Pancratium (American narcissus)

Ehret’s drawings combine scientific understanding with floral beauty. A native of Heidelberg, he developed from an apprentice gardener into an artist associated with botanists across Europe, notably Carl Linnaeus, whose system of binomial nomenclature Ehret helped to disseminate. After settling in London in 1736, the artist remained in touch with another mentor, the Nuremberg botanist Christopher Joseph Trew, sending drawings used to illustrate the latter’s Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum (1750–73)—ten volumes that describe specimens brought to London from Asia and America. This rendering of a South American narcissus resembles plants discussed in volume three, and the carefully drawn stamens and pistils reflect Trew’s interest in the reproductive systems of flowers.