I visited the exhibition “Empire of Nature: The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawing ” donated by GK Goh held at Singapore National Museum.
Been a volunteer of the Raffles Museum, I had always known Sir Raffles as a naturalist and of course the story of his ship of natural specimen collection been burnt on the voyage home. Little have I heard of the drawing collection by William Farquhar nor I heard he was a naturalist too. This visit was an eye opener for me.
I was truly awed by the drawings. In my opinion, this is a fine example of where science becomes an art. The drawings were a style of its own. What fascinate me was the composition of the drawing. Not only was each drawing to be accurate (since it is used scientifically), the composition allows the viewer to be able to identify the specimen and differentiate from others. See the drawing below:
The number of petals of the flower serves its purpose as a scientific drawing and the drawing of the opened and closed fruits portrays the plant artistically.
The technique used in the drawing was the most puzzling thing which the exhibition never talk about. If you look closely at the furs of the mammals drawn, you will realized each streak of line is very fine and never over lap one another. Also each scale of fish was depicted with each fine line that ends at the right place. It is truly amazing on how it was drawn.
I have an enjoyable eye-feasting on each drawing. An exhibition not to be missed.
Chen Kee…
