Life
Erich Nelson was born 1897 in Berlin, Germany, the son of the painter Ernst Nelson and his wife Hedwig Fajans. As a child, he spent a great deal of time in the Berlin Zoological Garden. From 1915 to 1918 he served in the armed forces as a sanitarian. After the First World War he completed his training as an artist in Munich and specialized on landscape paintings and illustrations of the natural world. On 1 April 1923 he married Gerda Kubierschky, daughter of the renowned artist Erich Kubierschky who supported Nelson during his apprenticeship. On his travels to Italy in the year 1928 Nelson encountered orchids for the first time and these plants inspired all his future artistic and scientific work. Consequently, he also dedicated himself to studying botany, under Professor K. von Göpel and Professor F. von Wettstein in Munich. In 1931 he published his first scientific book “Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzender Gebiete” (The Orchids of Germany and Neighbouring Countries).
Career
In 1933 Erich Nelson had to leave Germany with his wife Gerda because they were Jewish. After a brief stay in South Tyrol, Italy, he found a home in Chernex-Sur-Montreux in Switzerland. During his escape his friend Professor Walter Rytz from Bern, Switzerland, supported him. After numerous journeys to the Mediterranean region, tirelessly drawing, and intensively studying orchids including at the Geobotanical Institute Rübel, in Zürich, he published four books between 1954 and 1976. First was “Gesetzmässigkeiten der Gestaltwandlung im Blütenbereich. Ihre Bedeutung für das Problem der Evolution” (Laws of Shape Change in the Area of Flowers, and Their Importance for the Problem of Evolution) in 1954, then in 1962 “Gestaltwandel und Artbildung erörtert am Beispiel der Orchideen Europas und der Mittelmeerländer, insbesondere der Gattung Ophrys” (Shape Change and Species Formation Discussed Using the Example of the Orchidaceae of Europe and the Mediterranean Countries, In Particular the Genus Ophrys. With a Monograph and Iconography of the Genus Ophrys), which was followed in 1968 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattungen Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum, Barlia” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genera Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum and Barlia), then in 1976 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattung Dactylorhiza” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genus Dactylorhiza). In 1967 the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, awarded him an honorary doctoral degree based on the work in the first two of his four books.
Legacy
Erich Nelson died unexpectedly, on 22 March 1980, in a tragic car accident. He left many unpublished illustrations, sketches and aquarelles. In 1988 to conserve and give access to his work his wife, Gerda Nelson, established the foundation Dr. h.c. Erich Nelson under the jurisdiction of the canton Bern, Switzerland, which she appointed as the sole heir for his complete oeuvre. Gerda Nelson, first President of the Nelson Foundation, died in 1990 before the Board of Trustees could begin its duties. The Board posthumously published the last book of Nelson’s work in 2001, under the title “Erich Nelson – Persönlichkeit und Lebenswerk aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht, mit Publikation seines Bildwerks der Gattung Orchis” (Erich Nelson – Personality and Life’s Work From Today’s Scientific Perspective, with Publication of his Paintings of the Genus Orchis).
The artist
Erich Nelson was not only an artist but also a scientific illustrator. In many of his paintings he skilfully illustrated the beauty of nature in an impressionist style. But he was also an accomplished botanical artist and scientific illustrator who was able to document the European orchids in such detail that he captured the morphological variation in flower shape and colour between and within orchid species. Today, it is possible to prove speciation within these orchids by DNA analysis. But even today, scientific illustrations are needed for the documentation of taxonomic species because computers and photographs are not able to accurately reproduce and accentuate the distinct characteristics of organisms for the human eye. Professor Heinrich Zoller compared the quality of Erich Nelsons oeuvre with the most famous plant illustrators of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770), Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759–1840), and the brothers Franz Bauer (1758–1840), and Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826).
Life
Erich Nelson was born 1897 in Berlin, Germany, the son of the painter Ernst Nelson and his wife Hedwig Fajans. As a child, he spent a great deal of time in the Berlin Zoological Garden. From 1915 to 1918 he served in the armed forces as a sanitarian. After the First World War he completed his training as an artist in Munich and specialized on landscape paintings and illustrations of the natural world. On 1 April 1923 he married Gerda Kubierschky, daughter of the renowned artist Erich Kubierschky who supported Nelson during his apprenticeship. On his travels to Italy in the year 1928 Nelson encountered orchids for the first time and these plants inspired all his future artistic and scientific work. Consequently, he also dedicated himself to studying botany, under Professor K. von Göpel and Professor F. von Wettstein in Munich. In 1931 he published his first scientific book “Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzender Gebiete” (The Orchids of Germany and Neighbouring Countries).
Career
In 1933 Erich Nelson had to leave Germany with his wife Gerda because they were Jewish. After a brief stay in South Tyrol, Italy, he found a home in Chernex-Sur-Montreux in Switzerland. During his escape his friend Professor Walter Rytz from Bern, Switzerland, supported him. After numerous journeys to the Mediterranean region, tirelessly drawing, and intensively studying orchids including at the Geobotanical Institute Rübel, in Zürich, he published four books between 1954 and 1976. First was “Gesetzmässigkeiten der Gestaltwandlung im Blütenbereich. Ihre Bedeutung für das Problem der Evolution” (Laws of Shape Change in the Area of Flowers, and Their Importance for the Problem of Evolution) in 1954, then in 1962 “Gestaltwandel und Artbildung erörtert am Beispiel der Orchideen Europas und der Mittelmeerländer, insbesondere der Gattung Ophrys” (Shape Change and Species Formation Discussed Using the Example of the Orchidaceae of Europe and the Mediterranean Countries, In Particular the Genus Ophrys. With a Monograph and Iconography of the Genus Ophrys), which was followed in 1968 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattungen Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum, Barlia” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genera Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum and Barlia), then in 1976 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattung Dactylorhiza” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genus Dactylorhiza). In 1967 the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, awarded him an honorary doctoral degree based on the work in the first two of his four books.
Legacy
Erich Nelson died unexpectedly, on 22 March 1980, in a tragic car accident. He left many unpublished illustrations, sketches and aquarelles. In 1988 to conserve and give access to his work his wife, Gerda Nelson, established the foundation Dr. h.c. Erich Nelson under the jurisdiction of the canton Bern, Switzerland, which she appointed as the sole heir for his complete oeuvre. Gerda Nelson, first President of the Nelson Foundation, died in 1990 before the Board of Trustees could begin its duties. The Board posthumously published the last book of Nelson’s work in 2001, under the title “Erich Nelson – Persönlichkeit und Lebenswerk aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht, mit Publikation seines Bildwerks der Gattung Orchis” (Erich Nelson – Personality and Life’s Work From Today’s Scientific Perspective, with Publication of his Paintings of the Genus Orchis).
The artist
Erich Nelson was not only an artist but also a scientific illustrator. In many of his paintings he skilfully illustrated the beauty of nature in an impressionist style. But he was also an accomplished botanical artist and scientific illustrator who was able to document the European orchids in such detail that he captured the morphological variation in flower shape and colour between and within orchid species. Today, it is possible to prove speciation within these orchids by DNA analysis. But even today, scientific illustrations are needed for the documentation of taxonomic species because computers and photographs are not able to accurately reproduce and accentuate the distinct characteristics of organisms for the human eye. Professor Heinrich Zoller compared the quality of Erich Nelsons oeuvre with the most famous plant illustrators of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770), Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759–1840), and the brothers Franz Bauer (1758–1840), and Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826).
Life
Erich Nelson was born 1897 in Berlin, Germany, the son of the painter Ernst Nelson and his wife Hedwig Fajans. As a child, he spent a great deal of time in the Berlin Zoological Garden. From 1915 to 1918 he served in the armed forces as a sanitarian. After the First World War he completed his training as an artist in Munich and specialized on landscape paintings and illustrations of the natural world. On 1 April 1923 he married Gerda Kubierschky, daughter of the renowned artist Erich Kubierschky who supported Nelson during his apprenticeship. On his travels to Italy in the year 1928 Nelson encountered orchids for the first time and these plants inspired all his future artistic and scientific work. Consequently, he also dedicated himself to studying botany, under Professor K. von Göpel and Professor F. von Wettstein in Munich. In 1931 he published his first scientific book “Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzender Gebiete” (The Orchids of Germany and Neighbouring Countries).
Career
In 1933 Erich Nelson had to leave Germany with his wife Gerda because they were Jewish. After a brief stay in South Tyrol, Italy, he found a home in Chernex-Sur-Montreux in Switzerland. During his escape his friend Professor Walter Rytz from Bern, Switzerland, supported him. After numerous journeys to the Mediterranean region, tirelessly drawing, and intensively studying orchids including at the Geobotanical Institute Rübel, in Zürich, he published four books between 1954 and 1976. First was “Gesetzmässigkeiten der Gestaltwandlung im Blütenbereich. Ihre Bedeutung für das Problem der Evolution” (Laws of Shape Change in the Area of Flowers, and Their Importance for the Problem of Evolution) in 1954, then in 1962 “Gestaltwandel und Artbildung erörtert am Beispiel der Orchideen Europas und der Mittelmeerländer, insbesondere der Gattung Ophrys” (Shape Change and Species Formation Discussed Using the Example of the Orchidaceae of Europe and the Mediterranean Countries, In Particular the Genus Ophrys. With a Monograph and Iconography of the Genus Ophrys), which was followed in 1968 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattungen Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum, Barlia” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genera Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum and Barlia), then in 1976 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattung Dactylorhiza” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genus Dactylorhiza). In 1967 the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, awarded him an honorary doctoral degree based on the work in the first two of his four books.
Legacy
Erich Nelson died unexpectedly, on 22 March 1980, in a tragic car accident. He left many unpublished illustrations, sketches and aquarelles. In 1988 to conserve and give access to his work his wife, Gerda Nelson, established the foundation Dr. h.c. Erich Nelson under the jurisdiction of the canton Bern, Switzerland, which she appointed as the sole heir for his complete oeuvre. Gerda Nelson, first President of the Nelson Foundation, died in 1990 before the Board of Trustees could begin its duties. The Board posthumously published the last book of Nelson’s work in 2001, under the title “Erich Nelson – Persönlichkeit und Lebenswerk aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht, mit Publikation seines Bildwerks der Gattung Orchis” (Erich Nelson – Personality and Life’s Work From Today’s Scientific Perspective, with Publication of his Paintings of the Genus Orchis).
The artist
Erich Nelson was not only an artist but also a scientific illustrator. In many of his paintings he skilfully illustrated the beauty of nature in an impressionist style. But he was also an accomplished botanical artist and scientific illustrator who was able to document the European orchids in such detail that he captured the morphological variation in flower shape and colour between and within orchid species. Today, it is possible to prove speciation within these orchids by DNA analysis. But even today, scientific illustrations are needed for the documentation of taxonomic species because computers and photographs are not able to accurately reproduce and accentuate the distinct characteristics of organisms for the human eye. Professor Heinrich Zoller compared the quality of Erich Nelsons oeuvre with the most famous plant illustrators of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770), Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759–1840), and the brothers Franz Bauer (1758–1840), and Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826).
Life
Erich Nelson was born 1897 in Berlin, Germany, the son of the painter Ernst Nelson and his wife Hedwig Fajans. As a child, he spent a great deal of time in the Berlin Zoological Garden. From 1915 to 1918 he served in the armed forces as a sanitarian. After the First World War he completed his training as an artist in Munich and specialized on landscape paintings and illustrations of the natural world. On 1 April 1923 he married Gerda Kubierschky, daughter of the renowned artist Erich Kubierschky who supported Nelson during his apprenticeship. On his travels to Italy in the year 1928 Nelson encountered orchids for the first time and these plants inspired all his future artistic and scientific work. Consequently, he also dedicated himself to studying botany, under Professor K. von Göpel and Professor F. von Wettstein in Munich. In 1931 he published his first scientific book “Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzender Gebiete” (The Orchids of Germany and Neighbouring Countries).
Career
In 1933 Erich Nelson had to leave Germany with his wife Gerda because they were Jewish. After a brief stay in South Tyrol, Italy, he found a home in Chernex-Sur-Montreux in Switzerland. During his escape his friend Professor Walter Rytz from Bern, Switzerland, supported him. After numerous journeys to the Mediterranean region, tirelessly drawing, and intensively studying orchids including at the Geobotanical Institute Rübel, in Zürich, he published four books between 1954 and 1976. First was “Gesetzmässigkeiten der Gestaltwandlung im Blütenbereich. Ihre Bedeutung für das Problem der Evolution” (Laws of Shape Change in the Area of Flowers, and Their Importance for the Problem of Evolution) in 1954, then in 1962 “Gestaltwandel und Artbildung erörtert am Beispiel der Orchideen Europas und der Mittelmeerländer, insbesondere der Gattung Ophrys” (Shape Change and Species Formation Discussed Using the Example of the Orchidaceae of Europe and the Mediterranean Countries, In Particular the Genus Ophrys. With a Monograph and Iconography of the Genus Ophrys), which was followed in 1968 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattungen Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum, Barlia” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genera Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum and Barlia), then in 1976 by “Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattung Dactylorhiza” (Monograph and Iconography of the Orchidaceae Genus Dactylorhiza). In 1967 the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, awarded him an honorary doctoral degree based on the work in the first two of his four books.
Legacy
Erich Nelson died unexpectedly, on 22 March 1980, in a tragic car accident. He left many unpublished illustrations, sketches and aquarelles. In 1988 to conserve and give access to his work his wife, Gerda Nelson, established the foundation Dr. h.c. Erich Nelson under the jurisdiction of the canton Bern, Switzerland, which she appointed as the sole heir for his complete oeuvre. Gerda Nelson, first President of the Nelson Foundation, died in 1990 before the Board of Trustees could begin its duties. The Board posthumously published the last book of Nelson’s work in 2001, under the title “Erich Nelson – Persönlichkeit und Lebenswerk aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht, mit Publikation seines Bildwerks der Gattung Orchis” (Erich Nelson – Personality and Life’s Work From Today’s Scientific Perspective, with Publication of his Paintings of the Genus Orchis).
The artist
Erich Nelson was not only an artist but also a scientific illustrator. In many of his paintings he skilfully illustrated the beauty of nature in an impressionist style. But he was also an accomplished botanical artist and scientific illustrator who was able to document the European orchids in such detail that he captured the morphological variation in flower shape and colour between and within orchid species. Today, it is possible to prove speciation within these orchids by DNA analysis. But even today, scientific illustrations are needed for the documentation of taxonomic species because computers and photographs are not able to accurately reproduce and accentuate the distinct characteristics of organisms for the human eye. Professor Heinrich Zoller compared the quality of Erich Nelsons oeuvre with the most famous plant illustrators of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770), Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759–1840), and the brothers Franz Bauer (1758–1840), and Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826).
Contemporary Witnesses
Gerhart Wagner, former President of the Foundation Board
„What moves me most about Erich Nelson is this: in addition to his artistic achievements he was also a passionate scientist. In my opinion his most significant scientific achievement is his interpretation of the orchid labellum as a genetically assembled organ. This hypothesis was presented in „Zur organophyletischen Natur des Orchideenlabellums“ in Bot. Jb. 1965 and his 1954 book on pages 207-8.
Based on many anomalies and teratologies, he came to the conclusion that the orchid labellum is actually composed of several different primordial cells. In addition, he performed several convincing histological studies on this topic. Darwin had – without histology – converged upon a similar idea. In the textbooks of my time, the labellum was simply called the (very variable) medial corolla leaf of the perianth. It would be a bad thing if today’s textbooks still only had this simple interpretation, which I think is certainly wrong. It may be a worthy (and important!) task of the Nelson Foundation to take up this textbook issue to help Nelson’s interpretation gain acceptance. I would have liked to take this on myself when I was president but never got around to it. Gerda Nelson’s primary wish in establishing the foundation was that its capital should be used to further study Nelson’s hypotheses on the evolutionary development of orchids.“
Gerda Nelson-Kubierschky
«From 1923 to 1928 I happily accompanied my husband in Italy. He had already found friends who appreciated his art and he obtained noteworthy praise during exhibitions. He was never interested in pretty pictures. Rather, he looked passionately for the true, unsullied base and for its organic architecture. I was fascinated to see him at work. „Life brings forth form“, a wholeness that, grasped by the artist, finds shape in his work. He recognized organic form as movement, as impulses that had tobe recognized and noted.
«I was not allowed to address him until dusk. How often did Inot try to strengthen him with food or drink, to catch the flies that bothered him and mop perspiration from his brow. Without ever bothering about himself he executed the work in his pure water-colour technique safely and brought it to conclusion without mishap or correction. The „colour white“ was absent from his palette. Light contours, pale shadows [„.] and one already saw, imagined the life until finally each detail was evidence of life. Out of Erich Nelson’s watercolours the joyful „yes“ speaks to us which in a meeting of recognition liberates the great validated love.»
Dr. Philipp Cribb, Kew Gardens, London
«His works on European orchids set a standard that many have tried to emulate. 1 would venture to suggest that no one has matched him in his knowledge of European orchids, nor in his skill in portraying them. Photographs have an ephemeral quality while his detailed and extensive watercolour paintings will undoubtedly stand the lest of time.»
Prof. Dr. Erika Pignatti, Triest
Prof. Dr. Sandro Pignatti, Rom
«He used water-colours, not the entire palette of different hues, but rather only five or six basic colours; he never used white. The flower was first depicted in its entirety with the first layer of colour. Further layers followed one above the other starting with the lightest shades and continuing with the darker ones until the correct nuance had been achieved. Pencil and rubber were never used.»
«The production of one figure took a day or more. Gerda gave us a lively demonstration of how she supported Erich who, at the Gargano for instance, painted lying on the ground, from early morning through to sunset, how she mopped the beads of sweat from his brow, how she made him drink and was able now and then to feed him a morse! to eat. The aim of having his picture coinciding entirely in form and colour with that of the flower was achieved only by laborious work and immense patience. lt is easy to imagine that this procedure served to forge a close link between subject and object. At the end any separation between observer and observed object had vanished, Nelson, so to speak, had become one with the flower.»
Prof. Dr. Heinrich Zoller, Basel
«I cannot forget how, during a walk together with his wife Gerda, he stopped me from digging up a specimen of Dactylorhiza traunsteineri for a herbarium voucher, although the plant grew plentifully. The site was on calcareous marshy slopes between Leimbach and Adliswil on the Albis near Zürich andin May 1946. D. traunsteineri still flowered there in thousands. On that day I saw the species for the first time and Nelson explained to me how it differed from Dactylorhiza majalis and D. incarnata. Together we examined a !arge number of flowering Dactylorhiza individuals until I had understood all its peculiarities and great variability. After this Nelson remarked that there was now no further necessity to dig up a plant and I developed a great respect for his reverence toward nature and, of course, desisted from digging up a specimen.»
«Illustrations of plants and animals have, besides their artistic merit, produced also in book illustration signal achievements for centuries. Among these Erich Nelson’s orchid plates have a secure place. Since colour-photography threatens to oust graphic representation, the work of Nelson forms an excellent finish of this old tradition.»
Works
- Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzender Gebiete. 1931.
- Gesetzmässigkeiten der Gestaltwandlung im Blütenbereich. Ihre Bedeutung für das Problem der Evolution. 1954.
- Gestaltwandel und Artbildung erörtert am Beispiel der Orchideen Europas und der Mittelmeerländer, insbesondere der Gattung Ophrys. 1962.
- Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattungen Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum, Barlia. 1968.
- Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattung Dactylorhiza. 1976.
- Erich Nelson – Persönlichkeit und Lebenswerk aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht, mit Publikation seines Bildwerks der Gattung Orchis. 2001.
Literature
- Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzender Gebiete. 1931.
- Gesetzmässigkeiten der Gestaltwandlung im Blütenbereich. Ihre Bedeutung für das Problem der Evolution. 1954.
- Gestaltwandel und Artbildung erörtert am Beispiel der Orchideen Europas und der Mittelmeerländer, insbesondere der Gattung Ophrys. 1962.
- Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattungen Serapias, Aceras, Loroglossum, Barlia. 1968.
- Monographie und Ikonographie der Orchidaceen-Gattung Dactylorhiza. 1976.
- Erich Nelson – Persönlichkeit und Lebenswerk aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht, mit Publikation seines Bildwerks der Gattung Orchis. 2001.