1803 Corydalis, Sellier after Bessa and Redoute, 51x34 cm, hand colored, botany

Sellier, François Noël (b.1737) after; Pancrace Bessa (1772–1846) and Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840)

Corydalis (from Greek korydalís "crested lark") is a genus of about 470 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants in the family Papaveraceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and the high mountains of tropical eastern Africa. They are most diverse in China and the Himalayas, with at least 357 species in China.

51 x 34 cm. Hand coloured

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.