Lithographs in Flora Brasiliensis

The lithographs were based on the works of great European artists, including the painters Benjamin Mary (1792-1846), Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858), and Thomas Ender (1793-1875), the lithographer Johann Jacob Steinmann (1800-1844), and the photographer George Leuzinger (1813-1892).

Von Martius himself had the skills and knowledge to do the job, as we see in the explanatory text of print no. 40: “From a sketch I made myself, the skillful hand of the lithographer August Brandmueller was able to represent it [the vegetation].”

However, most of the prints were based on works by other artists. The lithography technique allowed Martius to refine these works based on his botanical knowledge, highlighting the characters of each species and adding plants that interested him to the landscapes.

In Benjamin Mary’s sepia drawings, for example, one can notice certain details of the plants depicted, but it is not always possible to precisely identify the species. This was “corrected” by Martius and his collaborators during the lithographic process, as we will see on the next screen.

In addition to refining the shapes and textures of the plants already illustrated by Benjamin Mary, Martius was able to depict “an entire army of parasitic orchids” on the thick trunks of the jackfruit tree. We can also see an incredible level of detail in the surrounding vegetation.

After being lithographed, some copies were watercolored by hand, as is the case with this beautiful specimen from the Instituto Moreira Salles collection.

The transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil at the beginning of the 19th century allowed for the emergence of the first woodcut and lithography workshops in the country. The press, initially a disseminator of social facts, ended up becoming a vehicle for promoting Brazil.

Among the workshops operating at that time was that of the Swiss lithographer, painter, and draftsman Johann Jacob Steinmann, who published the work Souvenirs de Rio de Janeiro in 1836. Martius used this image as a model for engraving 44, shown on the previous screen.

At the base of engraving no. 59 is the name of the Swiss photographer and printer George Leuzinger, responsible for capturing much of the 19th-century iconography of Rio de Janeiro.

The original photograph dates from just one year before Martius’ death. Until the end of his life, he persisted with the editing of Flora Brasiliensis and used photographs as a means of capturing images (something quite recent at the time).