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About Pierre-Joseph Redouté
​(1759-1840)​

This page is about the botanical artist and royal flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840)

This site includes
  • a timeline of his life and career
  • reference links to biographies and books about his life and work.
  • online galleries of images and exhibitions which display his work
Pierre-Joseph Redouté was one of the most talented botanical artists ever known. 

He is also possibly the most popular botanical artist in history.

Many people first become interested in botanical art after seeing reproductions of his paintings of roses, lilies and other flowers.

He was born in 1759 in what is now Belgium and died in June 1840. 

Redouté was fortunate to become an artist who was patronized by the kings of France from Louis XVI to Louis-Philippe. 

​His profile also has a unique claim to fame. His status and reputation was enhanced in no small way due to his patronage by two of the premier first ladies of European history - Marie Antoinette and Josephine Bonaparte.
Picture
Crown Imperial. Fritillaria imperialis var. jaune par P.J. Redouté. Plate of watercolor . Choix des plus belles fleurs et des plus beaux fruits, t. 2, P.J. Plate is 1827. Text is 1833
During his career:
  • he dominated botanical painting between 1790 - 1830
  • he was art tutor to Marie Antoinette (the last Queen of France) and she became his patron. Redouté received the title of "Draughtsman and Painter to the Queen's Cabinet".
  • in 1798 The Empress Josephine Bonaparte, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, also became his patron and appointed him to paint the flowers of the garden at Malmaison.
  • his works were exhibited in The Louvre
  • he produced over 2,100 paintings for published plates depicting over 1,800 different species, many of which had never been rendered before
​His two famous books were
  • Les Liliacees (1802 - 15) 500 plates of lilies.
  • Les Roses (1817 - 21) He's best known for his roses. His series of rose paintings are his finest work.
His work continues to be popular and is widely reproduced - in both reproduction prints and books about his artwork.
"I believe I managed to succeed in the triple conjunction of exactitude, composition and colour, the union of which is the only means of bringing vegetal iconography to perfection"
​Pierre-Joseph Redouté 1817
The Book of Flowers (Multilingual Edition) 
by H Walter Lack with illustrations by Pierre Joseph Redoute
Picture
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
​If you buy just one book about Redoute buy this one - if you can. It's currently out of print - but has been reproduced in a cheaper smaller version in 2020. I've got the BIG one!

Key Features are:
  • Full plate engraved images on each page of the most astounding images from The Lilies plus all engravings from Redouté’s illustrations of Roses and Choix des plus belles fleurs.
  • It's MASSIVE and VERY HEAVY 
  • over 600 pages - which means even more space for full plates of paintings by Redoute.​
COMHardcover:  608 pages
Publisher: Taschen Multilingual edition 
​First Edition (April 16, 2018)
Size: 
25 x 34.5 cm
Weight: 4.12 kg


(Note: there's also a smaller compact version - published in June 2020 - which has fewer pages and less content.)
​

Average Customer Rating (for Extra Large version) out of 5 stars:
  • in UK - 4.8 stars ( based on 70 customer reviews)
  • in USA - 4.8 stars (based on 80 customer reviews
EXTRA LARGE VERSION (2018)
Redoute. Book of Flowers: FP from Amazon UK
COMPACT VERSION (2020)
Redoute. Book of Flowers - 40th Anniversary Edition (QUARANTE) from Amazon UK
Redouté. Book of Flowers (Multilingual Edition) from Amazon.com
Redouté. Book of Flowers – 40 Years (English, German and French Edition) from Amazon.com
Picture

A Biographical Timeline (1759-1840)
​​

Picture
Portrait of Pierre-Joseph Redouté

1759-1781 - Belgium and the Low Countries

1759 - Born July 10, 1759 in St. Hubert, Ardennes, Belgium. Redouté is Belgian (not French), even though he lived for most of his life in France.

He was the second son in his family and was born into a long line of Belgian painters. His father taught him to paint and by the age of 6 young Pierre-Joseph was producing small paintings. 

Age 13, he left home to earn his living as an artist. He then spent the next 10 years living a precarious life as an itinerant painter. He travelled across Flanders and the Low Countries and studied the paintings of the Flemish Masters when and where he could. 

