Large Flowering Sensitive Plant, Plate 16 - Joseph Constantine Stadler

A detailed botanical aquatint from Robert John Thornton's The Temple of Flora, featuring the Mimosa grandiflora with hummingbirds in a mountainous setting.

This aquatint and stipple engraving, titled Large Flowering Sensitive Plant, originates from the ambitious publication The Temple of Flora by Robert John Thornton. Joseph Constantine Stadler, a German engraver active in London, executed this plate after a painting by Philip Reinagle. The work represents the late eighteenth-century fascination with exotic botany, combining scientific observation with the dramatic aesthetic sensibilities of the period.

The composition centres on the Mimosa grandiflora, depicted with its characteristic feathery, crimson stamens. Two hummingbirds are shown in flight around the bloom, adding a sense of movement to the static botanical subject. The background features a mountainous vista, which provides a sense of scale and suggests the plant's natural habitat. A small figure stands in the lower right, a common device in period illustrations to indicate the size of the flora. The use of aquatint allows for subtle tonal gradations, particularly in the sky and the distant hills, while the stipple technique provides texture to the plant's foliage and the birds' plumage.

Stadler was a prolific engraver who collaborated with many prominent artists of his day. His technical precision is evident in the fine lines of the leaves and the delicate rendering of the flower's structure. This print is a characteristic example of the high-quality production values found in British botanical publishing at the turn of the nineteenth century. It balances the requirements of a scientific record with the decorative appeal expected by collectors of the era. The print remains a clear record of how European naturalists visualised the flora of distant regions during the Age of Discovery.