Ferdinand Bauer: The Nature of Discovery

Near Fine hardcover in dust jacket. DJ spine is sun faded.

This ground-breaking series brings to life, often for the first time, the artistically and scientifically fascinating painting and drawing collections of The Natural History Museum, London. Each book introduces, with splendid colour plates and a readable and scholarly introduction, pioneer artists whose names have until now been undeservedly little known.

The Bauer brothers, Ferdinand and Franz, have been called the greatest of all botanical painters. But while Franz left their native Austria for the security of a life-long job as botanical artist at Kew Gardens, Ferdinand became a travelling painter.

Ferdinand Bauer was a bachelor and had no pupils; not even a portrait of him survives. What he has left behind is his work, paintings and drawings of such precision and sensitivity as to be the marvels of both the scientific and artistic communities. This beautifully illustrated edition goes some way towards rectifying undeserved obscurity.