A Few Leaves from the Newly-Invented Process of "Nature-Printing"

1854

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Impressionism Realism Early 19th Century Floral

Dominant colour

A Few Leaves from the Newly-Invented Process of "Nature-Printing" is a 1854 by Henry Bradbury, a Impressionism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Henry Bradbury
When & what style?: 1854 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

The title of this print is "A Few Leaves from the Newly-Invented Process of 'Nature-Printing'". This print was part of a volume showing the potential of nature printing. It was used to advertise the technique. The process involved making prints from actual plants. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds this print, which is an example of early nature printing. To learn more about similar techniques, look up Impressionism.

The story of this work

Overview

In 1854, Henry Bradbury published a volume of 21 plates titled *A Few Leaves from the Newly-Invented Process of "Nature-Printing"*, which demonstrated the reproduction of botanical and natural objects through nature printing. The work contained no accompanying text and served as a demonstration of the technique's precision in capturing fine details. Nature prints produced in this method resemble flattened herbarium specimens rather than three-dimensional illustrations. Bradbury, who had trained under Alois Auer at the Imperial Printing Office in Vienna, printed the images in three colors…

Read the full account in the museum source.