Botanical watercolor drawing of three different varieties of jasmine vine (jessamine, or Gelseminmum) with a small butterfly in top right.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

On the left is a short sprig of five-petaled yellow flowers and buds with small oblong leaves. The tallest middle sprig has a cone-shaped cluster of small light-purple flowers, its feathery tip leans left with small tapered green leaves along the stem. The third cut stem crisscrosses the middle one near the bottom, leans right, lowest one on the paper. It has tapered white jasmine flowers in a looser cluster and slender blade-like leaves. An open-winged orange, yellow, and white butterfly, floats away top right. Shadowing gives everything dimensionality. Manuscript of the Latin names in lower left.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
4.1965.7
People
Unidentified Artist
Previously attributed to Josef Abel, Austrian (1764 - 1818)
Title
Plant and Insect Study: Gelseminum; Bombix or Bombyx Russula Butterfly
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
18th-19th century
Culture
Austrian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311878

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor over graphite on cream antique laid paper
Dimensions
36.8 x 23.6 cm (14 1/2 x 9 5/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • watermark: countermark: IV

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Loan from the Collection of Edouard Sandoz
Object Number
4.1965.7
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu