Nature captured in the glassmaker’s art
The current special exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass, “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers”, introduces viewers to two artists whose names are probably not familiar to most. Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) and his son, Rudolf (1857-1939) were glassmakers in Dresden who together spent 46 years creating thousands of fragile, exquisite glass models of plants and flowers for the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. For this exhibition, seventeen of Harvard’s glass models are displayed along with preparatory drawings and a demonstration of the flameworking method of glassmaking.
Even if you can’t visit the exhibition itselt, there’s a wealth of material on the Corning Museum‘s website. And if you live near Boston, a large portion of the Blaschka collection can be seen at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
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