Located within the Gallop Extension at Singapore Botanic Gardens is the Botanical Art Gallery. Housed within a colonial-era building along Gallop Road, the gallery is a space to enjoy the beauty found in nature and art.
Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Art Collection
The Singapore Botanic Gardens has a collection of over 2,000 botanical illustrations and hundreds of sketches, line drawings and photographs. These have been acquired over the last 125 years.
A curated selections of these artworks are on display with the Botanical Art Gallery at the Gardens’ Gallop Extension.
The works include prints, illustrations and artefacts which feature plants and flowers. The artworks include watercolours, ink drawings and wood block carvings. Some of these works date back as far as 1890.
Besides artworks, there are also rare books featured within the Botanical Art Gallery at the Gallop Extension.
Botanical Art Gallery Highlights
Some of the highlights that can be found at the Botanical Art Gallery include artworks that showcase species native to Singapore. Among these are watercolour illustrations of species that are now locally extinct.
There is also a set of engraving of tropical plants that was made by the Japanese in Singapore during World War II.
In line with Singapore Botanic Garden’s focus on orchids, the Botanical Art Gallery also features more than 700 art pieces on orchid species and hybrids.
There is also a table with a projection that shows the process which botanical art illustrator Waiwai Hove takes when she is creating a botanical painting.
Another projected animation This is not still life shows the diversity of plants and their stages of growth from seed to mature plants.
7 Gallop Road: Inverturret
The bungalow which the Botanical Art Gallery is housed in at 7 Gallop Road is a historic building. It was built in 1906 and originally owned by Charles MacArthur, the chairman of the Straits Trading Company. It was named Inverturret, a Scottish name which conjures up images of the streams of the highlights.
Both Inverturret and the neighbouring 5 Gallop Road were eventually bought over by the Straits Trading Company. They were then rented out to the French Government. Number 7, now the Botanical Art Gallery, was the ambassador’s residence. It continued in this role till 1999.
The two houses were restored by the government in 2012.
Now, as the Botanical Art Gallery and it focus on artworks of various mediums, the building is entering yet another chapter in its history, providing visitors with different perspectives on the amazing world of plants.
