From the 1870's to the turn of the century the worldwide demand for Natural History Museums, colleges and universities, and scientific investigation in the fields of botany, mycology and marine biology outpaced the availability of actual items to study. There were no real good ways of preserving these different life forms in a manner that could provide "hands-on" study and evaluation. Scientists in the field were collecting samples at a huge pace that were drawn and painted but no 3-D models existed until a Czechoslovakian glass maker and his family were persuaded to create these models.
The American educator behind this solution was Dr. George Lincoln Goodale, director of the Harvard University Botanical
Gardens. The Harvard collection ultimately ended up at nearly 4400 handmade, blown glass models. To read the complete story of the Blaschkas work with Goodale click
here
"Goodale searched for something that would be aesthetically pleasing,
scientifically accurate, and much appreciated by both botany students
and the general public. While peacocks can be stuffed and minerals can
be meticulously polished, presenting plants as attractive displays is
more problematic. Although lovely botanical models fashioned from
wax-covered silk or papier-mâché were available as teaching aids,
Goodale was impressed by the idea of using glass after he saw the
zoological models in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, which
housed detailed glass models made by Leopold Blaschka and his son,
Rudolf. This allowed members of Harvard’s faculty to use replicas of
organisms to easily point out morphological features during lectures.
Goodale realized that the fragile zoological creatures were much like
fresh fruits and flowers that quickly decay and could never hold up as
an exhibition. He also knew that dried, pressed herbarium specimens and
color plates from botanical texts had a limited appeal".
"In 1886, Goodale traveled to Dresden, Germany, where the Blaschka family
lived. Despite their initial resistance, Goodale ultimately persuaded
the glass artists to accept a commission for a few plant models. The
first shipment of these models was badly damaged by customs inspectors
who hastily unpacked them, but the wafer-thin petals and leaves were
convincingly lifelike. Goodale and his former Radcliffe College
students, including Mary Lee Ware, believed that the Blaschkas’ skilled
hands and extensive botanical knowledge could create a most remarkable
exhibition".
"Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka agreed to a part-time, three-year contract.
When it was time to renew the agreement in 1890, Goodale convinced
Elizabeth Ware and her daughter, Mary, who had become the
benefactors of the Glass Flowers collection, that a full-time, 10-year
term would be more appropriate. The exhibition, which officially became a
memorial to Charles Eliot Ware (Elizabeth’s husband and Mary’s father)
on May 10, 1890, was titled The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models
of Plants. This collection represents the diversity of flora, with an
emphasis on economically important plants that are used in everything
from foods to medicines. The Blaschkas created three additional series
of models, which show the life cycle of nonflowering plants such as
ferns, mosses, and liverworts; insects and pollination; and blighted
apples, pears, and other fruits".
By mid-1890, after they had made models of several hundred species to
represent the major plant families, the Blaschkas had begun to exhaust
their European sources. Although Rudolf was interested in undertaking a
field expedition in North America, Goodale noted: “It seems worthwhile
to induce young Mr. Blaschka to try his hand at reproduction of models
from dry specimens, exactly as the botanical artists do. He would have
to be shown how this sort of work is done, and if the experiment is a
success, there will be no limit to the material at command, for we can
procure the dried specimens in every stage of development.”
"This implies that the Blaschkas were used to, and preferred to have,
living reference material. It also
suggests the complications involved
in adding exotic or difficult-to-cultivate species to the collection.
Judging from some of the flat-looking models, relying on herbarium
specimens must have worked for a while. But it later became evident that
Rudolf’s request would have to be considered seriously. This is
indicated in a letter from Goodale to Elizabeth Ware on April 15, 1890,
that outlined the conditions of the newly written contract. The
Blaschkas offered to save enough money for Rudolf “to make a voyage to
America in the winter of 1891–1892 in order to repair our broken models
and make fresh studies.” But Goodale told them “that when the time came
for his voyage I would see that he had enough for his expenses. He is
anxious to visit South America and study some of [the] plants of great
interest in their native forests, which are known to Science only by
poor drawings."
"Colored pencils and drawing paper were carefully tucked into his
luggage when Rudolf Blaschka left the cozy villa he shared with his
parents in Hosterwitz, Germany (the family had moved there in 1888), to
begin a journey to study the flora of the West Indies and North America.
The northwest trip to Bremen on February 1, 1892, was pleasant until he
reached Hanover, where the wagon “shook worse than a stagecoach on a
rocky country road...One could hardly balance oneself on one’s seat.”
Yet, as the 35-year-old glass artist wrote to his parents later that
day, he “found the experience extraordinarily nerve-strengthening and
fun."Upon arrival, he visited Ehrhorn, Emden & Mayer, shipping agents
for the Blaschkas’ models, who arranged travel documents and a
first-class cabin on the steamship
Saale. He sailed the next day from the northern coastal town of Bremerhaven". (
Courtesy Corning Museum)
After the Harvard project was completed, the family began to produce and sell all sorts of scientific models for Institutions all over the world. Here are examples.
The first common exhibition with Věra Nováková was organized in the Homes for Women Prague Cultural Centre in
1992 and it was accompanied by a voluminous catalogue from the Revolver Revue edition. In the same year,
Pavel Brázda became the first visual artist to receive the Revolver Revue Prize for the year 1991.
Exhibitions in Prague galleries, in the Czech Republic and abroad followed and at the end of the nineties,
he participated in group shows at the National Gallery.
A selection of Brázda’s paintings has been part of
the permanent exhibition of Czech modern art at the National Gallery (the Veletržní Palace) since 2000. In
2006 – 2007, a retrospective exhibition of Brázda’s art was organized at the National Gallery and prolonged
to half a year. In 2007, a large artist monograph called “Brázda” was published by the Argo publishing
house; in 2008, a smaller artist monograph on the occasion of Brázda’s Paris exhibition called “Brázda – The
Monster Awaits, the Monster has Time” was published in the Respekt edition with texts in Czech, French and
English. Several television and radio documentaries have been made about Brázda’s life and art. In 2007, he
received the “Personality of the Year” Art Historians’ Prize, on 28 October 2008, Brázda was awarded the
state Medal of Merit for Art. Between 2009 and 2011, excerpts from his “Human Comedy” were exhibited every
year, mostly in the 5th Floor Gallery and the Litera Gallery in Prague. In 2012 – 2013, a solo show of his
art from the years 1949 to 2012 was organized in the Moscow Proun Gallery. Most of the paintings exhibited
in the Municipal House come from 2012. (courtesy artists website)
