Ferdinand Bauer

Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (20 January 1760 – 17 March 1826) was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia.

Bauer was born in Feldsberg in 1760, the youngest son of Lucas Bauer (?–1761) – court painter to the Prince of Liechtenstein – but was left fatherless in his first year of life. The eldest son was the successor to their father's position. Together with two of his brothers, Joseph Anton and Franz Andreas, he was placed in the custody of Norbert Boccius (1729–1806), a physician and botanist who was Prior of the monastery at Feldsberg. Under the guidance of Boccius, Bauer became an astute observer of nature and was just 15 when he began to contribute miniature drawings to Boccius' collection. In 1780, Franz and Ferdinand were sent to Vienna to work under the direction of Nikolaus von Jacquin, an eminent botanist and Director of the Royal Botanical Garden at Schönbrunn Palace. There, Bauer was introduced to the Linnean taxonomic system, the field of microscopy, and took lessons in landscape painting.

In mid-1786, on the recommendation of Jacquin, Bauer accompanied the Oxford Professor John Sibthorp as an artist on a field trip to Greece and Asia Minor. They returned to England in December 1787 with over 1,500 sketches of plants, animals, birds and landscapes, some of which appeared in Flora Graeca. The Latin introduction to this work states "Sibthorp took with him a painter of excellent reputation, Ferdinand Bauer, whose merits our illustrations demonstrate." Joseph Hooker called Flora Graeca, with its 966 superbly hand-coloured illustrations, "the greatest botanical work that has ever appeared" (On the Flora of Australia, London, 1859).

Bauer later travelled to Australia with Matthew Flinders as botanical draughtsman. He was one of six scientists selected by Sir Joseph Banks to accompany Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia. He worked under the direction of botanist Robert Brown, and in addition to botany, Bauer was to draw zoological subjects. His exacting standard of work earned him the admiration of both Matthew Flinders and Robert Brown. In a letter to Banks from Port Jackson, dated 20 May 1802, Flinders offered this praise: “[It] was fortunate for science that two such men as Mr Brown and Mr Bauer have been selected, their application is beyond what I have been accustomed to see." Writing to Banks ten days later, Brown reported that Bauer had made 350 plant sketches and 100 of animals, and had "indeed been indefatigable and . . . bestowed infinite pains on the dissections of the parts of fructification of the plants.”

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