In Amsterdam, he came across the flower paintings of both Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) and Jan van Huysum (1682-1749) who were prominent Dutch 18th century flower painters whose paintings sold for lots of money.  Given his previously precarious existence both the flower paintings and their undoubted value doubtless provided a catalyst for the future direction of subject matter for his painting
Picture
Vase of Flowers on a Garden Ledge (1730) by Jan van Huysem

1782-1786 - Paris

1782 - Age 23, he joined his elder brother in Paris to work as a stage-set designer for the new Theatre Italien.

He devoted his time off to a developing interest in painting flowers. He was also given instruction in the technique of colour-printing. He also attended lectures by Gerard van Spaendonck, a Dutch painter and the official Royal Professor of Painting for the French court.  

​He sought rare plants to draw and drew the many unusual plants in the glasshouses of  Le Jardin de Roi - The Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants - now known as the Jardin des Plantes.


A record - and archive - of all plants brought to the garden was made through drawings and paintings - now known as Collection des Vélins (The Collection of Vellum). Today it contains nearly 7,000 gouaches and watercolors on vellum representing flowers, plants and animals.

This is where he met Charles L'Heritier de Brutelle, a noted French aristocrat, biologist and plant collector.  ​L’Héritier was a committed devotee of Linnaeus
  • He taught Redouté about  plant anatomy, the dissection of flowers and their scientific representation - and what botanists required of illustrations.  
  • ​Heritier commissioned him to illustrate a book on botany. As a result he created more than 50 drawings which were then engraved to become plates in L'Heritier's Stirpes Novae (New Plants 1784-85) 
Picture
Le Jardin des Plantes in 1730 on the map of Paris by Roussel
REFERENCE: 
  • The Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants | Wikipedia 
  • ​Biodiversity Heritage Library: Stirpes novae :aut minus cognitae, quas descriptionibus et iconibus /illustravit Carolus-Ludovicus L'Héritier​

1786-1787 - London (Kew)

1786 - L'Heritier visited London in 1786 and Redouté went with him to London (Kew) when 6. Here he
  • Met English botanical painters such as James Sowerby
  • learned about different printing techniques
  • created the drawings for plates for a new publication called Sertum Anglicum  (An English Garland) by L'Heritier. This is a study of the rare plants growing at Kew. This was published in 1788.  In total he created over 500 drawing for L'Heritier.
Biodiversity Heritage Library: Sertum Anglicum
Portrait of Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Portrait of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (c.1800) by Louis-Léopold Boilly

1788 - 1840 Paris 

Redouté was fortunate to be living in Paris at the very end of le Siècle des Lumières (the Age of Enlightenment 1715-1789) when the city was a centre for both science and culture.
He achieved his success as a painter while working for the French royal court and had a talent for surviving as a painter for those at the top of French Society despite political changes

His institutional affiliation brought him
  • the position art tutor to Marie Antoinette. She became his patron and gave him the title of "Draughtsman and Painter to the Queen's Cabinet"  of Marie-Antoinette
  • which in turn allowed him access to the Petit Trianon gardens
  • continued contact with Gerard van Spaendonck (1746-1822) Flower Painter to the King who mentored him
Spaendonck by this date was painting in pure watercolour on vellum. He taught Redouté the technique of painting on vellum and in 1875, Redouté produced several works for the famous Vélins du Roi under Spaendonck’s direction. By his own account, his student's work was finer than his own.

He was also taught stipple engraving by Gilles Demarteau  who was a superior draughtsman and the Royal Engraver or 'Graveur des Dessins du Cabinet du Roi'

1786 - He worked at the Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle (Museum of Natural History). He catalogued the collections of flora and fauna and was also involved in a botanical expedition to Egypt

1792 - He was employed by the French Academy of Sciences. 

1790 - 
He is said to learned and perfected the technique of using colour stipple engraving technique during a stay in London and first applied it in his illustrations for de 

1793 -  Pierre-Joseph won (with his brother and another artist) a competition held by the Museum of Natural History to select artists for the museum.

It was also decided that he would continue the botanical illustrations for the Vélins de Roi.
1798 - The Empress Josephine Bonaparte, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, also became his patron and appointed him to paint the flowers of the garden at the Chateau de Malmaison.

