Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin

As part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, The Huntington will present an extensive exhibition surveying the connections among art, science, and the environment in Latin America, from the voyages of Columbus to the publications of Charles Darwin in the mid-19th century. Tentatively titled “Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin," the exhibition will introduce audiences to new understandings of Latin American nature from a range of cultural perspectives: as a wondrous earthly paradise; as a new source of profitable commodities such as chocolate, tobacco, and cochineal; as a landscape of good and evil, as viewed through the filter of religion; as the site for an Enlightenment project of collecting and classifying; and, in the 19th century, as the reflection of a national spirit. 

Visual Voyages features approximately 100 objects that are drawn from The Huntington’s library, art, and botanical holdings, as well as from dozens of international collections, in a range of media including paintings, rare books, illustrated manuscripts, prints, and drawings. Importantly, the exhibition and its catalog will bring together Latin American and European depictions of Latin American nature.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website