Tag Archives: plants

Week 3: Female Patrons of the Arts

Who is a another female patron of the arts?

Heard of Shirley Sherwood? If you have not, you are going to hear about it now. Patronage is very important in the art world especially during the medieval and renaissance period. Usual patrons are rulers, rich families and nobles, who uses art to show their status and power. In a nutshell, they sponsor artists to make art in a way.

However, I would like to look at modern patrons where the definition might shift from being a sponsor of art to keeping and curating artworks for the greater good. One such soul is Shirley Sherwood. She is a collector of Botanical art illustration. She has been described as a “driving force behind a revival of interest in botanical art”. Her comprehensive collection from over 200 artists, living in 30 different countries, documents the emergence of a new wave of botanical paintings and the renaissance of their art form. She has been collecting all this great artwork since 1990! dr-shirley-sherwood-obe

Her collection is actually in Singapore currently! It’s at the Singapore Botanical Garden.

IMG_4424 IMG_4426

Shirley collects illustrations from artists. IMG_4427 IMG_4431 IMG_4436 IMG_4437

Researching more on Botanical Art, it started back in the 15th Century! They were used for culinary and of course medicinal and there are illustrations of the plants in a book to identify it. Relating to plants, gardens play important roles in architecture as well. Places like the Taj Mahal, the garden plays the role of an entrance to the palace. Not forgetting the Hanging Garden of Babylon.

In summary, Shirley Sherwood may not be a rich patrons of the art, but her passion in collecting botanical drawings make her did this and this is very important to have all this illustrations all under one roof for easy learning of knowledge and also for research purposes.