The Blue Egyptian Water Lily
Joseph Constantine Stadler, after Robert John Thornton, 1804
$270
Print check at 18 x 24 in: 157 dpi, good. Trimmed 5.9% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $25.90 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Also drawn from Robert John Thornton's The Temple of Flora, this 1804 plate gives the Blue Egyptian Water Lily — Nymphaea caerulea, sacred to ancient Egypt and prized in English hothouses as an exotic new import — the same theatrical treatment as its sister plates: a botanically precise bloom set into a full atmospheric scene, engraved by Joseph Constantine Stadler after Thornton's design. What to notice: the lily floats at the base of the composition while the landscape behind it does the emotional work — Thornton believed a flower's character could only be fully felt in a mood, not a void. Thornton's project bankrupted him within a decade of publication, making surviving plates from The Temple of Flora both art-historically singular and genuinely rare — a beautiful, quixotic gamble that flowers deserved scenery.
- Maker
- Joseph Constantine Stadler, after Robert John Thornton
- Date
- 1804
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Credit
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00246
| Picture | 18 x 24 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 19.6 x 25.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | 375 | Excellent | Trimmed 0.4% |
| 11 x 14 in | 269 | Excellent | Trimmed 1.4% |
| 12 x 16 in | 235 | Excellent | Trimmed 5.9% |
| 16 x 20 in | 187 | Good | Trimmed 0.4% |
| 18 x 24 in | 157 | Good | Trimmed 5.9% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 16% crop |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 16% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 16% crop |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 16% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | 125 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 16% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | 94 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 78 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 16% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 3,004 x 3,770 px, srgb, sRGB.icc
- Tone
- Darks 91, lights 231 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 11.59
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
Cabinet of Curiosities
The old world’s book of wonders, for your wall.
All 69 pieces from Cabinet of Curiosities
