Botanicals, Fruit, Cherries, Redouté

Cherries. - "Cerasus - Cerisier"

PlateT 3 - 7

Aquatint. Printed in color and hand-finished. Extremely high quality.

Engraver: Lemaire

After the painting by Pierre-Josepoh Redouté (1759-1840)

Published in ãTrabte des Arbres et Arbustes que l'on cultive en France en Pleine Terre"

By Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759-1840)

Paris, 1801-1819

Very light traces of age and use.

Plate marks: 30,8 x 22,8 cm (ca. 12.1 x 8.9")

Sheet: 40 x 31,5 cm (ca. 15.7 x 12.4")

Various Botanical Prints by Redouté

One of the great landmarks among the masterpieces of flower books was definitely set by Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759 St. Hubert - 1840 Paris). His fame began to rise when Emperess Josephine Bonaparte hired him in 1798, convinced that only he could fulfill her desire to portrait her beloved flower gardens in the chateau of Malmaison. A series of flower books, produced in the highest of quality resulted from Redouté's engagement to this task: "Jardin de Malmaison", "Description des Plantes rares cultivées à Malmaison et à Navarre", 8 explicity delicate volumes of "Les Liliacées" and, his most famous "Les Roses". In 1799 he finished "Arbres et Arbustes"which has superb stipple engravings of common and exotic trees and bushes. Redouté used the technique of stipple engraving aquatint and printed, most of all, in the finest of color! These techniques carried him to unprecidented fame regarding the printing of flower books which has even increased in our time and age, as more people than ever before around the world have access to and, thus, knowledge of the fine art the name of Redouté represents. The editions of books of his time have by no means been large enough to accomodate comfortably the desire of the many who would like to own at least one of these fine samples of flower or tree prints. Occasionally, with the fortune of the determined, a dealer has the luck to find and buy some of Redouté's work.