Tour: The Art of Reginald Farrer

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From 1914-15 the plant collector Reginald Farrer toured the mountain ranges of the Gansu (then Kansu) province in Western China, searching for new plants that could be brought home and grown in English gardens. Farrer and his fellow plant collector William Purdom returned many specimens and seeds but also brought back a wealth of additional information through their writings, their photographs and Reginald Farrer’s drawings and paintings.

The RHS Lindley Library holds a collection of the original artworks that Farrer completed while travelling around China. The tour will include a curator’s introduction to the exhibition ‘Collecting in the Clouds’ and the opportunity to go behind the scenes to view some of these plant portraits first hand.

Image: Detail of Isopyrum grandiflorum, 1915, watercolour by R. Farrer © RHS Library Collections

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