page_title: Ferdinand Bauer
section_title: Australia
hierarchical_section_title: Ferdinand Bauer / Biography / Australia
caption_attribution_description: This is a scan of Plate 3 from Ferdinand Bauer's Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae. The plant featured is Banksia coccinea (Scarlet Banksia).
context_page_description: Ferdinand Lucas Bauer was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia.
context_section_description: Bauer later travelled to Australia with Matthew Flinders as botanical draughtsman. He was one of six scientists selected by Sir Joseph Banks to accompany Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia. He worked under the direction of botanist Robert Brown, and in addition to botany, Bauer was to draw zoological subjects. His exacting standard of work earned him the admiration of both Matthew Flinders and Robert Brown. In a letter to Banks from Port Jackson, dated 20 May 1802, Flinders offered this praise: “[It] was fortunate for science that two such men as Mr Brown and Mr Bauer have been selected, their application is beyond what I have been accustomed to see." Writing to Banks ten days later, Brown reported that Bauer had made 350 plant sketches and 100 of animals, and had "indeed been indefatigable and . . . bestowed infinite pains on the dissections of the parts of fructification of the plants.”
  Bauer, intent on capturing accurately the tone and shading of his specimens, but unable to carry with him the range of colours needed, covered his preliminary sketches with colour numbers. Banks was intrigued by Bauer's precision, and in January 1806 wrote that they "were prepared in such a manner by reference to a table of colours as to enable him to finish them at his leisure with perfect accuracy".  A 2017 book contains reproductions of collections in Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia that have never before been published and reveals Bauer's innovative colour-coding technique for the first time.
  In June 1803, while Flinders returned to England in order to obtain a replacement for the Investigator, Bauer remained in Australia. He went to Norfolk Island for eight months and also undertook excursions to Newcastle, the Blue Mountains and the south coast of New South Wales. Bauer returned to England on the Investigator, accompanied by 11 cases of drawings containing 1,542 Australian plants, 180 Norfolk Island plants, and over 300 animals.
caption: Banksia coccinea, Plate 3 from Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae
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