find out more about our current exhibitions Plants in Peril and Joseph Hooker - Naturalist, Traveller and More.

Art on Demand

Botanical art prints from Kew's collection are available to buy through Kew's online print shop.

Opening times

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is located within Kew Gardens. For more information about opening times and ticket prices please see our visitor information.

Contact

For more information on the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art please email shirleysherwoodgallery@kew.org or telephone: 020 8332 3622.

Our programme of exhibitions will change three times a year. During the changeover, sections of the gallery will always remain open, so whenever you visit the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art there will always be botanical illustrations on display.