Gustavian Style Framed Leaf Botanicals

To arrive at the making and framing of the leaf botanicals it is necessary to trace a small bit of the background to my unending passion for studying and preserving natural elements. David Attenborough (Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery) writes about the Egyptians who included paintings of plants on the walls of tombs and Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist who studied and drew plants to learn about how they grew and reproduced.

As far back as memory goes plants and flowers have fascinated me. In high school it was not uncommon for me to wear flowers braided into my hair. My plain black corduroy shoulder bag was embellished with an array of hand embroidered flowers. These floral calendar pages were given to me by my mother who worked in a library and found them in a damaged book to be discarded.

During a course on intaglio printmaking the floral calendar pages were my inspiration for this copper plate engraving of various flowers derived from the images.

These pages are from a reprint of Basilius Besler’s Florilegium, a treasured gift and addition to my growing collection of books of this type. Besler was commissioned by a German archbishop to make a record of all the plants in his garden and this work, originally published in 1613 is the result. Besler’s original illustrations were copperplate engravings.

Before a trip to Rome, I purchased a copy of Robert Kahn’s Rome: The Essential Insider’s Guide, a collection of the favorite places to visit, to stop for a coffee, to take a photograph, to go for a walk, and so on, compiled from people who have lived and worked in the city.  This small cloth bound book is one you can read before you go and carry with you. Mine is laden with little blue post its and notes! You can be sure we visited and experienced many of these marked spots! Notably for me was a morning sojourn to the outdoor print market or Mercato delle Stampe, an open air print market. As this photo shows, there was an abundance of prints of all types.

Looking through a binder of prints in clear sleeves my attention was drawn to one of these predominately green prints of leaves and/or seaweed. It was fairly simple to find several others of a similar nature. When we returned home, I was able to paint and gel stain an interior portion of a set of frames we already owned, replicating a shade of green found in the prints onto the frames. 

Interior designer, Suzanne Kasler, writes “In a country house I like to take my materials from nature. It makes the rooms feel very connected to the outdoors.” (Kasler, S. Inspired Interiors: Rizzoli) Living in the Texas Hill Country on the rocky limestone terrain has led to a transformation my way of thinking about what constitutes a garden. Our garden is made of many shades of green, differing in the shape and texture of leaves. Only the strong survive here and I cherish my plants for their resilience, while striving to help them flourish.

It occurred to me we needed to bring some of nature into our library. Located in the heart of the house our library has a ceiling 12 feet above the floor. The mahogany bookcases and breakfront against two of the four walls in the room have traveled with us from several homes and though they are quite capacious, their height leaves a great deal of uninspiring blank space above.  Pressing leaves from a variety of plants growing on our land and framing then to hang above might be just the thing we need to provide a quiet focus and to enhance the feeling of being in a cabinet of nature’s curiosities.

It was my intention to take plain wooden frames purchased with a mat and glass included and paint them in a Gustavian manner. This style of decorating frequently includes painted furniture in soft creams and grays. As the prints were mounted on gray paper, the frame would be a shade of gray or cream. My paint samples are made on scrap pieces of wood labeled on the back so they can be referenced in future projects. Putting the samples alongside the mounted leaf botanicals led me to decide on the upper left sample which is Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray paint topped with a coat of Old Master Gel Stain in Natural Walnut.

Two coats of Agreeable Gray are applied to the frames.

When dry, a small brush and some gold paint on the tiny inside edge of the frame provides an additional Gustavian touch.

Gel stain is applied with a sponge brush and wiped with a piece of cheese cloth. The finished look has the appearance of wood grain or aging, possibly a vintage botanical print frame!

Finished frames on the floor drying. Slips of paper inside each frame are numbered so the frame can rejoin the cut piece of glass and backing it came with originally. There can be a slight variation in size which can make it difficult to fit the glass and backing back inside the frame if you let them get separated.

The frames came with hooks affixed to the cardboard backing. It seemed to me they would be stronger if backed with paper and wired for hanging.

Here is a completed Russian sage leaf botanical (Perovskia or Salvia yangii) ready to hang.

Here are some photos of one of the two walls in the library! There is a distinct and positive change in the feeling of the room. The framed botanicals enhance the height of the ceiling. We feel such joy reading and writing at the table and looking up to see pieces from our Texas Hill Country garden on the walls above. Imagine how this will feel when the winter chill sets in and the candles are lit!

How lovely to have an idea, to reflect on how the idea came about, to put it in context, and then to work through the process of realizing your vision!