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On display now: botanical artists of WUR
The Agricultural College, and later the university, employed botanical illustrators to produce meticulously detailed botanical drawings, which played an important role in education, research, and academic publications. Several of these drawings are currently on view in the exhibition Beautiful Botany at Special Collections in the Forum Library.
Botanical illustrations @WUR
Most of the botanical drawings produced in Wageningen are currently included in the collections of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, together with the Wageningen herbarium (the Herbarium Vadense) and botanical research on African plants. Fortunately, we have kept a small selection of the drawings at the Special Collections of WUR. Some of them are currently on view in the exhibition Beautiful Botany.
Who were these scientific illustrators?
In the period 1876 -1940, local artists, such as Ben van Londen (1907-1987) and cartoonist Louis Raemaekers (1869-1956) who worked as drawing teacher at the Agricultural College, created many botanical drawings. Another artist was Marinus van der Schelde (1916-1969] who made made beautiful illustrations of cyclamens for the cultivar work of Prof. Wellensiek.
In addition to these local artists, the scientific and educational staff at the Agricultural College, such as Prof. Jan Ritzema Bos (1850-1928), Prof. A.M. Sprenger (1881-1958) and landscape architect Leonard A. Springer (1855-1940) also made botanical drawings of various plants, fruits and trees.
Botanical illustrators during the second half of the 20th century
During the second half of the 20th century, professional scientific illustrators were employed for what is now called the Biosystematics Group. These illustrators created (mainly) black-and-white illustrations of botanical species and cultivars for publications.
For Professor H.J. Venema (1899-1983), these plants were mostly drawn from life. The material came mainly from the Botanical Gardens De Dreijen and Belmonte. Venema was succeeded by Professor H.C.D. de Wit (1909 -1999). He and his successors researched mainly African plants from the Herbarium Vadense. They had drawings made from preserved specimen, such as herbarium sheets and specimens preserved in alcohol, of African plants.
Sometimes the species were also cultivated in the greenhouse, and a “drawing from life” could be made. In the period 1950-2006, over 25 botanical artists, most ot them women, worked for WUR. One of them was Mariet de Geus (1934-). De Geus worked for WUR as a botanical illustrator between 1970 and 1985. She worked in the Biosystematics department. Over 400 of her watercolours and pen drawings can be viewed and downloaded in WUR Image Collections.
WUR’s last botanical illustrator
Wil Wessel was the last botanical illustrator who worked for WUR. She started to work for the Agricultural College in Wageningen for the department of Plantsystematics in the 1960s. After she married in the 1970s, she left her position but returned around 1980 and worked part-time as an illustrator until 2006.
Special Collections has the ambition to make as many images as possible available online through WUR Image Collections. The images can be downloaded free of charge.
Location and opening hours
Currently a selection of these botanical drawings is on view at Special Collections in Forum Library, as part of the exhibition “Beautiful Botany”. You can visit the exhibition from 7 March 2025 until 15 July 2025*. Special Collections is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 1 pm and is closed on national holidays. If you would like to visit the collection in the afternoon or with a group, please e-mail speccoll.library@wur.nl.
*The Beautiful Botany exhibition was originally planned for November 2024 but had to be postponed due to the fire in the Forum Building.
Address: Special Collections Reading Room, WUR Library, Wageningen University & Research Forum, Building 102, Droevendaalsesteeg 2, 6706 KN Wageningen. Please use the Library's main entrance on the 2nd floor of the building.