1803 Xylia xylocarpa ["Fabaceae"], 51 cm, after Bessa & Redouté, botany

Redouté (1759-1840) and Pancrace Bessa (1772–1846) after; engraved by Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840).

Dimensions

Height: 20.08 in. (51 cm)

Width: 13.39 in. (34 cm)

From the series:

VENTENAT, Etienne Pierre (1757-1808). 

Choix de plantes, dont la plupart sont cultivées dans le jardin de Cels. 

Paris: Crapelot, 'An XI - 1803' [1803-1808].

Redouté (1759-1840), the most celebrated student of Gerard Van Spaëndonck was, during the course of his long career, both 'Dessinateur du Cabinet de Marie-Antoinette' and 'Peintre de Fleurs' to Josephine Beauharnais. The latter commissioned him to make an artistic record of her garden of rare plants at Malmaison. The result, a collaboration with Ventenat, was the famous Jardin de Malmaison (1803-04). This present work, published around the same time, is further testimony to their successful collaboration. '[I]n terms of sustained consistency of quality over a vast output, Redouté has no parallel in the history of flower painting' (E. Hardouin-Fugier and E. Grafe, French Flower Painters of the 19th Century, 1989, p.334). 

References: Nissen BBI 2047; Stafleu & Cowen, VI 16.008.