CHICAGO, IL.- McEwen’s vibrant paintings balance the scientific detail of traditional botanical art with a modernist perspective influenced by other visual artists of his time. A student of the Old Masters as well as his contemporaries, McEwen developed a distinctive style over the course of his career, painting on vellum and using large empty backgrounds on which his plant portraits seem to float.

In his paintings, he forged his own personal interpretation of twentieth-century modernism, portraying individual flowers, leaves, and vegetables as subject matter, “as a way of getting as close as possible to what I perceive as the truth, my truth of the time in which I live.” McEwen was a modern-day Renaissance man, whose artistry extended to sculpture, poetry, and most notably, music, where he was a successful folk revival musician and host of the popular 1960’s music show, Hullabaloo!

“The ability to give life and luminosity to a spectrum of emotions is what gives Rory McEwen’s art those qualities that distinguish it from the ordinary,” says Ruth L. A. Stiff, guest curator. “As Rory McEwen conceded to Wilfrid Blunt, his drawing master at Eton, ‘I have never really been interested in botanical illustration per se, but rather in that moment when painting starts to breathe poetry.’ “

Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature offers viewers an unparalleled context to explore McEwen’s pioneering artistic vision. The exhibition presents works by McEwen alongside works by the 17th and 18th century painters whom he studied—such as Nicolas Robert, Pierre Joseph Redouté, Georg Dionysius Ehret, and Claude Aubriet—as well as early illuminated manuscripts and folio volumes drawn from the Mellon Collection, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Establishing McEwen’s role in shaping new generations of artists, the exhibition also features the work of contemporary botanical artists who continue to shape McEwen’s artistic legacy. By encompassing a rare ability to see a plant as more than “just” a plant—to imbue his paintings with a sense of his subject’s “soul”—his techniques have had a lasting impact on botanical artists today.

The exhibition includes works on loan from McEwen’s family as well as works drawn from numerous private collections, most of which have never been seen by the American public. Loans from the extensive contemporary botanical collection of British botanist and philanthropist, Dr. Shirley Sherwood, showcase contemporary artists following in McEwen’s techniques and styles.

Rory McEwen (1932-1982) grew up in Scotland as the third of seven children at Marchmont House, the family’s Palladian stately home, where he learned to draw flowers from an early age encouraged by his French governess, who instructed him in drawing from nature. He was influenced by 17th and 18th-century French flower painters throughout his education at Eton, including visits to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, and his continued studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. After serving with the British Army, he discovered his passion for art. Initially a blues musician, McEwen toured the U.S. in 1956 with his brother Alexander, recording an LP for Smithsonian Folkways Records and appearing twice on the Ed Sullivan show. Back in Britain, he became known as a guitarist and singer, appearing nightly on the BBC’s Tonight show and produced, presented, and performed on the seminal music program, Hullabaloo. However, from 1964 until his death in 1982, McEwen focused solely on his work as a visual artist, known for his detailed work on vellum with watercolors. His posthumous 1988 exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London is considered one of the pivotal turning points in the development of contemporary botanical art, and his techniques have had a lasting impact on botanical artists today. McEwen’s work can be found in private and public collections across the globe, including the British Museum; Victoria and Albert Museum; Tate; National Gallery of Modern Art, Scotland; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.