Exhibition rescues celebrated botanical illustrators from obscurity

25 June 2025 Research news item

Botanical illustrations have been created and shared since ancient times. After all, it was essential to know which plants were edible or useful, and which were not. Historical plant drawings from later centuries are now on display in the Library of Science. On 17 June, Mirre Vlug and Willem Halffman opened Flora's art, an exhibition that takes you on a journey through the centuries-old tradition of drawing and painting plants. “The coloured copies were for show, the black and white ones were for research.”

Would you like to know what kind of plant you are encountering during your walk in the woods or what the name is of the cutting drying on your windowsill? Thanks to one of the many plant apps available today, you can find out in no time. For most of history, people did not have that luxury, so they made drawings to record species and their characteristics.

“Even before the ancient Greeks, people were already making images of plants,” says Mirre Vlug, a student in the History of Philosophy and Science research master's programme. “That way, they knew which plants they could eat and which species could be used to make medicines. These drawings were simple, but recognisable.”

Illustration from J. E. Weaver, The ecological relations of roots, 1919. John Earnest Weaver. Figure 7 from ''The Ecological Relations of Roots'' (1919) by John Ernst Weaver. 20 July 2019.

Coffee table books for the rich

Over time, drawing techniques improved, but until the Renaissance, the illustrations retained the same practical function. “Then coffee table books appeared, containing coloured prints,” explains Vlug. “Because colouring was a time-consuming and expensive technique, only the wealthiest collectors could afford such showpiece books.”

One of the artists featured in these coffee table books was Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), a painter of German origin who also worked extensively in the Netherlands. “What sets her apart from her contemporaries is that she not only had an eye for the plants themselves, but also for the insects that lived on them.” After a two-year field trip through Suriname, she published her masterpiece Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium in 1705. “The coloured copies, which her daughters helped to colour, were for the rich to show off,” says Willem Halffman, associate professor at the Institute for Science and Society. “The cheaper black-and-white editions were used for research.”

The exhibition also highlights the work of another forgotten but once celebrated illustrator: Berthe Hoola van Nooten (1817-1892). Like Merian, Hoola Van Nooten travelled the world to expand her knowledge of plants and flowers. Vlug: “The drawings she made in Java were printed in Brussels and her book received widespread praise and attention.”

National plants

Whereas the works of Merian and Hoola Van Nooten served both decorative and research purposes, a new trend emerged in the nineteenth century. Vlug: “Then came the so-called nationalist nature: countries began to see plants as 'their” plants. You can see this, for example, in the book Wildflowers of Greece,“ says Vlug. A strange distinction, because: “plants, of course, know no boundaries.” Nevertheless, there is more to be said in the case of Greece than in, say, the Netherlands or Belgium. “Because Greece is largely surrounded by sea, many plants and flowers are found only there. Moreover, with 5,700 plant species, Greece is one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity in the world.”

Contributing to research

You might think that with the development of photography and the rise of smartphones, drawing flora has become largely redundant. But nothing could be further from the truth: “Suppose you want to enlarge certain characteristics of a plant or its immediate surroundings, then that's easier to do with a drawing than with a photo,” explains Vlug.

At the same time, modern technology undeniably offers new opportunities. After all, you don't always have a plant book (field guide) at hand. “There are some very useful apps for identifying plants. In the exhibition, we highlight iNaturalist (where you can discuss your observations and identifications with other users), as well as Obsidentify, the free identification app from Waarneming.nl. With this app, you not only learn more about nature yourself, but you also add to the database, contributing to research into plant species and biodiversity.”

Flora's Art is on display from Tuesday 17 June to Thursday 30 October in the Library of Science, part of the Huygens Building.

Contact information

Organizational unit: Faculty of Science, Institute for Science in Society, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, Center for the History of Philosophy and Science
Theme: History, Nature, Science