Georg Dionysius Ehret

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Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770) was a botanist and entomologist best known for his botanical illustrations.

Ehret was born in Germany. Beginning his working life as a gardener's apprentice near Heidelberg, he became one of the most influential European botanical artists of all time. His first illustrations were in collaboration with Carl Linnaeus and George Clifford in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker was a keen botanist with a large herbarium and governor of the Dutch East India Company. He had the income to attract the talents of botanists such as Linnaeus and artists like Ehret. Together at the Clifford estate, De Hartecamp, which was located south of Haarlem near Bennebroek, they produced Hortus cliffortianus in 1738, a masterpiece of early botanical literature.

Ehret eventually migrated to England where he illustrated many of the more spectacular plants that were in cultivation. His original art work may be found at the Natural History Museum in London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Royal Society, London, the Lindley Library at the Royal Horticultural Society, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and at the University Library of Erlangen.

[edit] Works

Methodus plantarum sexualis (1736)
Hortus nitidissimis (in 3 volumes, 1750-1786)
Plantae et papiliones rariores. This was published in parts from 1748 until 1759 in folio. The eighteen plates were engraved and hand-colored by Ehret himself. Most display a combination of one or more species of plants and of butterflies.
Illustrations for Plantae selectae by Christoph Jakob Trew
Illustrations for Hortus kewensis by William Aiton (in 3 volumes, 1789)
Illustrations for Patrick Browne's spectacular The civil and natural history of Jamaica in three parts published in 1756.