Pierre-Joseph Redouté ( 1759-1840) is considered to be one of the foremost botanical painters of his time. His career spanned many years, and he was the personal art teacher of Queen Marie-Antoinette as well as the Empresses Josephine and Marie-Louise after the French Revolution. After the monarchy was restored in France, he was the personal art teacher for the Duchesse du Barry and Queen Marie-Amelie. Redouté illustrated approximately 50 botanical books during his lifetime making him one of the most prolific and widely celebrated botanical artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. He was a student of the great botanical artist Van Spaedonck, and under him he mastered the art of stipple engraving, which made his botanical publications the wonder of the age. Stipple engraving is a process in which the image is composed of dots on a copper plate, with the color added to the plate itself. The resulting engraving was then finished by hand with water color, giving the flowers a delicately luminous quality.

Five lovely folio plates from this monumental botanical work; only two hundred copies were published, appearing in eighty fascicles issued from 1802 to 1816. Each plate also gives the title in French to the right of the Latin name. Each bears the imprint of P.J. Redoute as artist. Size varies slightly.

A. Heliconia Humilis / Heliconia a Petite Tige. A portrait of what is commonly referred to as a lobster-claw, engraved by De Gouy. Condition: Lightly toned with some minor scattered foxing and offsetting from an opposing page. (B)

B. Scilla Bifolia / Scille a Deux Feuilles. The two-leaf or alpine squill is the focus of this print, engraved by Chapuy. Condition: Lightly foxed and trimmed at right with minor loss of imprint. (B+)

C. Allium Obliquum / Ail Oblique. Twisted-leaf garlic, engraved by Langlois. Condition: Lightly toned with small scattered foxing. There is minor offsetting from an opposing page. (B)

D. Amaryllis Montana / Amaryllis des Montagnes. Engraved by Langlois. Condition: On a foxed sheet and trimmed at right with minor loss of imprint. (B)

E. Melanthium Gramineum / Melanthium a Feuilles de Gramen. This depicts the plant that is properly called Androcymbium gramineum. Engraved by Chapuy. Condition: Foxed throughout and trimmed at right with small loss of French title and imprint. (B)

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Condition:

See description above.