The Bauer Brothers
Three Visionaries from Valtice
Born in the 18th century in Valtice, the three Bauer brothers revolutionized scientific illustration. The Australian plant genus Bauera was named in their honour by Sir Joseph Banks to recognize their global contribution to botany.
The Codex Liechtenstein
Most celebrated botanical illustrators in history
While in Valtice, the young brothers contributed thousands of highly accurate watercolor illustrations to the Codex Liechtenstein ( Liber regni vegetabilis ), a 14-volume botanical encyclopedia documenting local and exotic flora.
Be inspired
View reproductions of Bauer brothers' hyper-realistic sketches and learn about Ferdinand's secret "colour-by-number" system at Valtice Town Museum. Ferdinand would sketch plants in the wild and assign numbers to 1,000+ shades, allowing him to paint them accurately months later in his studio.
Further afield
The Natural History Museum Vienna holds the most extensive collection of Ferdinand Bauer's materials: over 2,000 original pencil sketches and drawings, his original herbarium, animal skins and bird specimens from Australia and Norfolk Island.
The Brothers
Three careers, one Valtice origin
Ferdinand Bauer: The great explorer, who joined Captain Matthew Flinders on the first circumnavigation of Australia (1801-1803). He developed a secret 1,000-shade color-coding system to accurately record plants in the field without needing immediate paints.
Franz (Francis) Bauer: Served as the first permanent botanical painter at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and pioneered the use of microscopes to document plant anatomy and orchid structures. Became a member of the Royal Society and was appointed ‘Botanic Painter to His Majesty’ King George III. Buried at St. Anne’s Church, Kew next to Thomas Gainsborough.
Josef Bauer: The curator, who became the Director of the Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna, managing one of Europe’s most significant art collections.
The story revisited
“The Bauer Brothers: The story of Three Boys from Valtice”
The 2025 publication of The Bauer Brothers: The Story of Three Boys from Valtice, by local artists who, under the expert guidance of Prof. Lack, have reimagined the brothers’ legendary botanical art and their journey from Moravian orphans to global pioneers.
You can buy signed copies and limited edition prints through ledniceart.com.
Botanical Legacy
See Lednice-Valtice through the eyes of the Bauer brothers
The historical Palm House in Lednice (Greenhouse) contains several species that defined the Bauers’ careers. Look for ‘bottlebrush’ flowers Banksia (Proteaceae family) in the greenhouse, their complex structure was the ultimate test of Ferdinand’s color-coding system. Notice the intricate ‘labellum’ (lip) of the Orchids (Orchidaceae) flowers, which Franz was the first to draw under a microscope. Enjoy Strelitzia reginae (Bird of Paradise), Franz Bauer’s illustrations of the Strelitzia are considered some of the finest botanical art in history.
Walk through the Valtice Herb Garden, which maintains the tradition of the scientific plant collection the Bauers would have studied, and visit Valtice Chateau Herbarium as the brothers’ first “classroom” was the Liechtenstein gardens.
Keep Reading
Connect the Bauer story back to the landscape
Their story pairs naturally with Lednice’s botanical spaces, Valtice’s cultural setting, and the wider homepage framing around the people who shaped the region.