The Botanist’s Brush: Shmuel Charuvi’s Drawings for the Hareuveni Floral Treasury of the Land of Israel

In the 1920s, artist Shmuel Charuvi was invited to join forces with the scientists Ephraim and Hannah Hareuveni to produce an encyclopedia of plant life in the land of Israel. While this ambitious project was never completed, Charuvi’s exquisite drawings were preserved intact. Articles by exhibition curator Tamar Manor-Friedman, scholar Ariel Hirschfeld, and Nogah Hareuveni – who followed in his parents’ footsteps by creating Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve – illuminate the connections that tie biblical myth to national identity, artistic creativity to scientific understanding. Charuvi’s exceptional drawings are presented in full-color blow-ups that allow us to appreciate them in all their glorious details.