The Dominion of Flowers: Botanical Art & Global Plant Relations
By Mark Laird. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2024.
Between 1760 and 1840, exotic plants were imported from across Britain’s empire and were lavishly depicted in periodicals and scientific treatises. Mark Laird’s provocative new book – part art history, part polemic – weaves fine art, botanical illustration, gender studies and previously unpublished archival material into a political and ethical account of Britain’s heritage, showing how plants were not only integral to English gardens of the Georgian and Victorian eras but also ...