The Driehaus Museum is proud to announce Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, an exhibition exploring the trailblazing career and legacy of Scottish artist Rory McEwen, whose work is considered one of the major turning points in the development of contemporary botanical art. Presenting over one hundred works, including sculpture and manuscripts, the exhibition reveals how McEwen forged his own personal interpretation of 20th century modernism, portraying flowers, leaves, and vegetables as individual subjects worthy of their own portraits. 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 today. Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature will be on view at the Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie Street from May 16 to August 17, 2025.
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.” 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. 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!”
“We are pleased to welcome audiences to the Museum this summer with an exhibition that invites us to approach our natural surroundings with curiosity and wonder and to feature an artist who is lesser known on these shores but who embodies the kind of excellence the Museum celebrates,” says Driehaus Museum Executive Director Lisa M. Key. She continues, “McEwen’s naturalistic paintings will echo the organic forms and ornamentation throughout our historic interiors.At the Driehaus Museum, we are committed to special exhibitions that bring visitors new perspectives and this exhibition hits that mark.”
“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 RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew. It 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.
As part of Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, the Driehaus Museum will partner with local institutions across exhibits and programs, including Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, Chicago Botanic Garden, the Morton Arboretum, the Old Town School of Folk Music, and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The Driehaus Museum will also be participating in the Magnificent Mile Association’s annual Tulip festival with a special presentation of tulips and a tulip sculpture in the Museum’s garden.
Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature is generously supported by the Driehaus Trust Company, LLC., the Kovler Family Foundation, and Barbi and Tom Donnelley. Additional support provided by Friends of Rory McEwen.
The exhibition is curated by Ruth L. A. Stiff, Curator of International Exhibitions, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) and accompanied by a full-color catalogue produced by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. It is presented in association with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Virginia) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with tour management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Major support is provided by the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation. The Driehaus Museum is the final U.S. institution to host the exhibition, which included the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina; the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Massachusetts; and the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
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; andMuseum of Modern Art, New York.
ABOUT THE DRIEHAUS MUSEUM
The Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age, and the Murphy Auditorium, built in 1926. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit driehausmuseum.org and connect with the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
