When it comes to illustration from the 19th and 20th centuries, there’s no richer area to explore than that of vintage botanical illustration. The sheer quantity of vintage flower illustrations available is just mind-boggling. Hundreds, possibly thousands of artists over the years turned their tools to creating etchings, drawing and paintings of flowers and plants from a variety of vantage points. Science, horticulture, home entertaining and gardening – all of these different areas produced botanical illustration!

Some of the biggest resources we’ve found are 19th century horticulture magazines, exquisitely illustrated, often lithograph (a popular choice at the time for creating detailed prints) and hand colored with watercolor.

In the gallery of free vintage botanical illustrations below you’ll find just about any flower you can think of! Here are just a few:

  • Lilies
  • Peonies
  • Vintage roses
  • Tulips

All now in the public domain and completely copyright-free (thank you, ever turning wheel of time), which means you can use them however you like! For graphic design, social media, textile prints, in products – the options are endless. As a bonus, we’ve gone ahead and tidied up the images by isolating the flowers on a white background, for maximum ease of use.

We’re continuously adding more free vintage illustrations to our archive! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, or sign up to our mailing list (you’ll see it here on the right) to see our latest treasures from the public domain.

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