The florist : containing sixty plates of the most beautiful flowers regularly dispos'd in their succession of blowing. To which is added an accurate description of their colours, with instructions for drawing & painting them according to nature : being a new work intended for the use & amusement of gentlemen and ladies delighting in that art.

Date:
[1760?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The florist : containing sixty plates of the most beautiful flowers regularly dispos'd in their succession of blowing. To which is added an accurate description of their colours, with instructions for drawing & painting them according to nature : being a new work intended for the use & amusement of gentlemen and ladies delighting in that art. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    123/138 (page 61)
    INTRODUCTION. PAINTING having already had fo many eloquent and powerful Advo¬ cates, it would now feem impertinent to tire the Reader in endeavour¬ ing to prove that Art noble and delightful. That it is fo, the Ingeni¬ ous have always, in the dronged Manner confefs’d, by their conftant Atten¬ tion and Encouragement : Therefore, the only Ufe here made of an Intro¬ duction, will be to inform the Purchafers of this Work, of the Plan on which it is executed. The Rules, which will be here laid down, for the executing the pleafing Branch of Painting, of which this Book is to treat, are the Refult of real Practice, and deliver’d without the lead Referve. In Regard to the engrav’d Defigns, it may be thoughr, that they might have been better reprefented by Copies from the great Matters, who have excel I’d in Flower-Painting •, fuch as Baptifie, Vanhuyfom, Verelft, &c. The Author is confcious of the Force of this Objeftion *, but as many prefer an original Work, for the fake of its ori¬ ginal Particularity, it is here chofe to draw them immediately from Nature. Drawing from Flowers need not be loaded with mathematical Rules, yet there is one which we mutt always retain, in order to draw properly from Nature *, and that is, Flowers are fuppos’d in general to be round when feen in Front, and to appear oval in Proportion, as they are more or lefs turn’d from the Eye : But a Circumftance of the greateft Confequence to an elegant Representation of this Part of Nature, is chufing the Flower in its proper State for Copying. The Gardener may admire his Flower when mod regular and compaft, but the moft fuccefsful Painters have always chofe to reprefeni their Blofloms as ripen’d to a Degree of Loofenefs, fubjeft to be folded and play in the Wind. By taking the Liberty here recommended, the Propriety of dried Drawing will dill be adher’d to *, and the young Praftitioner will happily avoid the lifelefs Formality of flat Drawing, and the Errors of an unlimited Fioridnefs. There are indeed many curious Plants that their own particular Beauties would appear formal in Painting, and they are therefore omitted, or only occafionally drawn, for the Ufe of the Botanid, when fuch Accuracy is requir’d, that the drifted Formality of Drawing cannot then become a Fault. A C O-