William Sharp, one of the first chromolithographic printers in
the U.S., created these extraordinary illustrations for the
large folio Victoria Regia (1854) by John Fisk Allen. Allen, a
well-known horticulturalist, cultivated a specimen of the rare,
huge (up to 8 feet in diameter), fast-growing (up to an inch an
hour!) water lily, native to the Amazon. After months of careful
tending, the plant—named in honor of the recently-crowned Queen
Victoria—blossomed on the evening of July 21, 1853. Sharp’s
depictions of this exotic wonder—in various stages of bloom—were
masterpieces and elevated the then-nascent art of
chromolithography to spectacular new heights. image captions:
All images are from a copy of Victoria Regia in our collections.
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.