Beschrijving
Artiest: P.J. Redouté/Lemaire sculp
Techniek: kopergravure
Jaartal /eeuw: 1812
Formaat: 25×41 cm/9.9×16.1 inches
Artikel nr: 1199/408
Pierre-Joseph Redouté (10 juli 1759 – 20 juni 1840), was een Franse schilder en plantkundige.
Redouté werd het meest bekend door zijn schilderijen van bloemen in de tuin van Malmaison. Hij werd geboren in Saint-Hubert, destijds een deel van Luxemburg, maar tegenwoordig België. Hij was de officiële hofartiest van Marie Antoinette, voor wie hij planten uit de tuin van het Kleine Trianon schilderde. Tijdens de woelige dagen van de Franse revolutie en de Terreur bleef Redouté schilderen. Zijn opdracht was het om tuinen die nationaal eigendom waren geworden te documenteren.
In dienst van keizerin Joséphine de Beauharnais kon hij zijn talenten uitleven in boeken met tekeningen van bloemen van over de hele wereld en tekeningen van de rozen in de tuin van Malmason. Na de dood van Joséphine maakte Redouté een moeilijke periode door. In 1822 trad hij in dienst bij het Museum d’Histoire Naturelle. Drie jaar later werd hij ridder in het Légion d’honneur.
Behalve als schilder in de traditie van Vlaamse en Nederlandse meesters zoals Jan Brueghel de Oude, Rachel Ruysch, Jan van Huysum en Jan Davidsz. de Heem was Redoute ook voor de wetenschap van belang. Hij maakte meer 2.100 tekeningen van 1.800 verschillende soorten planten, waarvan een groot aantal tot op dat moment onbekend was.
Copperengraving
Artist: P.J. Redouté/Lemaire sculp
Technique: copperengraving
Year / century: 1812
Size: 25×41 cm/9.9×16.1 inches
Article nr: 1199/408
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, (July 10, 1759 – June 20, 1840), was a Belgian painter and botanist, known for his paintings of the roses, lilies and other flowers at Malmaison. Redouté was born in Saint-Hubert, Luxembourg, which is now part of Belgium. He was an official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette, and he continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. Redouté survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants which remain as fresh in the early 21st century as when first painted.
Paris was the cultural and scientific center of Europe during an outstanding period (1798 – 1837) in the illustration of plants, one noted for the publication of several folio books with colored plates. Redouté contributed over 2100 published plates depicting over 1800 different species, many never rendered before.
Although he was relatively lacking in formal education, both Redouté’s father and grandfather were painters. He left home at the age of 13 to earn his living as an itinerant Belgian painter, doing interior decoration, portraits and religious commissions. Enthusiastically, Redouté became an heir to the tradition of the Flemish and Dutch flower painters Brueghel, Ruysch, van Huysum and Jan Davidz de Heem.
Clerodendrum viscosum by Pierre-Joseph RedoutéIn 1782 Redouté joined his elder brother, Antoine Ferdinand, an interior decorator and scenery designer in Paris. Cheveau, a Parisian dealer, brought the young artist to the attention of the botanical artist Gerard van Spaendonck at the Jardin du Roi, which became the Jardin des Plantes of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle after the French Revolution. There he met the botanist and book lover Charles Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle. van Spaendonck became Redouté’s teacher, L’Heritier his patron[1] who taught him to dissect flowers and portray their diagnostic characteristics. L’Heritier also introduced Redouté to members of the court of Versailles. In 1786 Redouté began work at the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle cataloging the collections of flora and fauna and participating in botanical expeditions, notably Bonaparte’s Egyptian expedition.
Over his long career, Redouté painted the gardens at the Petite Trianon of Marie Antoinette as her official court artist. During the revolution and Reign of Terror, he was appointed to document gardens which became national property. However, during the patronage of the generous Empress Josephine, Redouté’s career flourished and he produced his most sumptuous books portraying plants from places as distant as Japan, South Africa and Australia as well as Europe and America.
After Josephine’s death, Redouté’s fortunes fell until he was appointed as a master of design for the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle in 1822. He became a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in 1825. Although particularly renowned for his botanical exploration of roses and lilies, he thereafter produced paintings purely for aesthetic value including those of the celebrated “Choix des plus”.