… Exhibition captures natural beauty of pre-colonial Australia
When British explorer Matthew Flinders navigated Australia’s coastline, natural history illustrator Ferdinand Bauer had the time of his life.
The well-travelled botanic draughtsman, appointed by Sir Joseph Banks to join the Flinders voyage, produced intricately detailed sketches of more than 2000 plants, animals and fungi, including the first European drawings of botanic specimens from South Australia.
This legacy, and some of these exquisite botanic records, will be celebrated at the latest Flinders University Art Museum exhibition, called Truth and Beauty: The Australian botanical works of Ferdinand Bauer.
In partnership with the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, Botanic Gardens of South Australia, the special exhibition will open on Saturday 3 December at the Flinders University City Gallery at the State Library of South Australia.
The exploration of Bauer’s vision of Australian flora focuses on his little-known published works. It includes limited-edition engravings, related rare books, botanical specimens and imagery of Australian plants by other artists, including contemporary Aboriginal printmakers which have been drawn together from South Australian collections.
Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (1760-1826) was one of six ‘scientific gentlemen’ aboard the HMS Investigator on its survey of New Holland at the turn of the 19th century. He returned to England in 1805, his sketches and herbaria adding to the botanic records of the period, including his earlier tours of Greece and Asia Minor. Bauer was fully trained in the Linnaean system of taxonomic classification and emerging field of microscopy.
Some of his important work resulting from the Flinders expedition has been returned to South Australia by the late Flinders University academic, physicist Lance McCarthy (1932-2015), who understood Bauer’s significance ahead of many others, says exhibition co-curator Fiona Salmon.
“For more than 30-years, Lance McCarthy was committed to raising the profile of the artist and his contributions to science, building a personal Flinders-Bauer collection before placing the works into public hands,” says Ms Salmon, Director of the Flinders University Art Museum.
“Ferdinand Bauer is widely regarded the world’s most accomplished botanic artist. In commemorating the University’s 50th anniversary year, it is a timely acknowledgement of his genius and the legacy of the Flinders voyage,” she says.
To celebrate the opening, Bauer expert and world-leading English botanist Emeritus Professor David Mabberley, will give a free public lecture at the Hetzel Lecture Theatre, State Library of SA from 2-3pm on Saturday 3 December. Professor Mabberley wrote the noted monograph Ferdinand Bauer: the nature of discovery.
Ferdinand Bauer tours of the Botanic Gardens will also be available during the exhibition, which runs until 5 February 2017.
Go to http://artmuseum.flinders.edu.au/public-programs/
Madeline Reece | Exhibitions & Public Programs Assistant Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery
