Franz Andreas Bauer was an Austrian microscopist and botanical artist. He is noted as the first botanical illustrator for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Background
Franz Andreas Bauer was born on March 14, 1758, in Feldsberg, Moravia (now Valtice, Czechoslovakian Republic). He was the son of Lucas Bauer (died 1761), court painter to the Prince of Liechtenstein, and brother of the painters Josef Anton (1756–1830) and Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826). Josef succeeded his father as court painter and eventually became keeper of the gallery in Vienna.
Education
Bauer was educated by Father Boccius in Feldsberg and worked under Jacquin in Vienna.
Career
Francis and Ferdinand acquired their first experience of botanical illustration with the arrival of Father Norbert Boccius, Abbot of Feldsberg, in 1763, and produced over 2000 watercolour drawings of plant specimens under his guidance. In 1788 Franz Bauer accompanied Jacquin’s son, Joseph, on his travels through Europe.
In London they met Sir Joseph Banks and worked in his magnificent library and herbarium. Banks then engaged Bauer as artist at the Royal Garden, Kew, and at the attractive salary of £300 a year Bauer remained there for the rest of his life.
His output was not so great as that of his brother Ferdinand, for his services were not adequately utilized and much of the time he followed his own fancy. This led him into the intricacies of flower structure in strelitzias and orchids, the nature of red snow, and the structure of pollen grains.
He also illustrated the works of friends with microscopical and anatomical drawings: Banks’s works on cereal diseases and apple blight, Robert Brown’s description of Rafflesia and Woodsia, Home’s Lectures on Comparative A natomy, and John Smith’s account of his discovery of the apomictic plant dovewood.
Views
Although Bauer became a well known microscopist, he made no lasting contribution to the field. For instance, while others correctly attributed the color of red snow to an alga, he believed the causal organism was a fungus. In his study of the rye ergot he inclined to the view that nutritional factors were responsible until John Smith showed him hyphae of the fungal agent in the infected ears. On the difficult subject of the fertilization mechanism in orchids Bauer, like Robert Brown, came to the wrong conclusions because he did not know that they are cross-pollinated by insects.
Membership
Franz Bauer was a member of the Royal Society of London.