Picture Collection

Some of the biggest parts of the collections in the archive consist of around 2,500 pencil drawings by Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (1760 – 1826), purchased by Emperor Franz I, and 3,400 plates of Aaron's rod plants (Araceae) from the Heinrich Wilhelm Schott (1794 – 1865) collection, purchased by Emperor Franz Joseph I.

The collections also contain than 1,100 images made by Friedrich Simony (1813 – 1896) using a wide variety of techniques.

(Link to an overview of the Friedrich Simony collection of the Department of Archive and History of Science at the NHM Vienna)
 
Other highlights in the picture collection include 69 watercolors by Joseph Selleny (1824 – 1875), which were donated to the Department in 1988 by the relatives of Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld (1807 – 1873),  as well as animal paintings by Franz Theodor Zimmerman (1808 – 1880) commissioned by the Imperial Cabinet. In addition, there are watercolors and drawings by the researcher Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (1798 – 1868), paintings by the mycologist August Carl Joseph Corda (1809 – 1849), over 400 works by plant painter Johann Buchberger and the collection of cryptogam paintings by Josef and Nikolaus Zehner.

 

The Portrait Collection

The collection includes many portraits of differing sizes using different techniques, including paper cuts, oil paintings, graphite drawings, watercolors, pastels, and a range of prints including lithography, etching, aquatint, and woodblock printing. Styles vary from serious, dignified portraits to caricatures.

 

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Leopold Trattinnick
Leopold Trattinnick
Carolinen Fliege,painting by Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld made during the circumnavigation of the frigate "Novara"
Carolinen Fliege,painting by Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld made during the circumnavigation of the frigate "Novara"
Michael Sandler, “The large opal at the k.k. mineral collection“, Watercolour, 1837
Michael Sandler, “The large opal at the k.k. mineral collection“, Watercolour, 1837
Kookaburra drawing made by Ferdinand Lukas Bauer during the Flinders Expedition to Australia
Kookaburra drawing made by Ferdinand Lukas Bauer during the Flinders Expedition to Australia
Diademed Sifaka, collected by Ida Pfeiffer and painted by Theodor F. Zimmermann
Diademed Sifaka, collected by Ida Pfeiffer and painted by Theodor F. Zimmermann
Zomicarpa steigeriana, Heinrich Wilhelm Schott, painted by Wenzel Liepoldt
Zomicarpa steigeriana, Heinrich Wilhelm Schott, painted by Wenzel Liepoldt
Ignaz von Born
Ignaz von Born
  
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