Two ink drawings on paper depicting the same view of Guanabara bay, with a banana plantation and the Pao de Açucar, near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This scene has also been included in Flora Brasiliensis, as plate LV in volume 1.1. Plate LV is lithographed after a drawing by Belgian artist and botanist Benjamin Mary (1792-1846), made in 1837. The largest drawing of the two present here (ad 1) is believed to be this drawing by Mary.
Flora Brasiliensis is a 15-volume work on Brazilian plants edited by botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius and others. It was published between 1840 and 1906 and systematically categorised the known plants in the region. The numerous plates were designed by many different artists, including Benjamin Mary. He lived in Rio de Janeiro from 1832-1837, so his Brazilian drawings were based on his own observations. Although the present drawing is unsigned, it can be attributed to Mary due to stylistic similarities with his other works, its exact likeness to the litho in Flora Brasiliensis and its provenance (both drawings are from the collection of the Von Martius family).
The second drawing depicts the same scene, but is clearly made by a different artist. It is signed "A. L." in the lower left corner. This work has been attributed to Carl August Lebschée (1800-1877), a German artist who also made drawings for the Flora Brasiliensis. However, this is uncertain, because he typically monogrammed his work with C. L.
Both drawings in very good condition. Cf. for the Flora Brasiliensis: Borba de Moraes 525 f; Nissen BBI 2248; Stafleu & Cowan 5538.