Ferdinand Bauer

Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (20 January 1760 – 17 March 1826) was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia.

Together with two of his brothers, Joseph Anton and Franz Andreas, he was placed in the custody of Norbert Boccius (1729–1806), a physician and botanist who was Prior of the monastery at Feldsberg.

In 1780, Franz and Ferdinand were sent to Vienna to work under the direction of Nikolaus von Jacquin, an eminent botanist and Director of the Royal Botanical Garden at Schönbrunn Palace.

In mid-1786, on the recommendation of Jacquin, Bauer accompanied the Oxford Professor John Sibthorp as an artist on a field trip to Greece and Asia Minor.

The Latin introduction to this work states "Sibthorp took with him a painter of excellent reputation, Ferdinand Bauer, whose merits our illustrations demonstrate."

Banks was intrigued by Bauer's precision, and in January 1806 wrote that they "were prepared in such a manner by reference to a table of colours as to enable him to finish them at his leisure with perfect accuracy".

A 2017 book[1] contains reproductions of collections in Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia that have never before been published and reveals Bauer's innovative colour-coding technique for the first time.

Unfortunately, the publishing venture was a failure, and in August 1814 Bauer returned to Vienna, but continued to do much work for English publications including Lambert's Pinus and Lindley's Digitalis.

He acquired a small house in Hietzing near the Schönbrunn Botanical Garden and spent his time painting and making excursions into the Austrian Alps until shortly before his death from dropsy on 17 March 1826.

we are enchanted at the sight of these leaves: nature is revealed, art concealed, great in its precision, gentle in its execution, decisive and satisfying in its appearance”.