PIERRE JOSEPH REDOUTE FAMOUS PRINTS
Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) was one of the most famous flower painters of all times.
He used to produce flower paintings with a bright transparency, thanks to his watercolor technique. Marie-Antoinette appointed him as her court painter. Encounters with the royal family were, however, rare. A famous incidence was Redoute's visit to the royal family in prison during the revolution. They had Pierre Joseph Redouté come to see them, because a rare cactus was in bloom and they wanted this beautiful moment captured in a picture.
During the 1790s, Redouté became one of the most popular flower painters. He perfected the color stipple engraving technique, which he had learned during a stay in London and first applied it in his illustrations for de Candolle's work "Plantes Grasses". From 1802 he published his "Liliacées", in which he largely applied the technical possibilities of color printing to the large and evenly colored leaves and blossoms. In this work he also breached the flower painters' tradition of framing the plants with an outer contour line.
In 1805 he was appointed court and flower painter to the Empress Josephine. After she had been overthrown, he remained in close contact with the Bourbon royal family. From 1817 to 1824 he produced the work that was to become the peak of his success, namely the monography "Les Roses" in an excellent print by Firmin Didot. Each delivery of the finished color copperplates, was received with a storm of enthusiasm, but in spite of his fame and his employment at court, he continued to attribute more importance to the scientific detail than to the effects of composition and color seen in purely artistic flower paintings.
