FREE | Friday Art Talks | Elisa deCourcy on Ferdinand Bauer, Colour and Botanical Imperialism

Join Dr Elisa deCourcy, Curator, Australian Prints and Drawings, for a talk on the work of botanical illustrator Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826).

In the opening years of the 1800s, Bauer worked closely with botanist, Robert Brown, aboard Captain Matthew Flinders’ expedition which circumnavigated the Australian coastline. Bauer and Brown stayed in the colonies a further two years, returning to England in 1805 with sketches of more than 1500 plants. Over the next decade, Bauer worked up a sizeable selection of these sketches, personally engraving, printing and hand-colouring them for publication or placement in the official records of the expedition.

In this talk, Elisa will focus on Bauer’s approach to accurately recording the colour of his botanical subjects. With reference to three prints from his multi-part folio Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae, Elisa will unpack the tensions in botanical illustration. She will consider how practices of extraction and decontextualisation, central to the imperial genre of botanical illustration, undermined knowledge of Indigenous flora.

This is free a drop-in event.
Bookings are not required, but capacity is limited.
Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
Duration: 45 mins including Q&A

Gallery 20, Australian Art (Level 2)

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• Next Friday, 4th July, 02:00 am, FREE | Friday Art Talks | Artist Talk with Karla Dickens in Canberra
• Next Saturday, 5th July, 01:00 am, FREE | Workshops | Creative Conversations with Karla Dickens in Canberra
• Next month, 7th July, 12:30 am, FREE | Kids & Families Art Steps by Alick Tipoti | School Holiday Program in Canberra

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