The Red Frangipani
A Caribbean bloom, recorded by the first naturalist to survey the colonial South.
- Work
- Red Frangipanni (Plumeria rubra), from The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands
- Artist / naturalist
- Mark Catesby
- Origin & date
- London, 1731–1743
- Held by
- Wikimedia Commons (National Gallery of Art)
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$19.00
The story
From the Bahama Islands section of Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731–1743), this plate records the red frangipani — a small flowering tree whose fragrant blossoms Catesby would have encountered on the Caribbean leg of the fieldwork that took him through the American colonies and islands over the better part of a decade, self-funded through subscriptions from English patrons. The composition is uncharacteristically spare for Catesby, who usually crowded a plate with a paired animal — here the flowering spray is left to fill the frame on its own, deep green leaves radiating around a central cluster of pink blooms. What to notice: Catesby's book predates Linnaeus's binomial naming system, so his plates carry the older, more descriptive Latin names naturalists used before the modern system standardized species identification.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wikimedia Commons (National Gallery of Art)’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper: smooth, no glare.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guarantee.
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