CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/26/2013

Pierre-Joseph Redouté: Botanical Artist to the Court of France

Featured image, "Centifolia Rose with Peacock Butterfly," is reproduced from NAi010's stunning new monograph on the eighteenth-century botanical artist to the court of France, Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Essayist Terry van Druten writes, "Few floral painters have been accorded such grand epithets as Pierre-Joseph Redouté: 'Raphael of flowers' and 'Rembrandt of roses.' Indeed very few botanical artists have had as glittering a career as he: dessinateur du cabinet de la reine to Queen Marie-Antoinette, peintre de fleurs to Empress Joséphine, drawing teacher to the Princesses Louise and Marie d’Orléans and protégé of the Duchesse de Berry. His books were presented to the crowned heads of Europe by Napoleon Bonaparte. And his pictures illustrate the works of the most eminent scientists of his time." Accompanying a survey of Redouté's works at the Teylers Museum in the Netherlands, this richly illustrated publication presents a wide selection of the master's books, drawings and watercolors.