Martius, Carl Friedrich Philipp von and Johann Mortiz Rugendas

Manicaria Saccifera | Desmoncus orthocanthos. [Brazil: 1818-1820 with later touches]



Watercolor, pencil and ink drawing on paper (19 5/8 x 15 1/4 in.; 498 x 388 mm); slight marginal soiling and fraying, three tiny spots in image. Floated, glazed, and framed.

Splendid watercolor study for Martius' Historia Naturalis Palmarum (II: plate 98, Leipzig: 1823-1850). The published version credits the lithographer C. Hess working from the author's model. The present study probably includes later touches by Rugendas.

The Historia Naturalis Palmarum was based on Martius' travels in Brazil (1818-1820) where he was sent by King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria, to study the natural history and native peoples. He was, along with his companion Johann Baptist von Spix, the first non-Portuguese European to be permitted to visit the Brazilian Amazon. The majority of palms for the second volume, dedicated to Brazilian palms, were credited to Martius with just a few landscapes (of areas Martius did not reach), taken from works by Frans Post and Johann Moritz Rugendas.

The study is inscribed in the lower margin: "Manicaria Saccifera | Desmoncus orthocanthos Tab: 28 [sic]" and includes in the foreground, a large snake, and a crocodile which were omitted in the final printed version. The scene shows native people encamped under palms by a river.