- William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings
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William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings 
Top Left: Gambier Top Right: Black Pepper, Bottom Left: Wild Nutmeg (Gymnacranthera farquhariana) Bottom Right: Durian Artist Anonymous Chinese artists (from Macau) Year 1819 - 1823 Material Watercolour on Paper Dimensions Various dimensions Location National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Owner GK Goh Holdings The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings consists of 477 watercolour botanical drawings of plants and animals of Malacca and Singapore by unknown Chinese (probably Cantonese) artists that were commissioned between 1819 and 1823 by William Farquhar (1774 – 1839). The paintings were meant to be off scientific value with much detail to be shown as seen in most drawings except for birds, which shows a storyline much more than what was the original purpose of the drawing. For every drawing, Farquhar writes the botanical and/or scientific name of the specimen in pencil a translator pens the name of it in Jawi (using ink). The paper provided is usually European Paper with blue rectangular borders around it to create a frame.
Contents
History
The drawing of this Durian shows a good example of great scientific detail reflecting the inside of the fruit and structure of the seed.
During his tenure as Resident and Commandant of Singapore, Farquhar hired a group of professionally trained Chinese artist from Macau (as described by Munshi Abdullah) to paint watercolours of flora and fuana life of the Malay Peninsula. Farquhar donated them in eight volumes to the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland on 17 June 1826. In 1937, the Society lent six of the volumes to the Library of the British Museum (Natural History) (now the Library of the Natural History Museum), retaining the two volumes of botanical drawings in its own library. In 1991 the Natural History Museum returned the works to the Society for valuation, and on 20 October 1993 the Society offered them for sale by auction at Sotheby's in London, where they were acquired by Goh Geok Khim, the founder of brokerage firm GK Goh, for S$3 million. Goh donated the drawings to the National Museum of Singapore in 1995. As at 2011, the collection was believed to be worth at least $11 million. In 2011, 70 peices of work from the collection was placed on permanent display in the Goh Seng Choo Gallery of the museum, named for Goh's father.
Controversy
Due to poor quality of work done by the artist, some drawings have not been identified. But somehow, botanist have identified some flora and fuana drawn, one including a female drawing of a Raffles's Malkoha which breast is to tinted yellow. Others which have yet to be identified include, a drawing of a climber similar to Smilax, plate 29 of the collection inscription reads, Soogow probably a mispelling of Saga, inspite of this reason the plant is much more different to the latter.
Books
Two volumes of books the first being,The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, was published in 1999 showing 141 of these illustrations. A second edition containing prints of all 477 works in the Farquhar collection was published by Editions Didier Millet and the National Museum of Singapore in 2010.
Gallery
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A watercolour drawing of the zebra dove or barred ground dove (Geopelia striata, known in Malay as the burung merbuk) perched on a purple mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana; Malay buah manggis) branch. It is one of 477 natural history drawings of plants and animals of Malacca and Singapore commissioned by William Farquhar.
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A watercolour drawing of the wild jasmine (Jasminum laurifolium or Jasminum longipetalum, known in Malay as bunga pekan or melur hutan).
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A watercolour drawing of the lar gibbon or white-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar, known in Malay as ungka tangan putih). The tree may be a bignay (also known as the bugnay, bignai or currant tree, Antidesma bunius), or it may simply be from the artist's imagination.
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An oriental bay owl (Phodilus badius; known in Malay as the burung hantu ("ghost bird"), perched on an angsana tree (Pterocarpus indicus). The illustration of the owl is highly idealized, as each feather is shown in place and separated from the others.
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This watercolour is of a binturong or Asian bearcat (Arctictis binturong).
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black pepper (Piper nigrum, known in Malay as lada hitam).
See also
- National Museum of Singapore
- Singapore History Gallery
- Goh Seng Choo Gallery
- William Farquhar
References
- The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings. Singapore: Goh Geok Khim. 1999. ISBN 978-981-3065-82-6. 2 vols.
- Laura Dozier (ed.) (2010). Natural History Drawings: The Complete William Farquhar Collection: Malay Peninsula, 1803–1818. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet; National Museum of Singapore. ISBN 978-981-4217-69-9.
- Deepika Shetty (9 September 2011). "Precious menagerie: The William Farquhar collection of rare watercolours have finally found a permanent home". The Straits Times (Life!): D4–D5.
External links
Categories:- Animals in art
- Botanical art
- National museums of Singapore
- Singaporean art
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