Johannes Weinmann

Protea

9 x 13 inches

Copper plate engraving by Johannes Weinmann, partially printed in outline colour and finished by hand; published in Germany between 1737 and 1745.

A spectacular flower print from a series of over a thousand studies done for the 'Phytanthoza', one of the most comprehensive botanical works ever produced. Various artists, including Georg Ehret, were commissioned to produce the drawings that were then worked onto copper plates. They were printed in outline colour and then completed by hand. Occasionally the plates are done by mezzotint and the entire image is colour printed.

Johannes Wilhelm Weinmann was an apothecary from Regensburg in Germany who first commissioned Georg Ehret, the great eighteenth century illustrator, to produce a thousand drawings of plants. After a year on only a modest salary Ehret had produced only 500 of the drawings. Weinmann grew impatient at the lack of progress and Ehret stopped working. Other artists finished the project and Ehret received no credit in the final publication. When the work was finally published, however, it was met with wide acclaim and there was much admiration for the wonderful colour printing. The plates remain some of the most decorative and sought after flower prints from the first half of the eighteenth century.