Beschreibung:

Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770) Passiflora vespertilio (Passion Flower) signed 'G.D.Ehret.p.' (lower right), inscribed 'Granadilla folio lunato; flore parvo, albo, fructu succulento ovato. Houst.' (lower centre) pencil and watercolour, heightened with white and gum arabic, watermark of the figure '4' surmounted by a crowned-shield containing a fleur-de-lys 20½ x 14¼ in. (520 x 362mm) ONE OF ONLY FOUR KNOWN ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY EHRET FOR TREW'S HORTUS NITIDISSIMIS , and a fine example of the great artist's work. His "greatest merit is that he succeded as few other botanical artists have succeded; in being at once both botanist and artist" (Blunt). Ehret, the greatest botanical artist of the mid 18th century, was one of the main artists for the Hortus , contributing nearly one quarter of the illustrations and making the Hortus the masterpiece it is (see lot 87); the present drawing is for plate 117. The other three surviving original drawings by Ehret for the Hortus are in the Mellon collection in Upperville, Virginia, and in 2 other private collections; none of the drawings in the Trew collection at Erlangen University has been identified as work for the Hortus . The taxonomic description quotes William Houstoun (1695-1733) a British surgeon who served in Central America and the West Indies. "Linnaeus frequently refers to Houstoun in the Hortus cliffortianus and in various editions of the Genera plantarum . These names occur in unpublished Houstoun notes and engravings, given by P. Miller to Linnaeus in 1736 and entitled Houstounia genera plantarum americanarum nova communicata per Phil. Millerum, Lond. 1736 , now at the Linnean Society" (Stafleu & Cowan II, p.343).