The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 23, 2025

The American Cowslip, Plate 26

1801

Thomas Warner

(English, active 1790–1828)

after Peter Charles Henderson

(British, 1771–1829)
publisher

Robert John Thornton

(British, 1768–1837)
England, late 18th-early 19th Century
Etching with printed and hand-applied color, aquatint, stipple, and engraving
Image: 44.7 x 35.7 cm (17 5/8 x 14 1/16 in.); Sheet: 55.3 x 46 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/8 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Mrs. Ralph King 1952.213
Catalogue raisonné: Dunthorne 301, p. 250; Nissen 1955
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Each plant in The Temple of Flora was paired with a scientific description of its reproductive system and a poem.

Description

Fueled by scientific and colonial expeditions that brought back plant specimens from across the globe, the science of botany blossomed in Enlightenment Europe. This print is from a sumptuously illustrated treatise known as The Temple of Flora. Commissioned and published by Dr. Robert John Thornton, a British medical botanist, the work illustrates the new plant classification system of Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus. Yet while these prints realistically depict buds, flowers, and leaves, they show them in environments where they did not actually grow. Instead, Thornton had the artists situate specimens in imagined landscapes, often reminiscent of British colonial holdings, which he felt better suited the plants
  • ?–1952
    (Kennedy & Co. Galleries, Inc., New York, NY, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    June 23, 1952–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Imagination in the Age of Reason. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 28, 2024-March 2, 2025).
    The Flowering of the Botanical Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-July 3, 2016).
    The Perennial Garden: 18th and 19th Century Botanical Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 3-July 31, 1983).
    Flower and Fruit Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 25-October 10, 1960).
  • {{cite web|title=The American Cowslip, Plate 26|url=false|author=Thomas Warner, Peter Charles Henderson, Robert John Thornton|year=1801|access-date=23 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.213