Ehret never traveled to America, but his patrons provided access to spectacular new flowers being brought back across the Atlantic during the 18th century. His Rudbeckia, or Black-eyed Susan, is a scientifically accurate -- and a vibrant, sensitively colored painting of the wildflower native to the east coast of North America.

About Georg Dionysius Ehret

Ehret's watercolors are beautiful, precise and the first to use the now standard botanical nomenclature of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Ehret was a close friend of Linnaeus whose Species Plantarum (1753) represents the first codified, universal classification system for plants.

Continuous global exploration provided a continuous supply of new species to be classified and to be cultivated in ever-expanding royal gardens. As a boy, Ehret worked in the gardens of the Elector of Heidelberg when the Margrave of Baden gave him the opportunity to paint flowers in his own garden.

Eventually, Ehret made his way to London where the Duchess of Portland and Sir Hans Sloane became his patrons. Renowned as both an artist and a botanist, Ehret was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757.