Cistus Virginiana: The Virginia Rock-rose

Ehret was the dominant influence in botanical art during the mid 18th Century. He began his career as a gardener employed by the Margrave of Baden Durlach (Karl Wilhelm, 1679-1738), who had founded the new capital at Karlsruhe on the northern edge of the Black Forest. While at Karlsruhe Ehret assisted the botanical watercolourist August Wilhelm Sivert (fl. 1720-1760) in preparing his paints and this inspired him to execute his own plant portraits which he presented to his employer. He departed for Nuremberg in 1733, where he met Dr Christoph Jakob Trew (1695-1769), who was to become his life-long friend and patron. Between 1734 and 1735 Ehret visited Paris, where he must have seen Nicolas Robert's botanical miniatures, Les Vélins du Roi. Ehret settled in England in 1736, remaining there for the rest of his life as a botanical artist and drawing master. His reputation was enhanced by the publication of various flower books based on his drawings, including Dr Trew's Plantae Selectae, 1750-1773 and Hortus Nitidissimus, 1750-1786.