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During the 1790s, Redouté gained international recognition as one of the most popular flower painters in the world. His renderings of plants remain as fresh now as when he first painted them. He was recognized as a celebrity with a fashionable clientele, a private apartment in the Louvre, a country residence outside of Paris and a salary of 18,000 francs (0,000) a year. He perfected the colour stipple engraving technique, which he had learned during his stay in London and first applied it in his illustrations for L’Héritier’s publication of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle’s work, Plantes Grasses Succulents. It was Redouté’s first major botanical work featuring only colour-printed plates, and his last publishing collaboration with L’Hériter. In 1798 the Empress Josephine Bonaparte, the first wife of Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, became his patron and appointed him to paint the flowers of her garden at Château de Malmaison. She was resolute in filling her gardens with the finest specimens of nature as well as having their essence preserved on paper. That same year Redouté published 500 plates of exquisite lilies in his book Liliacées. In 1819 his paintings were exhibited at the Louvre. In 1824 his most famous work, Les Roses, was published. It was said that each delivery of the finished colour copperplates was received with a storm of enthusiasm. It was these two works which distinguished Redouté as a true artist and not merely an illustrator. Between 1802 and 1816, eight folio volumes were printed, each dedicated to Empress Josephine. After Joséphine’s death, Redouté was appointed a Master of Draughtsmanship for the National Museum of Natural History. He became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1825. Between 1827 and 1833 Choices of Beautiful Flowers and Fruits, was printed. By then Redouté had become a master engraver of such singularity that he was able to apply all of his colours at once on one single copper plate. Folio editions of this masterwork 58 | The Good Life France
were published each year for seven following years. In 1834 he was awarded the prestigious Order of Leopold of Belgium for his artistic contributions. Eva Mannering, who wrote the introduction to the 1954 publication of Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s Roses remarked, “The conditions which made possible a work like this exist no longer, nor do the roses themselves as they are illustrated in this book… They are reminders of a more leisurely age, pleasing and delighting us in their colourful abundance. For by giving us one rose, he has given us at the same time, all the roses of all summer days.” https://frenchcountryadventures.com/ The Good Life France | 59
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