In need of a last minute Christmas gift for a flower-loving friend? If so, pop in to the RAMM shop, it has just what you are looking for (also available to buy online). A new book by botanical art expert Martyn Rix is available to buy at RAMM: Indian Botanical Art an illustrated history.

For the first time this book brings together striking botanical art of Indian origin spanning a period of three hundred years, focussing in particular on the 18th and 19th centuries. It showcases not only the wealth of the Indian subcontinent flora but the richness and variety of artworks, commissioned from mostly unknown Indian artists, who made a substantial contribution to the documentation of plants of economic, ornamental and cultural importance.  

Story of RAMM’s collection told in print

Rix tells this story drawing on original works held in the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In 2013 Rix conducted a review of RAMM’s botanical art and singled out the our collection of Company School paintings as being of considerable significance. Since then Dr Andrew Rudd and Professor Nandini Chatterjee have worked with Martyn and RAMM to uncover the history of these truly stunning artworks.

In his new book Martyn shares these works by Zain al-Din, Ram Das, Bhawani Das (and possibly others) in print for the first time. The full collection of works can be browsed on Collections Explorer.