THE BAUER BROTHERS:          The Story of Three Boys from Valtice

Discover the geniuses of botanical illustration!

This book grew out of a project to revive the town of Valtice's forgotten cultural heritage.

Written and illustrated by four teenage students, the book follows the remarkable journey of three brothers, Joseph, Franz, and Fedinad Bauer, from their childhood in a monastery in Valtice (Feldsberg) in the 18th century, through their studies in Vienna and work on the Codex Liechtenstein herbarium to scientific voyages to Greece and Australia, and careers at a royal court and at other prestigious institutions, in the 19th century.

• The brothers' exquisite watercolors—considered masterpieces of scientific illustration—are held by institutions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the University of Oxford; the Natural History Museum, London; and the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is said to have compared their work to that of Leonardo da Vinci.
• The plant genus Bauera was named in honor of Ferdinand Bauer following his voyage to Australia.

The richly illustrated book features watercolors, linocut prints, pen-and-ink drawings, and travel comics, with QR codes linking to museums.  The endpapers feature charming flowerpot drawings by local schoolchildren, inspired by those the Bauer brothers, as kids, created for the herbarium of their benefactor and Prior of the Hospitaller Order in Valtice, Norbert Boccius.

The project was conceived by Suzanna Halsey (Friends of Czech Greenways, NY) and created by artist and educator Zdenka Ždárská Benešová (Valtice ZUŠ) and her former students—Anastasia and Maria Komarova, with Klára and Veronika Kružíková — with expert guidance and a foreword by Prof. Dr. Walter H. Lack (Berlin Botanical Garden), author of seminal works on the Bauer Brothers.

By buying this book, you will support our project.

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We are grateful to our sponsors who made this book possible.

Friends of Czech Greenways, New York

The Prince of Liechtenstein Philanthropic Foundation

The Town of Valtice

Zdeňka & Ondřej Žďárský

Moravská krása Foundation in Břeclav

NPÚ Valtice Chateau

The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU-New York)