Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is the first gallery in the world dedicated solely to botanical art.

Collections information

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.

Things to look out for

The gallery hosts three exhibitions a year. The latest display, The Art of Plant Evolution, contains 130 paintings by 84 artists and runs until 11 April 2010. The works are arranged in their evolutionary sequence, as revealed by DNA sequencing. Illustrating 50 orders of plants and 118 families, they take the visitor on an artistic journey through development of the world’s flora. Highlights include a specially commissioned painting of the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), an ancient species that was only discovered to exist in 1994. Twenty plant fossils, on loan from the Natural History Museum, are displayed alongside images of their living relatives.

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. 

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