Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) was a Belgian painter who spent most of his life in France. He managed to survive all the changes and upheavals of the French revolution and its aftermath, and has been (unflatteringly) called "the Talleyrand of the Arts"! More flatteringly, perhaps, he is also known as the Raphael of flowers...
Redouté´s most generous patron was Napoleon´s wife, the empress Joséphine, but he was also on good terms with the courts of Louis XVI, Charles X and Louis Philippe. I recently bought a small Taschen book containing reprints of the plates from Redouté´s magnum opus "Les Roses", published in 1817-1824. Yes, it shows roses.
While various reprints of the rose illustrations are readily available, the original water colors (bought by French king Charles X) are mostly unaccounted for and are apparently sold for crazy sums when they occasionally resurface. The earliest editions of the book itself are kept under lock and key in several European libraries, since art thieves have sometimes cut out some of the plates and sold them on the black market!
My kingdom for a rose?
For a small fee one can purchase quality reproductions here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.audubonart.com/product/redoute-les-roses-pl-38-redoute-rose/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwm_SzBhAsEiwAXE2CvzNJaIHSXdkknYylYBCXkrzwei4Zv4oSK4g6QDSCzHXmxmP7AxyW3BoCqEgQAvD_BwE
Oppenheimer's article on collecting Natural History; ferns and shells.
Deletehttps://www.audubonart.com/an-obsession-with-natural-history-and-victorian-collecting-crazes/
https://ashtarbookblog.blogspot.com/2018/08/suffering-from-pteridomania.html
ReplyDeleteWell, I´ve heard of "pteridomania" before... ;-)
Read the article. The sociological and ideological dimensions are fascinating...
ReplyDelete