Page:London Journal of Botany, Volume 2 (1843).djvu/109

 Biographical Sketch of, Natural History Painter to the Expedition of Captain Flinders, R.N., to Terra Australis.

Having of late searched in vain through a series of works, such as the Biographie Universelle, for the slightest notice concerning the above named artist, than whom none ever pourtrayed botanical subjects more admirably, I have considered it incumbent on myself to make use of the original family documents in my possession, and so to plant, as it were, a cypress on the grave of a man with whom I may almost claim kindred, as my countryman and fellow-traveller in Australia.

Ferdinand Bauer was born in 1760, at Feldsperg in Austria, where his father held the appointment of Painter to the court of the reigning Prince of Lichtenstein, but died, when his son Ferdinand was only a year old. However, the elder Bauer must have possessed decided talents as an artist, all his three sons having become eminent in his profession, viz: Francis Bauer, F.R.S., botanical painter to the King at Kew, and Joseph, director of the picture gallery to the above named prince at Vienna. In his earliest youth, Ferdinand copied plants and birds from the designs of his late parent, but soon he took to painting from nature, and followed her as his chief guide throughout life. In the year 1775 we find him connected with the Rev. N. Boccius, Superior of the convent and hospital Fratrum Misericordiæ at Feldsberg; who, being very fond of botanical studies, employed F. Bauer to make miniature delineations of plants from nature. He executed the greater part of a collection, which, consisting of 16 volumes in folio, may yet be seen in the Prince's library at Vienna. Occasionally Ferdinand resided in that city, painting landscapes in the studio of the celebrated Artist, Professor Brand.

But the events which preceded and followed the decease of the Emperor Joseph II. of Austria, would probably have doomed the talents of our subject to cramped inactivity, had