Exhibition of botanical illustrations from London's V&A Museum

There are almost 1,000 botanical illustrations in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection – ranging from scientific diagrams documenting medicinal plants to merchandising images that adorn seed packets. Many of these illustrations also exist as objects of beauty in their own right. They depict flowers and plants that have, over the centuries, had their own particular uses and values.

From the common-or-garden foxglove, which was harvested for centuries for its life-saving sap - although if taken in excess, lethal, to the flamboyant tulip, whose bulbs became tokens of trade and financial speculation worth more than their weight in gold in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, and the sunflowers, grown to clear radiation at Chernobyl - among many other examples.

Some of these histories are well-known; others are now more obscure. The talented University of Birmingham MA Art History and Curating students developing this exhibition have selected some of the most intriguing and beautiful botanical illustrations from the V&A’s collection, as well as items from the University of Birmingham’s Winterbourne House and Garden and Cadbury Research Library, to tell these stories. 

This is the first project in a new annual exhibition partnership between the Barber, the V&A and the University’s Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies. The Hidden Lives of Plants will be enhanced by a programme of engagement events for all ages, including a nature-themed family art festival in August and a series of gallery talks.