DISCOVERING AUSTRALIAN FLORA | The Audience For Botanical illustrations with Jenifer Jones O'Neill

The international interest in the wonderfully exotic flora of Australia during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century led to numerous publications that traversed the scientific to the popular. This illustrated lecture looks at the role of, and demand for, botanical illustrations of Australian plants. The publication, translation and distribution of these images inspired rich growth and diversity in many European gardens.

JENNIFER JONES-O’NEILL is Head, School of Arts at Federation University and her research is in the area of visual culture and the history of ideas with a particular focus on the eighteenth century. Her research has resulted in publications and presentations on the visual representation of sensibility, melancholy and genius. 

John CURTIS, H WEDDELL, engravers, S CURTI S publisher Crinum flaccidum, 1820, plate 2133, from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine Art Gallery of Ballarat, purchased with funds from the Hilton White Bequest, 2011