I have a fondness for botanical art, but mushroom botanical art is my favorite. There's just something so pleasing and adorable about mushrooms- they have an otherworldly look to them, like they've just popped over from Fairyland. This book was such a treat for me! Oodles of beautiful illustrations by European and Japanese naturalists from the 18th and 19th centuries. If you or someone you love is a fan of botanical art, mushrooms, or an artist looking for fabulously detailed illustrations of mushrooms for reference, this book is for you!

#MushroomBotanicalArt #NetGalley

Mainly French and Italian with a few Japanese sources of primary scientific mushroom drawings. Either different views of the mushroom, what it looks like inside or how it grows. Great for the visual aspect of a number of mushrooms - edible and toxic.

Fungi finds are delightful and memorable...the foreword sums up my feelings on fungi precisely. My recollections of thousands of individual sightings are forever etched on my mind, where and what the circumstances were. Mushroom botanical art is beautiful, functional and important. This book includes several gorgeous botanical art collection excerpts mostly from Europe and Japan before the invention of photography, often with longitudinal dissections and anatomical views which are crucial in identification. The illustrations and colours are so incredible the mushrooms are easily identifiable, often as well as (or better!) than photographs.

Botanists, researchers and mycologists including Paulet, Perard, Lucand and Vittadini (his Amanita muscaria details are breathtaking) depict common and uncommon species with such passion, knowledge and attention. Bulliard's descriptions and detail are out of this world! Truly lovely. I am so grateful for those who found detailing mushrooms important for future study.

Each chapter contains fascinating information on the artist and his drawing characteristics as well as history of genus names and other pertinent details. Amanita muscaria and Amanita caesarea, for example, are easily recognizable and observing different depictions is brilliant...though there are slight differences, the anatomy in each is correct and perfect.

My sincere thank you to Media Do International, Inc. and NetGalley for the privilege of studying this incredible book! It is pure joy. If you are even the tiniest bit intrigued by botanical art and/or mushrooms, please do read this. Each page is a visual treat.

Beautiful illustrations and information about the different types of mushrooms and fungi. So happy that this is finally available in English! I think I will look for the physical version!

Mushroom Botanical Art by Toshimitsu Fukiharu is an absolutely amazing collection of mushroom illustrations. The blue mushrooms were out of this world! The red ones were pretty breathtaking too. Must have for mushroom/fungi lovers. #MushroomBotanicalArt #NetGalley

Enjoyed this book, It wasn't what I expected going into it, it was mainly the pictures of the mushrooms, which were extremely pretty and interesting especially seeing the differences in them. The information given was interesting. I'm glad I read it but it was all very simple and for this reason can't give more than 3 stars.

I did not know that there were so many different types of mushrooms. In the store you only see the typical white or brown mushrooms. I never knew there were so many different colors and ones that were different shapes. Some look like they are plucked straight out of a fairy tale and I would love to have them as a bouquet in my yard. A beautiful book with beautiful art.

Very resourceful mycological illustrative encyclopedia.

"Mushroom Botanical Art" consists of a large collection of vintage illustrations of mushrooms and relevant information. It would be a helpful source book for botanists, mycologists, and illustrators and artist.

But at the same time, most of the illustrations are now available to access as public domain image sources.

I honestly had such a good time reading this. It was a book I browsed through on the bus, at the hairdresser's, waiting for my classes to start... It's just gorgeous and the subject matter unique enough to immediately grab your attention, as it is less of a mycology guide and more of an historical examination of the study of mushrooms, with all its imperfections, and mistakes, and flawed - but magical - depictions. In its pages you can also find some great inspiration for painting, if you are like me and like to draw mushrooms in your free time because it's easy, and comforting, and relaxing.

Botanical art seems to be having a real resurgence in popularity recently and it's even better to see books from lesser known authors and artists (rather than Lear and Haekel).
Mushroom and fungi art in particular have become very sought after and this is a perfect addition to any natural or botanic art lover.

The drawings have almost a vintage quality to them and the level of detail in each of the images is perfection.

Star Rating: 4 Stars

A big thank you to netgalley, for providing me this ARC of Mushroom Botanical Art by Toshimitsu Fukiharu in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! This compilation of works by various botanists/ mushroom enthusiasts is a truly impressive one, and I look forward to seeing more from this author/publisher in the future! It was so very enjoyable & I feel like I learned much!

This book is perfect for anyone interested in 18th to 19th century European and Japanese naturalist art, mushrooms , nature-buffs, botany enthusiasts & historians, or those who find joy in looking at just plain beautiful art. This book has a certain addictive harmony between science, art, healing, pain, & beauty that is just utter brilliance! Who woudnt want to learn about fungi like this?? Absolutely brilliant!

This is a true work of art & knowledge that looks like it belongs in an ancient library ( which is a totally amazing compliment coming from me) just as much as it belongs in EVERY library! So much fun to read & observe. I truly enjoyed this so very much.

If you love historical art, botany, science, to learn, or all of the above interest you... you're going to want to check this out!

This gorgeous book is great for anyone who's a fan of mushrooms or beautiful artwork! There is a ton of work compiled from experts and other mushroom enthusiasts, and anyone who has a passion for mycology absolutely needs this book. I can't overstate how stunning this book was. The art was rich in color and lovingly reproduced, and I'm positive it'll be even more beautiful in physical form. A perfect gift or addition to a natural library!

