Plant Portraits: The California Legacy of A.R. Valentien August 3, 2007 to January 21, 2008 In 1908, an artist named Albert Valentien embarked on a remarkable undertaking: he set out to document the plants of California by painting vivid, precisely observed portraits of plants he collected on his travels throughout the extremely diverse ecosystems the state, from deserts to high alpine forests to rocky oceanfront beaches. Valentien’s resulting watercolors carefully portray the unique features of each plant he chose, and leaves and flowers seem to curl with life and freshness off the paper. Many of the plants portrayed are endemic to California, and some are now endangered species. This exhibition, organized by the San Diego Natural History Museum in collaboration with the Irvine Museum, presents 40 of Valentien’s best paintings.