Vintage Butterfly Prints and Illustrations: A Free Treasure Trove for Art Lovers

Explore a curated selection of free vintage poppy illustrations and paintings, perfect for adding a classic touch to art projects, crafts, and home décor.

With remembrance day next month, I thought I would add to my collection of vintage flower illustrations with these free pictures of poppies to download.

Poppies as a symbol

The poppy sellers are currently out in full force, raising money for veterans. Poppies become a symbol of remembrance of fallen soldiers following the trench warfare in the poppy fields of Flanders, Belgium, during World War I.

I remember in 2014 being moved by the ceramic poppies art installation at the Tower of London.

The major art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London marked one hundred years since Britain’s first full day of involvement in the First World War. Created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, 888,246 ceramic poppies progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat. Each poppy represented a British military fatality during the war.

Poppies The Flower

Poppies are often grown for their colourful flowers. Some species of poppies have narcotic properties, such as the opium poppy. The edible poppy seeds are harvested to be used in the baking of bread and cakes.

Poppies can reach up to a meter in height with flowers up to 15 centimeters across and they tend to have 4 to 6 petals.

The petals are showy and come in a variety of colours and some are variegated. In the temperate zones, poppies bloom from spring into early summer.

The Free Poppy Illustrations & Paintings to Download

These vintage poppy pictures are copyright free, just click on the title of the picture of the poppy you want to download. The downloads will be of a higher resolution.

Poppy Prints 1-6

1. 1900 Poppies Illustration

These poppy pictures are from the book “Birds And Nature” published in 1900.

2. Burbank Poppies

This wonderful picture of poppies to download is from the Burbank seed book.

3. Long Prickly-Headed Poppy

This long prickly-headed poppy picture is from the 1857 book “Wild Flowers” by Anne Pratt.

4. The Great Scarlet Poppy

This species of the poppy is grown to produce thebaine, which is commercially converted to codeine and semi-synthetic opiates.

A beautiful poppies picture to download from the 1821 ” Collectanea botanica or, figures and botanical illustrations of rare and curious exotic plants“, by John Lindley.

5. Iceland Poppy

An illustration of an Iceland Poppy from the 1826 book ” Flora conspicua“,  by William Clark and Richard Morris.

6. Opium Poppy

Vintage poppy illustration to download: Opium Poppy. From the 1910 book ” Die Giftpflanzen Deutschlands ” (The poisonous plants of Germany) by Peter Esser.

Poppy Prints 7-11

7. The Common Poppy

This is the poppy variety that is used as the symbol of remembrance. It is from the Familiar wild flowers figured and described by F. Edward Hulme (1878).

8. 1911 Common Poppy

This is the poppy you often see growing wild along the road side. From a German botanical atlas dated 1911.

9. Oriental Poppy

Vintage pictures of poppies, oriental poppy. A William Curtis illustration from the Botanical Magazine 1788.

10. Poppies from “Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe“

Vintage plant art print of garden poppies 1886.

Print 11: Common Poppy John Curtis

This common poppy was painted by the entomologist John Curtis, you can see many more of his vintage entomology illustrations here featuring flowers.

Poppies are one of my favourite flowers, I even painted my shed in a poppy inspired design.

If you like these pictures of poppies then you might want to check out some of these other flower posts, such as these bluebell illustrations and wonderful vintage lily prints.

• How to Make A Gallery Wall From Old Picture Frames
• Collection of Antique Botanical posters
• Botanical Leaf Prints from the Forest
• Peony Paintings
• Tulip Paintings

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