Tulipa Gesneriana

Pay with

About Tulipa Gesneriana

Paris: (C.L.F. Panckoucke, 1827-1833). Stipple engraving, printed in colours and finished by hand, engraved by Langlois. Good condition apart from mild soiling, mostly marginal. Sheet size: 13 3/8 x 9 3/4 inches. A beautiful image from "Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs": one of greatest flower books ever published by the most celebrated flower painter of all time.This tulip was named after Conrad Gessner (1516-65), a polymath who published the first scientific description and depiction of a tulip in 1561.Pierre-Joseph Redoute was one of the world's great flower painters. Born into a family that had been painters for at least two generations, Redoute went to Paris in 1782 with his brother where they worked as scene painters for the Theatre Italien. Redoute painted flowers in his spare time. The search for subjects led him to the Jardin du Roi and eventually to Gerard van Spaendonck who made him an assistant. While at the Jardin du Roi, Redoute came to know Charles-Louis L'Heritier, an amateur botanist and writer of independent means. He gave Redoute a full time job as an illustrator, instructing him in plant anatomy. Redoute's scientific understanding of plants contributed greatly to the clarity of his depictions. But it was Redoute's work in stipple engraving and colour printing that was to be of the greatest importance. Stippling and the application of two or three colour inks to one plate were engraving innovations that Redoute brought to French printmaking, and these were brought to perfection in his three great works: Les Liliacees (1802-1816), Les Roses (1817-1824) and the work from which this image comes Choix des plus belles fleurs... et ... des plus belles fruits which was published in 36 parts with 144 plates between 1827 and 1833.The present image shows Redoute at his most assured, combining the best of his artistic background with his skill as an observer of nature.