Painting of the Day: The Hydrangea Hortensia, c. 1780

The Victoria & Albert Museum

This painting of a hydraganea is something of a mystery.  We don’t really know who the artist was except that he or she was based in Maidstone in Kent, and his or her work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780.

The work on vellum is in the style of Georg Dionysus Ehret (1708-70), and it is possible that the artist here was one of his many pupils.