João Barbosa Rodrigues’ Elegant Depictions of Palms

João Barbosa Rodrigues (1842-1909)
Selection from Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium
Chromolithographs; framed size: 30 3/8” x 22 7/8”
Brussels; 1903

Director of the botanical gardens and Professor of Botany at the University of Rio de Janiero, João Barbosa Rodrigues was a highly respected scientist, researcher and illustrator who did much to advance knowledge of Brazilian natural history and habitat.

Early nineteenth-century European and American explorers had frequently mentioned the large variety of palms to be found in South America, most noted among them the German naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt. He described the overwhelming impression made by “that vigour and freshness of vegetable life which characterizes the climate of the tropics” and singled out a particular need for “a large number of separate studies of the foliage of trees; of leafy, flowering, or fruit bearing stems; or prostrate trunks.” Less than one hundred years later, João Barbosa Rodrigues answered Humboldt’s call in this, perhaps one of his finest publications, depicting the palms of Brazil. His illustrations contain both scientific and aesthetic appeal and delineate the various stages of growth of the palm. However, the publication is also significant in that is was completed by a native Brazilian rather than a European or American botanist and thus shows the growing interest and growth in science in both the New World as well as the Old World.


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Lavish Seventeenth-Century Engravings of Exotic Indian Plant Life

Hendrik Adriaan Van Rheede tot Draakestein A selection from Hortus Malabaricus Engravings with original hand color, Amsterdam, 1678-1693

Hendrik Van Rheede's sumptuous Hortus Malabaricus is the oldest comprehensive printed book on the exotic plant life of Asia and of the tropics. The work was undertaken when Van Rheede was the Dutch Governor of Cochin, a princely state of India, and was published in Amsterdam from 1678 through 1693 as twelve double-folio volumes. Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the Malabar region, which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats from Goa to Kanyakumari. The ethno-medical information presented in the work was extracted from palm leaf manuscripts by a famous practitioner of herbal medicine named Itty Achuden.

The publication was a massive undertaking. The work took thirty years to compile and was edited by a team of nearly a hundred contributors, including physicians, professors of medicine and botany, amateur botanists (such as Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen, Paul Herman, Johannes Munnicks, Joannes Commelinus, Abraham Poot), Indian scholars and vaidyas (physicians) of Malabar and adjacent regions, and technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of company officials and clergymen. Van Rheede was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut. The publication is of great importance today as a rare record of the rich botany of Malabar (Kerala) and curative uses of native plants, and is the only source of information about ancient Indian medicinal plants.

Comprising 1,595 pages of text, the book contains descriptions in Latin and illustrations of 742 plants. Included in the plant descriptions are the medical properties of the plants, the respective diseases for which they were used for treatment and the modes of treatment as known to the ancient, renowned traditional physicians of Malabar. The plants are described under their names in the regional language of Malayalam, which was the language used by the natives of Cohin during the seventeenth century. The plates of the plants themselves are copperplate engravings with beautiful hand coloring. Additionally, the introductions, forewords, dedications, and other details given in the various volumes contain much information about the cultural, social, political, historical and linguistic conditions of India.

Please join us for a unique exhibit to benefit Denver Botanic Gardens

Arader Galleries Presents:

A Rare Botanical Exhibition
Benefiting Denver Botanic Gardens

June 15th-July 16th

To request a private shopping experience, please call to make an appt.

*20% of your purchase will be donated to Denver Botanic Gardens during this time!

We will have newly framed work and unique botanicals on display. Hope to see you in the gallery!

New CO Material!

George F. Cram
Map of Colorado
Lithograph
Framed size: 22 3/4” x 18 3/4” Sheet size: 14 1/2” x 10 1/2”
Chicago: Geographical Publishing Co., late 19th c.

George F. Cram was born in 1841 and enjoyed an early career as a soldier serving under the legendary General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War. In 1867 he embarked on a map publishing career with his uncle, Rufus Blanchard. They named their company Blanchard & Cram and based it in Evanston, Illinois. Cram became the sole owner of the business two years later, renaming it the George F. Cram Company and relocating it to Chicago. In 1869, Cram became the first American publisher to produce a world atlas, and his name quickly became synonymous with accuracy and innovation. He released the Unrivalled Family Atlas in 1883, the Illustrated Atlas in 1885, the Unrivalled Atlas in 1887, the American Railway System Atlas in 1891, and the Universal Atlas in 1894.





