This is a masterpiece. A comprehensive and sumptuous survey that celebrates the beauty and appeal of flowers throughout art, history and culture.

Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom takes readers on a journey across continents and cultures to discover the endless ways artists and designers throughout history, from ancient Egypt to today, have depicted flowers and floral motifs.

Following in the footsteps of Phaidon’s international bestseller Plant: Exploring the Botanical World (2015), this captivating survey is a collection of more than 300 spectacular images of flowers depicted in art, history, science and culture. Curated by an international panel of experts on the subject, including art historians, botanists, floral designers and museum curators, the book opens with an introduction by Anna Pavord, author of the international bestseller The Tulip and renowned garden writer for The Independent.

Flower will appeal to a wide audience from florists, gardeners and general readers to artists, designers and botanical illustrators, offering a comprehensive introduction to the subject alongside surprising examples for specialists. Readers will learn about seventeenth-century tulipomania, Victorian orchidelirium, the Japanese art of ikebana and the Flower Power political movement alongside more general information about flowers including their history and meanings.

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The images in Flower span a wide variety of styles and media featuring both renowned and lesser-known works. These range from still-life paintings and photographs to botanical illustrations, herbaria and sculptures as well as floral arrangements, film stills and fashion and jewellery pieces. Entries span across the creative arts including drawn, painted and photographed subjects as well as those sculpted from sugar, cut from paper, embroidered or blown from glass.

Flower features a wide range of artists and image-makers including icons such as Cecil Beaton, Rachel Ruysch, William Morris, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Ansel Adams, Claude Monet and Leonardo da Vinci, alongside contemporary creatives such as Lewis Miller, Azuma Makoto, Nick Cave, Yayoi Kusama, Flora Starkey, Jeff Wall and Alexander McQueen. This comprehensive volume also showcases a broad range of types of flowers from all over the world, from much- loved garden blooms and wild flowers, to exotic and tropical varieties. Readers will find roses, irises, tulips, daisies and poppies sharing pages with fritillaries, hollyhocks, cacti, orchids and cherry blossoms.

Flower is organised as a visually stunning sequence with images, regardless of period, thoughtfully paired to allow interesting and revealing juxtapositions between them. Large-format reproductions are accompanied with a short and accessible text on the work. At the back of the book, a reference section features a glossaryof select flowers and their meanings, written by florist and floral advocate Shane Connolly, alongside an illustrated timeline and selected biographies.

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Whether depicted by the ancient Romans in stone mosaics, filmed in Technicolor, or digitally rendered with the latest cutting-edge technology, the beauty, symbolism and presence of flowers in our everyday lives has been an enduring focus for artists globally and will continue to inspire for years to come. Flower is the perfect book for all those interested in this beloved subject and how the grace and charm of blooms transcend garden walls to a vast scope of creative mediums.

Whether depicted by the ancient Romans in stone mosaics, filmed in Technicolor, or digitally rendered with the latest cutting-edge technology, the beauty, symbolism and presence of flowers in our everyday lives has been an enduring focus for artists globally and will continue to inspire for years to come. Flower is the perfect book for all those interested in this beloved subject and how the grace and charm of blooms transcend garden walls to a vast scope of creative mediums.

Publish date: 10 September

Hardback. 352 pages