拍品专文
Ehret was the dominant influence in botanical art during the mid 18th Century and began his career as a gardener employed by the Margrave of Baden Durlach (Karl Wilhelm). The Margrave founded the new capital at Karlsruhe on the northern edge of the Black Forest where 500 auriculas were planted in the newly designed gardens. While at Karlsruhe Ehret assisted the botanical watercolourist August Wilhelm Sivert (fl. 1720-1760) in preparing his paints and this inspired him to execute his own plant portraits which he presented to his employer. He departed for Nuremberg in 1733, where he met Dr Christoph Jakob Trew (1695-1769), who was to become his life-long friend and patron. Between 1734 and 1735 Ehret visited Paris, where he must have seen Nicolas Robert's botanical miniatures, les Vélins du Roi. He was so impressed by the superior qualities of vellum over paper, that he adopted watercolour and later bodycolour on vellum as his preferred medium.
Ehret settled in England in 1736, remaining there for the rest of his life as a botanical artist and drawing master. His reputation was enhanced by the publication of various flower books based on his drawings, including Dr Trew's Plantae Selectae, 1750-1773 and Hortus Nitidissimus, 1750-1786. Gerta Calmann maintains, however, that his original drawings 'were the true expression of his genius' (G. Calmann, Ehret Flower Painter Extraordinary, Oxford, 1977, p. 99).
Wilfrid Blunt comments that 'Ehret's greatest merit is that he succeeded as few other botanical artists have succeeded; in being at once both botanist and artist' (S. Sitwell and W. Blunt, Great Flower Books, London, 1956, p. 331). This is evident in the botanical accuracy and aesthetic appeal in the execution of Ehret's Auricula Fille Amoureuse (also known as Blue Auricula).
The auricula which is an alpine cousin of the wild primrose had become increasingly popular in the 17th and 18th Centuries owing to its jewel-like colours. By the mid 18th Century the more commonly cultivated striped auriculas gave way to the edged varieties like the Blue Auricula. Ehret's eye for botanical detail can be seen in the minute specks of white which depict the fine powder or farina which characteristically coats the petals of the auricula.
There is a fine comparable drawing in the Victoria & Albert Museum of a Blue Auricula by Ehret dated 1743 which is similar in style but does not include the moth. The moth is probably part of the genus Utetheisa which has one native European species and a related American species.
Ehret settled in England in 1736, remaining there for the rest of his life as a botanical artist and drawing master. His reputation was enhanced by the publication of various flower books based on his drawings, including Dr Trew's Plantae Selectae, 1750-1773 and Hortus Nitidissimus, 1750-1786. Gerta Calmann maintains, however, that his original drawings 'were the true expression of his genius' (G. Calmann, Ehret Flower Painter Extraordinary, Oxford, 1977, p. 99).
Wilfrid Blunt comments that 'Ehret's greatest merit is that he succeeded as few other botanical artists have succeeded; in being at once both botanist and artist' (S. Sitwell and W. Blunt, Great Flower Books, London, 1956, p. 331). This is evident in the botanical accuracy and aesthetic appeal in the execution of Ehret's Auricula Fille Amoureuse (also known as Blue Auricula).
The auricula which is an alpine cousin of the wild primrose had become increasingly popular in the 17th and 18th Centuries owing to its jewel-like colours. By the mid 18th Century the more commonly cultivated striped auriculas gave way to the edged varieties like the Blue Auricula. Ehret's eye for botanical detail can be seen in the minute specks of white which depict the fine powder or farina which characteristically coats the petals of the auricula.
There is a fine comparable drawing in the Victoria & Albert Museum of a Blue Auricula by Ehret dated 1743 which is similar in style but does not include the moth. The moth is probably part of the genus Utetheisa which has one native European species and a related American species.