Review to come October 17/18th to blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just love botany books, the drawings are often so gorgeous and pretty bringing the plant to life in front of your eyes. So this one definitely had to come with me on my Netgalley shelf.

And this was such an interesting book, it is split up in various chapters each highlighting another artist/naturalist (if you want to call it fancy) and a few of their works. Of course, everything is mushrooms. Big mushrooms, colourful mushrooms, tall mushrooms, mushrooms that just look like ears or a piece of bread. I loved reading about each naturalist and also see what kind of style they had for drawing nature. For example the first one is soft and colourful whereas the second naturalist goes for black/white/brown and, as I would call it, more stiff/stern drawings (sorry, I just don't know a better word for it, so I hope this makes sense). I loved all the different styles and ways to draw or show a mushroom. It was just so interesting and gave me new insights in the mushrooms. Oh, and made me want to go outside with a camera to snap some shots of mushrooms.
I definitely saw some mushrooms I have never seen (either in real life or in books) so that was a delight though I wanted to know where I could find these so I could see them for real. XD

But the blurb specifies that EACH painting show the plant (thus the mushroom) in its natural habitat.. but um, where then? I mean for most we just see one to multiple mushrooms. Sometimes there is a dot of grass or a tree bark seen, but that is it.

I do agree that this would be a great book for any artist who wants to try their hand at botanical drawings. The details in this one are just stunning and you can also see the way they did shadows and showed various bits of the mushrooms.

All in all, if you love mushrooms or botanical art I would recommend this gorgeous book to all.

I loved this entire book. The illustrations are gorgeous and the introductions to each section were beautifully well written and concise. Honestly this is the kind of book you want to have on your shelf just so you can sit and stare at the illustrations whenever you feel the urge to look back on how science progressed to the point it's at today & how differently we collected data on different species then versus now (because, as stated in the books introduction, we now often find new species by means of quantitative data analysis rather than qualitative, thus modern science really lacks the kind of in-depth scientific illustrations that previous eras of science were blessed with).

Mushroom Botanical Art is a stunning, extensive collection of mushroom and fungi illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries. The paintings are detailed, precise, and gorgeous. I would definitely recommend the print version to fully appreciate the artwork. This would be a great gift or reference for the mushroom enthusiast in your life.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

Okay so yes, I'll be honest with you: I may not be the target audience for this book. I am not a botanist. I neither work with nor hunt for mushrooms. I will likely never need to identify any fungus with this level of specificity. BUT? Examining these gorgeous drawings of various mushrooms was calming to me in a way that I cannot describe or explain. I want to hang prints of these illustrations all over my house and bask in their zen vibes like a little forest fairy. I am going to need a hard copy of this book to keep on hand for stressful days. Or I guess I'm really into mushrooms now? Is it too late to change my career track and professionally study mushrooms? 10/10, I don't care who you are as a person, you need this book in your life. Just trust me.

An absolute beautiful art book about mushrooms in different botanical illustration styles.

My main issue with this book is that we only get the Latin names and mushroom family name and not the common English names. Furthermore is there no other information than the illustration and the Latin name. I would have liked a tiny paragraph or something to go with it, it would have made this a treasure.

3 out of 5 stars for great illustrations, but it could've been 5 with some more information.

✨ 4.5 🍄

What a lil gem of a book.

As the title suggests, this is truly a botanical art book featuring various "...mushroom and fungi paintings by European and Japanese naturalists in 18th to 19th century...". If you are looking for something deeply informative and educational, this may be the wrong book for you. However, if you're looking for something to feast your eyes upon and delve into bits and bobs of thoughtfully written, well researched nuggets of historical information regarding various naturalists and mycologists, this is just the book for you!

I loved the beautiful page art for each section and so enjoyed reading each introduction. I also appreciated that the figures in each painting were noted at the bottom of the page so that I could have a reference point to research more information on my own.

I docked half a star as I had been under the impression that all of the artwork in this book would be in color, "...beautiful color plate illustrations of each mushroom will attract both botanical art fans and lover of mushrooms..." and although this is not the case, the artwork is still wonderful and such a treat.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a temporary eARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily because books are cool!

As a longtime lover and collector of gourmet and medicinal funghi from the woods around the Pacific Northwest in the United States, I can unequivocally say that this book is a must-have for anyone who appreciates the surreal and sublime beauty of nature's mushrooms. The level of detail in the artwork and the wide variety of styles is absolutely stunning!

NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital copy at no cost.

Mushroom Botanical Art is a collection of antique and public domain recreations of illustrations of mushrooms. Before each recreated collection pulled from individual books or other collections, there is a page with a few paragraphs of history regarding the artist and the pieces themselves.

As this is a collection of others' work and that work is primarily art, it's really not the easiest book to review. That being said, both the things the curator controls and the things they don't are well-done. The selections are great, and the diversity of art styles while still maintaining the theme of scientific botanical drawings were well-chosen. The write-ups before each section were brief yet informative.

That being said, aside from a coffee table art book, I don't believe this book offers much, which makes the ebook less worthwhile. I believe a collection of essays, either interspersed or added in another section, would help take this over the top. Essentially, for this to really feel like a good ebook, it needed more, in my opinion.

Overall, this is really does well with what it sets out to do. It would have been nice if it had been a touch more ambitious, though.