This sheet is one of a suite of twenty-eight botanical prints derived from drawings Ellsworth Kelly sketched from life at a greenhouse outside of Paris in the winter of 1964-65.
Kelly had the drawings enlarged and transferred to a lithographic stone to create the final larger-than-life scale print based on the simple pencil drawings.
Kelly is perhaps best known for his color field and ‘hard-edge’ abstract works, yet has always been inspired by the natural world. While describing his interest in botanical studies high-school Kelly recounted, "The drawings from plant life seem to be the bridge to the way of seeing that brought about the paintings in 1949 that are the basis for all of my later work."
In this series Kelly demonstrates his aptitude for distillation of form and economy of line that connects his career-defining minimalism to a life-long fascination with nature.