Flower show

Kew Gardens in London opened last month the first gallery in the world to open all year round dedicated to botanical illustrations. The gallery will showcase art from Kew’s unique historic collections as well as Shirley Sherwood’s contemporary collection of botanical art. The two collections, which complement each other, will allow Kew to show to the public many of its largely unseen works and there will be a changing selection of contemporary illustrations from the Shirley Sherwood collection. Kew holds one of the world’s greatest collections of botanical art, totalling more than 200,000 items. Until now much of this material has remained out of public view in the library at Kew, mainly due to a lack of adequate exhibition space with proper climate control. The new Shirley Sherwood Gallery will now enable visitors to Kew to see many precious and unique works of art, by masters of botanical illustration such as Georg D. Ehret, the Bauer brothers and Pierre-Joseph Redoute, together with nineteenthcentury artists such as Walter Hood Fitch, who was one of the most prolific botanical artists ever. The controlled environment in the new gallery will also enable Kew to collaborate with other institutions that hold rich collections of botanical art in the UK, such as the Chelsea Physic Garden and Natural History Museum, as well as many international libraries. The inaugural exhibition, Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections, combines some of the highlights of the two collections. An historical sequence of antique books and watercolours from the library are mixed with contemporary works chosen by Sherwood. The new gallery also incorporates up-to-date features that ensure the lowest energy requirements through temperature and light control. Special glass and blinds will automatically react to light to protect exhibits too.