Georg Dionysius Ehret

Georg Dionysius Ehret (30 January 1708– 9 September 1770) was a botanist and entomologist, and is best known for his botanical illustrations.

Ehret was born in Germany to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, a gardener and competent draughtsman, and Anna Maria Ehret.^[1] 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 and governor of the Dutch East India Company was a keen botanist with a large herbarium. He had the income to attract the talents of botanists such as Linnaeus and artists like Ehret. Together at the Clifford estate, Hartecamp, which is located south of Haarlem in Heemstede near Bennebroek, they produced Hortus Cliffortianus in 1738, a masterpiece of early botanical literature.

Brassica capitata
by Georg Dionysius Ehret

As a result of exploitation by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, Ehret finished only 500 plates of a 1,000 plate commission and moved to England^[2] 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, at the University Library of Erlangen, and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA.

The genus Ehretia was named in his honour.

Works

• Methodus plantarum sexualis (1736)
• Hortus nitidissimis (in 3 volumes, 1750-1786)
• The Natural History of Barbados,, Griffith Hughes, 1750.
• 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. Another copy of Plantae selectae at Missouri Botanical Gardens.
• Illustrations for "The Gardeners Dictionary" by Philip Miller, Seventh Edition, 1756-1759 (also reprinted in the Eighth, 1768), 16 plates
• 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.

References

1. MBG Rare Books: Author - Ehret, Georg Dionysus
2. Plants and Gardens Portrayed: Rare and Illustrated Books from The LuEsther T
3. "Author Query for 'Ehret'". International Plant Names Index.

A memoir of Georg Dionysius Ehret, written by himself Proceedings of the Linnean Society, London, November 1984 to June 1985.

External links

• Ehret Illustrations and portrait
• The Art of Georg Dionysius Ehret

Further reading

• de Bray, Lys (2001). "Georg Dionysius Ehret — 1708-70." In: The Art of Botanical Illustration: A history of classic illustrators and their achievements, pp. 107–119. Quantum Publishing Ltd., London. ISBN 1-86160-425-4.