Title
Flora attired by the elements
1791
Artists
-
Details
- Date
- 1791
- Media category
- Materials used
- engraving
- Dimensions
- 24.5 x 17.4 cm image
- Credit
- Purchased under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 2009
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 279.2009
- Copyright
- Artist information
-
Anker Smith
Works in the collection
- Artist information
-
after Henry Fuseli
Works in the collection
- Share
-
-
About
The engraving was used as the frontispiece to ‘The Economy of Vegetation’, a botanical poem published in 1791 by the British naturalist, Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin). In the foreground a gnome thrusts up his arms to hold out jewels from the earth. Air is represented by the figure wearing a butterfly headdress. Fire is the figure hovering in the air, her head capped with flames. The figure of water is shown with her hand resting on an urn.
-
Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Printmaking in the age of Romanticism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Aug 2009–25 Oct 2009
Shadow Catchers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Feb 2020–03 Jan 2021
-
Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
-
David H Weinglass, Prints and engraved illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli, 1994, (illus.). no.114
-
