‘You Really Do Not See a Plant Until You Draw it’ – Botanical Wall Charts at the Academic Heritage Foundation
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Stichting Academisch Erfgoed has gathered a massive collection of botanical wall charts that were used as teaching aids in the Netherlands and the rest Europe from 1870-1960. The collection, over 3000 images, includes stylised morphological diagrams, sketches of microscopic anatomy and early botanical data visualisations. It’s clear from this collection that the act of illustrating was as much an act of observing. These lithographs record a kind of meditative microscopy; each a postcard sent from a journey into the minuscule world of tissues and cells. As Goethe is quoted as saying ‘You really do not see a plant until you draw it’. The highly detailed plant morphologies in German botanist Leopold Kny’s Botanische Wandtafeln are virtually cosmic in their nebulous configurations while Dutch geneticist Hugo de Vries’s data visualisations tend towards the lyrical.
Note: many of the thumbnails appear to be missing from the page although the full-sized images are correctly displayed.
Bladstanden – A.A.Van Voorn
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Fixeeren, Accumuleeren, Affoleeren – Hugo de Vries [1898]
Russisch Billard Volgens Galton – Hugo de Vries [1898]
Curve der Vruchtlengte van Oenothera Lamarckiana – Hugo de Vries [1898]
Kurkhuid – J.G. Meijer [1880]
Celwand Reactiën – J.G. Meijer [1880]
Kernschede – J.G. Meijer [1880]
Bloei van Knautia Sylvatica – J.G. Meijer [1904]
Dodel Port Atlas – J.F. Schreiber [1893]
Dodel Port Atlas – J.F. Schreiber [1893]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Botanische Wandtafeln – Leopold Kny [1874-1911]
Related Posts:
René Binet – Esquisses Décoratives & the Protozoic Façade of Porte Monumentale
Floraskin – Eilfried Huth & Günther Domenig
Patabotany #1: [At the Libarynth] The Forest is a College, Each Tree a University.
No. 1 — June 12th, 2015 at 6:18 pm
Hi Paul, someone sent me a link to your feature on botanical wall charts as I had recently been featuring them in a lecture. I am currently in discussion with a botanical institute in Pittsburgh who rescued a collection including some by Kny from a skip. We are hoping to do an exhibition featuring the charts alongside some of my images in 2017. I will let you know if it comes off.
Great site you you have and beautiful movies. If you are ever passing through London maybe I could tempt you in to give a talk at Central Saint Martins where I am currently chair of Arts, Design & Science.
No. 2 — June 15th, 2015 at 5:18 pm
[…] Data is Nature: ‘You Really Do Not See a Plant Until You Draw it’ – Botanical Wall Charts at the Academic Heri… […]
No. 3 — June 15th, 2015 at 9:20 pm
Rob, I would certainly be interested in the show you mention that may happen in 2017. Thanks for the comment and keep me posted.
No. 4 — May 20th, 2016 at 8:02 pm
Brilliant architecture of plants.
No. 5 — October 7th, 2017 at 6:29 pm
These are exquisite!
No. 6 — December 17th, 2017 at 5:09 am
Paul, Even with spotty comprehension of what the charts represent, they give evidence of: an ascetic devotion to high and protracted concentration; an appreciation of the marriage of truth and beauty; a surrender to the doing, to the flow. Thanks for sharing.