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.

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

Opening times

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is open from 9.30am - 5.30pm daily. Our programme of exhibitions can change several times a year. During the changeover, sections of the gallery will remain open, so whenever you visit there will always be botanical illustrations on display.

Ticket Prices

Admission is free with entry to the Gardens. More information.

Buy tickets to Kew: Adults £13.90, concessions £11.90, children under 17 get in FREE!

How to find us

The gallery is located within Kew Gardens and is close to Victoria Gate and Lion Gate. You can find us opposite the Temperate House.

Please click here to see a map of the gardens.

Contact

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

Talks and Courses

We frequently have botanical illustration courses in Kew Gardens. If you want to find out more about in any of Kew's courses, please email adult education adulted@kew.org or telephone 020 8332 5626.

Art on Demand

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

Kew Images

We offer images from Kew's unique and extensive photographic and botanical art collections, historic archives and publications, for media and design agencies, publishers, authors and academics. Please click here to go to the image library.