There are a number of popular art forms that are being cherished as a common achievement of mankind. One of these is Botanical Arts. The reign of Victoria of England was considered the heyday of botanical arts.
Not many people are aware that botanical arts are very complicated and very difficult to master. During the art classes in school, nearly everyone has to learn how to make different types of plants, flowers and fruits. This penetration of botanical arts in the school curriculum can be traced back to the times of Victoria as well. On the face of it, botanical arts look rather easy but they are not easy at all. Nearly anyone can arrange flowers in a vase, not everyone can do this on paper.
During the times of Victoria, the British empire was at its peak. It was present on nearly every continent from Canada to Hong Kong, in India and Africa, there was no sunset in the British empire. One result of this spread was that a massive amount of flora was sent to Britain for studies and decoration. The wealth generated by British empire was such that nearly anyone could afford art pieces. With a lot of land, there were so many gardens in the country that emergence of botanical art became the obvious outcome.
Many people wanted to see the new plants and keep something to remind them of this beauty. Photography was very nascent and its output was rather blurry! The only obvious choice was painting so many painters were commissioned by the rich and the powerful to paint plants in wholesale. Artists tended to be so detailed that they used microscope to study plants before painting them on canvas.
The who's who of British empire supported this new art form. Under the patronage of Prince Albert, botanical art became really popular and an established form of art. Victorian ages were the great ages of search and exploration. The yearning to know more was driving many people and botanical art was able to piggy back this yearning to reach great heights of popularity and accomplishment.
Not everybody was setting sail around the world, there were people of science and art who were equipped with a pencil, a sketchpad and a microscope. They documented these plants in field guides for explorers about to set sail for colonizing new areas, particularly in the Sahara desert and inner areas of Africa and China. This also contributed to the increasing popularity of botanical arts. Today, many of these early sketches and field guides have been put to rest in the Albert and Victoria museum.
The reign of Queen Victoria was a turning point for humanity in many ways and emergence of botanical arts is just one of them.
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