John Sebastian Miller

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Self-portrait by John Miller

John Sebastian Miller , originally Johann Sebastian Müller, also John Miller , (* 1715 in Nuremberg , † around 1790) was a German-British naturalist and illustrator. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " JSMuell. "

Life

Miller emigrated to England with his brother Tobias in 1744. Both were draftsmen and engravers, his brother Tobias with a focus on architecture. Miller, a student of Johann Christoph Weigel , was interested in natural history and especially botany from an early age. In England he made illustrations for Philip Miller of the Chelsea Physic Garden and the botanical works of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (Lord Bute), among others . Many of the drawings are now owned by the descendants of Lord Bute. In 1777 he himself published an extensive botanical work on subscription with illustrations and using the Linnaeus classification system (the scientific direction was Gowan Knight of the British Museum and possibly Lord Bute). A second edition and German editions were also published.

He was married twice and had 27 children. His sons John Frederick Miller (1759–1796) and James Miller were also draftsmen and naturalists. They made illustrations from the drawings of Sydney Parkinson , the illustrator on James Cook's Travels of Endeavor . John Frederick Miller also worked for Lord Bute and published Cimelia Physica in 1796 . Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, & c. together with several of the most elegant plants .

He also illustrated other books with engravings and made engravings from paintings and painted landscapes himself, which he exhibited at the Society of Arts and the Royal Academy from 1762 to 1788.

Paeonia officinalis from the Illustratio systematis

literature

Fonts

  • Illustratio systematis sexualis Linnaei, 20 parts, London 1770–1777 (published in three folio volumes 1777, 108 colored and 104 non-colored sheets and 109 pages of text in Latin and English. A second edition appeared in two volumes 1779 and 1789, with letters to Miller von Linné)
  • Illustrations for Lord Bute: Botanical Tables containing the different families of British plants, 1785 (only 16 copies were printed by Lord Bute at his own expense and given to high-ranking botanist friends, the whereabouts of 12 are still known today)
  • Illustrations for Philip Miller: Figures of the most beautiful, useful and uncommon plants, 1760
  • Drawings of the Leaves, Stalks, and Ramifications of Plants for the purpose of ascertaining their several Species, executed for the Rt. Honble. the Earl of Bute, for the years 1783 and 1784, dated 1780 (also for Lord Bute)

References and comments

  1. ^ Edited by Konrad Felsing, Darmstadt, 1792, Frankfurt 1804, and by FG ​​Weiss, Frankfurt am Main 1789
  2. ^ Australasian Herbarium, Biographical Notes
personal data
SURNAME Miller, John Sebastian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Johann Sebastian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British naturalist and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH 1715
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH around 1790