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Nature


Plants and flowers. More - trees, fruits, animals etc. - to be added soon!



5 subcategories
all other Plants

ALL OTHER PLANTS

Animals

ANIMALS

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FLOWERS

Fruit & Vegetables

FRUIT & VEGETABLES

Trees

TREES

6,639 photos
'A Horse Affrighted by a Lion', 1777. The picture is intended to express the terror of the horse and to invite the spectator to identify with the innocent and beautiful victim. The sublime emotional intensity is reinforced by the stormy weather and the wild landscape. Stubbs has transferred a formula for expressing human terror - staring eyes, stretched nostrils, bared teeth - to his animal subject. The design exploits the increasing sympathy felt in the late eighteenth century for animals in distress and for victims of cruelty in general. PD, 1865-1-14-909
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'A Horse Affrighted by a Lion', 1777. The picture is intended to express the ter...

Rossetti lamenting the death of his wombat, 1869. Dante Gabriel Rossetti loved exotic animals and began to collect them with a passion after the tragic death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal in 1862. He had moved to 16 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, a house with a large garden that soon became a miniature zoo. The wombats had a special place in Rossetti's heart. In a letter to his brother he described the arrival of the first one as 'a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness'. This drawing commemorates the short-lived second wombat. Instead of being laid to rest in the tomb depicted in the background, the marsupial was stuffed and placed in Rossetti's entrance hall. PD, 1939-5-13-6
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Rossetti lamenting the death of his wombat, 1869. Dante Gabriel Rossetti loved e...

"Linda maestra" - "Gentle mistress",etching No.68 from the "Caprichos",around 1798
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"Linda maestra" - "Gentle mistress",etching No.68 from the "Caprichos",aro...

"Alla va eso",("This way"),etching No.66 from the "Caprichos",around 1798.
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"Alla va eso",("This way"),etching No.66 from the "Caprichos",around 1798.

Rubayat of Omar Khayyam: The quatrains of Omar Kayyam were a collection of verses representing a cultured form of poetry strictly correlated to mystical literature as well as to Islam's religious tradition. Kayyam was a Persian mathematiian and astronomer as well as a poet. His Rubayat was adapted and published in English by Edward Fitzgerald, with illuminations by William Morris. ID:Add.37832 f 11v-12
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Rubayat of Omar Khayyam: The quatrains of Omar Kayyam were a collection of verse...

A demon flies from the Thunder God, Edo period, 17th-early 18th century. A winged demon has been surprised by Raijin, the Thunder God. Raijin can be identified by the ring of drums which he beats to sound like thunder. A wild boar and an owl watch from the right. These scenes are from a handscroll with comic pictures which may have been intended as a model for other artists to copy. JA,JP 657 (1902.6-6.012)
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A demon flies from the Thunder God, Edo period, 17th-early 18th century. A winge...

A pair of porcelain elephants, Edo period, late 17th. Pair of model elephants with tusks, wearing harnesses. Many such models of animals, such as dogs, cats, deer, boars and horses were made as ornaments for European mantle- pieces. Real elephants would not have been seen in Japan at this time and these may have been inspired by pictures of Indian processional elephants. JA,1980.3-25.1-2
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A pair of porcelain elephants, Edo period, late 17th. Pair of model elephants wi...

Partridges, Edo period, 1790. A government official, Seki Mitsubumi, was visiting Nagasaki in 1789 and commissioned a resident Chinese artist to paint a set of five handscrolls, showing birds which had been imported from China in 1762 on a boat called the Hachiban (Boat No. 8).On his return to Edo, Mitsubimi showed the paintigs to the publisher Matsumoto Zembei, who decided to publish a selection as a deluxe woodblock -printed album. Masayoshi was employed to copy the Chinese artist's paintings. JA, JIB90
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Partridges, Edo period, 1790. A government official, Seki Mitsubumi, was visitin...

Bugaku mask of Ryo-o, the "Dragon King", 17th century. The Dragon King is a character from a Chinese story from the Northern Qi dynasty,who was so handsome he had to wear a fearsome mask so that his enemies would be terrified. The mask was used in Bugaku, a courtly ritual dance which survived in Japan since the Heian period and was popular in the Edo period. JA, 1978.4-21.2a
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Bugaku mask of Ryo-o, the "Dragon King", 17th century. The Dragon King is a char...

"Rabbits and autumn grasses", Edo period, mid-18th century Twelve rabbits shown in different activities, mainly feeding, but also chasing each other and one climbing amorously onto another's back. This screen was probably one of a pair painted by an artist of the Rimpa school. JA, JP Add88 (1933.9-29.03)
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"Rabbits and autumn grasses", Edo period, mid-18th century Twelve rabbits shown...

Hanging canopy (tengai), Japanese, (Kamakura period, 14th century?). This tengai has a lotus flower at the centre surrounded by rings of floral and scroll designs. A canopy or tengai hangs from the ceiling of Japanese Buddhist temples above the images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. It originated in India as a sunshade used by the nobility and appears as such in early Indian Buddhist images, although it also suggests the foliage of a tree, beneath which persons in authority sat to speak in public. In Japan, the tengai are usually made of painted wood on a metal frame and are often elaborately carved. JA, 1967.2-20.1
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Hanging canopy (tengai), Japanese, (Kamakura period, 14th century?). This tengai...

'Horse-breaking', Japan, c1560s. This is an autumn landscape in the mountains, with the leaves of the maple tree changing colour. Two horses are swimming in the river at the bottom of the composition, three more are galloping into view at the top, and in the centre, on a flat promontory in the water, a sixth is being ridden bareback and rears up, as three men try to pacify it. The basic forms are done in ink, with delicate use of light colours on the rocks, horses, and figures. A mist of gold dust floats over the scene, but this is not meant to provide the usual spatial abstraction. This rare work is invaluable in allowing us to see how a Tosa artist incorporated the realistic spirit of Chinese painting. JA, JP ADD919 (1989.12-21.01)
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'Horse-breaking', Japan, c1560s. This is an autumn landscape in the mountains, w...