U.S.P.R.R Exp. & Surveys - 47th & 49th Parallels (General Report)
Chromolithographs (c.1850) of
Railroad surveys in Colorado
Paper size: approximately 11" x 8.5"
Framed size: 16”x14”

Sarony, Major & Knapp: Born in Quebec City, Napoleon Sarony learned lithography from his father and emigrated to New York in 1836. There, he worked as an apprentice for several lithographers, including Nathaniel Currier. In 1846 Sarony opened a lithographic business in partnership with Henry Major. The company went through a number of alterations in names and partnerships. Until 1853, it was called 'Sarony and Major'. From 1853 to 1857, it bore the title which appears on this original lithograph, 'Sarony & Company'. From 1857 to 1864, the company name was expanded to, 'Sarony, Major & Knapp'. Later, the company would assume the title of the 'American Lithographic Company', and became the largest such business in North America.

Sarony and Company printed and published everything from advertising posters and trade cards to fine art prints. Napoleon Sarony left the partnership in 1864 to pursue a new career in photography. Students of early photography will at once recognize his name as he rose to become one of America's most famous pioneers in this field.

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The Two Most Celebrated Artists of Indian Life and the American Frontier: George Catlin and Karl Bodmer

George Catlin and Karl Bodmer were the first artists to journey up the Missouri River and penetrate deep into the American frontier. The superb images they published after their journeys captured the essence of American Indian life and the untamed beauty of the West. The importance of their illustrations is much more than aesthetic, for these two great series of prints are the finest records of the Plains Indians before the epidemics of the mid-19th century decimated their numbers, and before the expansion of the frontier took their lands. When he attempted the perilous journey in 1827, Catlin's goal was to persuade his contemporaries that Native American culture should be honored and preserved. The artist's stunning lithographs range from portraits to depictions of tribal ceremonies, from the anecdotal to the idealized. Catlin appealed to his readers with the thrill of the hunt and the mystery of ritual, and the immediacy of his images is irresistible, drawing viewers into the scenes and portraits with unprecedented intimacy. Karl Bodmer was a Swiss painter chosen by Prince Maximilian of Prussia to accompany his voyage to America, in order to document in pictorial terms the expedition. They traveled among the Plains Indians from 1832 to 1834, when the Plains and the Rockies were still virtually unknown, and before acculturation had begun to change the lives of the Indians. These prints rank with the finest Western art in any medium.

Spring is Here!!!

Walking and driving around Denver lately has been so beautiful with all the trees budding, the grass shining green and especially the abundance of beautiful tulips.

Come stop in the gallery to see our selection of botanical prints this spring!

A Gorgeous Depiction of the Colorado Rockies

Charles Morgan McIlhenney (1858-1904)
The Rockies Beyond
Oil on canvas
Framed size: 31 1/4” x 49 1/2”
Canvas size: 23 1/2” x 41 1/2”
Signed l.r.: CM McIlhenney


Charles Morgan McIlhenney’s panoramic painting of the Colorado Rockies is a marvelous representation of the “unblemished” American western landscape. The magnificent composition depicts a crystal-colored river meandering through a series of verdant fields. The lush greenery is peppered with trees and boulders. To the left of the river is a small Indian encampment, complete with burning fire, and above and beyond it are a group of mammoth-sized mountains. The peak located in the far background of the work, however, is the most awe-inspiring of all. It is entirely blanketed with snow and through its sheer size hovers over the rest of the composition. This work is a wonderful example of a nineteenth-century, picturesque painting, and an important, albeit nostalgic, document of the postbellum American West.

C.M. McIlhenney was a gifted painter of landscape, cattle and sheep who received his training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He also studied privately under Frank Briscoe. McIlhenney spent several years on a sketching trip in the South Pacific before returning to the United States in 1881 and settling in New York. Seven years later, McIlhenney married Ada Ingersoll and achieved his first taste of professional success in the 1890s when he won the Academy’s Julius Hallgarten Prize. This honor followed upon his election to Associate membership and his winning of the Evans Prize at the American Water Color Society’s annual exhibition of 1892. Afterwards, McIlhenney began exhibiting frequently with the Water Color Society. His works were also featured in exhibitions at the Macbeth Galleries in New York. Though he demonstrated immense artistic promise, McIlhenney met an untimely end in 1904 at the age of forty-six.

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