Biographical entry Bauer, Ferdinand Lukas (1760 - 1826)

Summary

Ferdinand Lukas Bauer was botanical draughtsman to the Mathew Flinders' exploration of the New South Wales coast 1801-3. He made 1541 drawings of Australian plants of which 236 are preserved in the Natural History Museum, London.

Details

Born Feldberg, Austria, 20 January 1760. Died Vienna, 17 March 1826. Encouraged in botanical drawing by a priest, Norbert Boccius; illustrated "Icones Plantarum Rariorum" 1781-86; travel in the Mediterranean 1786-87, drawings later published as "Flora Graeca"; accompanied Matthew Flinders (q.v.) in the "Investigator" as botanical draughtsman 1800-1805; some of his drawings were published as "Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae" (London, 1813), and some in other publications such as the atlas to Flinders' "A voyage to Terra Australis" (London, 1814) but the majority remained unpublished because his standards were too perfectionist.

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Ferdinand Lukas Bauer - Records, 1801 - 1803, ML MSS 840; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Linnean Society of London - Records, 1792 - 1870, FM 4/2699; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Books

• Mabberley, David, Ferdinand Bauer, the Nature of Discovery, Merrell Holberton and the Natural History Museum, London, 1999, 128 pp. Details
• Mabberley, David J. and Moore, David T., Catalogue of the Holdings in the Natural History Museum (London) of the Australian Botanical Drawings of Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826) and Cognate Materials Relating to the Investigator Voyage of 1801-1805, Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, 29(2), 81-226, London, 1999. Details
• Norst, Marlene, Ferdinand Bauer: the Australian Natural History Drawings, British Museum of Natural History/Lothian, London/Melbourne, 1989, 120 pp. Details
• Watts, Peter, Pomfrett, Jo Anne and Mabberley, David, An Exquisite Eye: the Austrlian Flora and Fauna Drawings 1812-1820 of Ferdinand Bauer, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, Sydney, 1997, 167 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Gilbert, L. A., 'Bauer, Ferdinand Lukas (1760-1826)', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1966, p. 73. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010068b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Maiden, J.H., 'Records of Australian Botanists', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. lv, 1921, pp. 60-132; 150-169. Details
• Norst, Marlene, 'Ferdinand Lucas Bauer, 1760-1826: Recognition and Renaissance', Australian Natural History, vol. 23, no. 4, 1990, pp. 296-305. Details
• Stearn, William, 'Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, Masters of Botanical Illustration', Endeavour, vol. xix, 1960, pp. 27-35. Details

Reviews

• Cohn, Helen M., 'Ferdinand Bauer, the Nature of Discovery by David Mabberley and Catalogue of the Holdings in the Natural History Museum (London) of the Australian Botanical Drawings of Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826) and Cognate Materials Relating to the Investigator Voyage', review of Mabberley, David, Ferdinand Bauer, the Nature of Discovery, Merrell Holberton and the Natural History Museum, London, 1999, 128 pp., Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 14, no. 1, 2002, pp. 112-115. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR02901F_BR.htm. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Bauer, Ferdinand', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1035045. Details