Bauer, Ferdinand Lucas (1760-1826)

Austrian botanist and illustrator who contributed to the replacement of the Linnaean classification system for plants during a trip to Australia 1801 with Robert Brown.

Bauer was born in Feldsberg, Lower Austria and later became known for his expert illustration of John Sibthorp's Flora Graeca. He was educated with his two brothers Joseph and Franz by monks in Feldsberg and helped to illustrate Father Boccius's 14-volume Hotus Botanicus while he studied under him. Then he went to Vienna to work for Nikolamus von Jacquin and it was there that he met John Sibthorp, who was professor of botany at Oxford University.

He travelled in Greece and the Levant with Sibthorp in 1786 and 1787, painting over 1,000 watercolours, mainly of plants. In 1801 he went to Australia with Matthew Flinders and Robert Brown. The work which he produced in Australia with Brown was important because it helped to overthrow Linnaeus's taxonomic system. Bauer was able to produce large numbers of watercolour illustrations because he sketched the plants in the field and painted them later.