Redouté's Flora

"The Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs (Selection of the most beautiful flowers) is the masterpiece of [Pierre-Joseph] Redouté’s later years. This most celebrated of botanical artists (1759-1840) came from a Belgian family of painters, and served [..] as drawing master to the queens and princesses of France for half a century. Among his pupils were Louise and Marie d’Orléans, to whom the Choix was dedicated: the latter became the first Queen of the Belgians. Over his eighty years, Redouté weathered the many changes in French society with remarkable ease, prospering under old and new regimes by adjusting to the times.

The great multivolume folio scientific monographs of his middle period – the roses, the lilies, the succulent plants – were complemented in his later years by elegant quarto albums that featured selections of the more beautiful or striking plants. They were, essentially, art books of the highest quality. The finest of these, the Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs was issued in 36 parts between 1827 and 1833, with 144 superb hand-colored stipple engravings, of fruit as well as flowers. It is notable, too, for its retrospective preface, in which Redouté reflects on his life and achievements." [source]

• 'Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs et des Plus Beaux Fruits' by Pierre-Joseph Redouté is available in a couple of formats from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. [Redouté titles at BHL].
• See previous Redouté posts on BibliOdyssey with further background links: Lily and Les Roses - Redouté. {And in general: flora}
• Portrait and biography at Artnet.
• The images above were extracted from the pdf. All were spot cleaned to various extents and the colour saturation was slightly boosted for about half the selection.
• Excerpts from 'The floral art of Pierre-Joseph Redouté' by MR Michel et al, 2002 are accessible at Googlebooks.
• By coincidence I discovered that 'Pierre-Joseph Redout: Choix Des Plus Belles Fleurs' by HW Lack and W Dressendorffer will be published by Taschen in the next few weeks. (note the cover title appears to be: 'The Most Beautiful Flowers') [There is no listing at the Taschen site as yet]