July, from Twelve Months of Flowersn.d.
The flowers of high summer are gathered into one lavish bouquet in July, one of the plates of Twelve Months of Flowers, which the Kensington nurseryman Robert Furber issued in 1730 to show customers what they could grow in each month of the year. More about this work
About this work
The flowers of high summer are gathered into one lavish bouquet in July, one of the plates of Twelve Months of Flowers, which the Kensington nurseryman Robert Furber issued in 1730 to show customers what they could grow in each month of the year. Each bloom is numbered so that it can be matched to its name. Henry Fletcher engraved the design after a painting by Pieter Casteels, and watercolour, both opaque and translucent, was then brushed on by hand to bring the bouquet to life.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A work made of engraving in black ink with opaque and translucent watercolor on cream laid paper.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Engraving
- Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1946.404
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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