The third of our exhibits on French botanical illustration continues our look at the works of Pierre Joseph Redouté, the Belgian or Luxemburgian native, who became France's most famous floral painter.
Last month's display concluded with Redouté's collaboration with the young Augustin Pyramus de Candolle on the Plantarum historia succulentorum, which featured color stipple engravings by Redouté after his own designs.
Color stipple engraving, a pointillist technique, in which images are conveyed by a series of etched dots and the open space between them, rather than by a series of lines, was to become the hallmark of Redouté's later printed work. The process was originally developed in France in the late eighteenth century, but was initially popularized in England by W. W. Ryland and Francesco Bartolozzi. Redouté claimed to have invented the process of using stipple engraving to print multiple colors on a single plate in 1796 - a claim which was upheld in the French courts and earned him a medal from King Louis XVIII.
The first work on display is the folio edition of Jean Jacques Rousseau's La Botanique published in 1805. It was also published in a large quarto edition the same year, with the text reset to fit the smaller format and with the numbering of the plates corrected. As in most of the pieces in this month's display, the plates are after Redouté originals, but engraved by other artists.
Throughout his career, beginning with Marie Antoinette, Redouté enjoyed patronage of those in power despite the continually changing regimes. One of his greatest patrons was the Empress Josephine, whom he served as official painter. Although he became teacher of painting to Empress Marie-Louise, after Josephine's divorce, his close relationship with the former Empress continued.
One result of this relationship was his illustration of Aimé Bonpland's Description des Plantes Rares Cultivées a Malmaison et a Navarre published from 1812 to 1817, although bearing a title page date of 1813. Limited to 325 copies, the work is a sequel to Pierre Ventenat's Jardin de la Malmaison published from 1803 to 1805, which also featured illustrations after Redouté. The text of the Description is by Bonpland, the botanist who accompanied von Humboldt in his explorations of South America, and who succeeded Ventenat as botanist to Josephine. All but nine of the illustrations are engraved by various artists after Redouté, the remainder are after Redouté's pupil, Pancrace Bessa. The Arboretum is fortunate to have four of the original paintings for the work - one of which will be displayed each week along with the appropriate engraving. This allows the viewer to see how some, but not all, elements of the work have been reversed in the engraving. In one instance it also shows that the engraver slipped up in attributing one image to Bessa which was actually painted by Redouté.
The high point of Redouté's illustrative career, apart from Les Roses, is generally regarded to be his Les Liliacées, an eight volume work published from 1802 through 1816 with 486 color stipple engravings by various artists after Redouté originals. The next item on display, it features text by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, R. de la Roche, and Alire Raffeneau-Delile.
The last item on display reflects the final stage of Redouté's career, that of elegant floral and botanical paintings and prints, where the ornamental facet of the work sometimes predominates over the botanical details. This stage of his career is represented by the color stipple engravings after Redouté in an undated issue of his Choix de Plus Belles Fleurs, the first edition of which was published from 1827 to 1833 with an 1829 title page imprint.
This is the text of an exhibit on display October 8 through November 4, 1997, in the rare book room at the back of the Warren H. Corning Library in the Waaren H. Corning Library and Visitors Center of The Holden Arboretum, 9500 Sperry Road, Kirtland, Ohio. It can be seen from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and on such weekends as the library is open.
Stanley Johnston, Curator of Rare Books, The Holden Arboretum
Clicking the following links will provide you with more information about the collection of rare books and artwork at The Holden Arboretum, the classes given using the collection, and the displays.