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A century ago it was fashionable for young women to collect and paint plants as a sort of genteel parlor skill. Some singularly talented women became professiionals, but their contributiosn to both art and botany have remained nearly invisble. The exhibition "Drawing from life" features the work of 14 women botanical artists, from the first decades of the 20th century to the present, focusing on the forgotten art of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's staff artist for 32 years, Maud H. Purdy. Side by side, these ... works reveal how established conventions of botanical art are shaped both by fashions of the times and individual artistic visions. Paintings, scientific illustrations, herbarium specimens, preparatory sketches, and objects of material culture explore the boundaries between art, science and craft and invite us to see plants with fresh eyes."--Back cover.