Discover the exchange of botanical art and knowledge shared between Canton (now Guangzhou) and London in the 1700s.
Discover the relationship between John Bradby Blake (1745-1773), an English botanist who worked as a supercargo for the East India Company in the 1770s, his Chinese interlocutor Whang At Tong 黃遏東, and the botanical artists Bradby Blake commissioned to document plants native to Canton.
The exhibition will explore the exchange of botanical knowledge shared between Canton (now Guangzhou) and London between 1766-1773, displaying a collection of Chinese botanical art and research for the first time in Britain since it was commissioned 235 years ago.
The exhibition will feature 30 botanical paintings by the artist Mauk-Sow-U together with herbals, maps, models, a portrait of Whang At Tong 黃遏東 by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and watercolours and drawings of Canton from the V&A, telling the story of a little-known international botanical collaboration.
The exhibition is produced in collaboration with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia, where Bradby Blake’s archive is now held.
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