Tobacco plants

The tobacco specie exists in hundreds of different types and in course of the time many artists were fascinated by this unusual plant. This page gives a brief survey of the depictions of the ordinary tobacco plant, the Nicotiana Tabacum.

The earliest illustration is a beautiful woodcut from 1597 showing the tobacco plant in its ideal shape, complete with its roots fully-grown and of course flowering. This type of botanical illustration is the base of all the later prints and drawings of the tobacco plant.

During the centuries remarkable changes in style can be noticed, showing an ever-growing interest not in only illustrating the plant itself, but also adding all stages in its growing and blossoming.

The beautiful print of Chrispijn van de Passe from 1614 focuses only on the top of the plant. Typical for seventeenth century prints, embellished with a naturalistic poppy.

The eighteenth century printwork is in general a continuation of the century before, however somewhat more detailed. Now the flower of the plant is illustrated complete with its botanical details and often also in cross cut.

By the end of that century magnificent volumes appear, first as engravings, later in lithographic print, in which all the varieties of tobacco specimen are illustrated. By that time curious details get more attention. It is remarkable that the various artists illustrate the plant each on their own way. They try to find attractive solutions for the added details that are of great importance to the botanist, but spoil the artistic result.

This fashion of botanical prints continues in the nineteenth century. Especially the French and English prints are exact illustrations with a maximum of details. They are in great contrast to the last two illustrations in this section: a wood engraving and a free drawing from Pritchard's publication Smokiana. In both these illustrations the botanical details are not included, all attention is put on the appearance of the plant and the attractive beauty of the flowers.

 one of the earliest illustrations of the tobacco plant, Gerard's Herball, 1597 early seventeenth century tobacco plant by Chrispijn van der Passe, the Netherlands, 1614
detail of the plant to the right, France, 1730-1760
a hand coloured engraving of the ordinary tobacco plant, the nicotiana tabacum after Linnaeus, France, 1730-1760 large size engraving of a tobacco plant, Paris, France, 1740-1770
two versions of the tobacco plant looking different because of the hand colouring, France, 1792-1798 two versions of the tobacco plant looking different because of the hand colouring, France, 1792-1798
engraving printed on hand made paper of a tobacco plant by Jaume St. Hilaire, France, 1808
different stades of bloom of the ordinary tobacco plant drawn by F.P. Nodder, England, 1788
detail of the print on the left, Jaume St. Hilaire, France, 1808
the so-called new Dutch tobacco drawn by Sydenaham Edwards, England, 1803 beautiful tobacco plant with along the base of the print botanical details, Pierre Turpin, France, 1814-1820
a variety of the nicotiana tabacum, the nicotiana langsdorff drawn by John Curits, Walworth, England, 1827
the nicotiana crispa and other varieties by Pierre Turpin, France, 1820
beautiful illustration of a blooming tobacco plant in colours by M. Hart, London, 1827 one of the many varieties of the ordinary tobacco plant by William Jackson Hooker, Walworth, England, 1828
a wild tobacco or rocky mountain tobacco by John Lindley, England, 1824
lithography of tobacco flowers by Robert T. Pritchard in his publication Smokiana, London, 1890
hand coloured engraving from a magazine, the Netherlands, 1860-1880
Illustrations on this page from the Pijpenkabinet collections
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