She is thought to have funded the series listed below
  • 1802-16 - Les Liliacees (see below)
  • 1803-05 - Jardin de la Malmaison 
  • 1812-17 - Descriptions des Plantes Rares Cultivees a Malmaison
  • 1817-24 - Les Roses (see below)
Louise of Orlans, the Queen of Belgium was also a student
Picture
Marie-Antoinette with the Rose - portrait by Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
Picture
Empress Joséphine in coronation costume
Picture
1799-1837 - he contributed many plates for the series of Plantes Grasses [Plantarum Succulentarum Historia] 
  • 1799 - First section of Plantarum historia succulentarum published
  • publication continued intermittently until 1837 
1819 - Redouté's artworks were exhibited at the Louvre.

1822 - He became an art teacher and in later life he was impoverished due to his earlier spending habits when he earned good money.

1828 - John James Audubon (born Jean Rabin in Haiti), the famous ornithological artist visited Redouté in his studio and showed him he first parts of Birds of America.
Audubon commented in his journal that Redouté had told him he received as much as 250 guineas for a single painting.

1828 - Charles X agreed to purchases Les Roses for 30,000 francs

1839 - age 80, he began planning a a significant artwork but never realised it.

​1840 - Died suddenly age 80 on 19 June 1840, Paris. His grave can be found in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
.....the last twenty years of his life are punctuated by disappointments: professional appointments that do not happen, books that sell less well, a clientele already largely satisfied by its successive editions and a taste of the public that evolves. His financial situation became more precarious, especially since the investments he had made in his domain at Fleury had cost him dearly. An indefatigable painter, Pierre-Joseph Redouté died on June 19, 1840 of a cerebral congestion on his work table, certainly famous but poor.
Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840), The Raphael Of Flowers

Awards and Honours

January 14, 1825 - King Charles X honored Pierre-Joseph as a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.

1834 - he was awarded the Ordre de Leopold of Belgium
Picture
Tomb of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
REFERENCES:
  • ​Pierre-Joseph Redouté | Wikipedia
  • Musée Pierre-Joseph Redouté - a museum about Redouté in his home town.
  • Botanical artist - Pierre-Joseph Redoute  | Making A Mark - Pierre-Joseph Redouté was one of the names I first learned from the RHS publications. He was the man who painted the beautiful roses and lilies. I've now learned that in total he produced over 2100 published plates depicting over 1800 different speci
  • Redoute, Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840) - Biographical sketch of a Botanical artist, illustrator and engraver.
  • The Botanical Art of Redouté | BHM - Notes and News from the BHL Staff - an account of his life and work
  • Cincinnati Historical Society - Pierre-Joseph Redoute - Pierre-Joseph Redouté is recognized as the most talented botanical artist the world has known. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries he lived in Paris, the cultural and scientific center of Europe. Interest in plant illustration was at its he
  • Pierre Joseph Redoute 1759 -1840, P.J. Redoute - Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) illustrated approximately 50 botanical books during his lifetime making him one of the most prolific and widely celebrated botanical artists of the 18th and 19th centuries.
  • The Raphael of Roses – Pierre-Joseph Redoute | Nature as Art and Inspiration - The Raphael of Roses - Pierre-Joseph Redouté May 16, 2013 by Mary Mageau
  • Pierre-Joseph Redoute - Biography - Art in the Picture.com - Overview of Redouté's life and great works
  • Global Gallery - Artist Biography - Botanical artist and royal flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840), survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants which remain as fresh in the late 20th century as when first

Pierre-Joseph Redouté - Technique

This section will develop information about the approach and techniques used by Redouté when developing his botanical paintings and engravings.
  • he produced watercolour paintings on parchment (rather than using the traditional gouache)
  • early works were reproduced for publication using line engraving
  • paintings were subsequently reproduced for publication using copperplate stipple engraving. 
  • Redouté is one of a few botanical artists who mastered both painting in watercolour and line and stipple engraving.
Redouté's technique, modelled upon that of van Spaendonck, involved "pure water colour, gradated with infinite subtlety and very occasionally touched with body-colour to suggest sheen"
(Blunt 1967, 179). 
Redouté eventually perfected the reproduction of his paintings for publication using stipple engraving, which used dots, rather than lines, to engrave plates, with varying dot density being used to convey tone and shading (Blunt 1967).
REFERENCE: 
  • The Botanical Art of Redouté | BHM - Notes and News from the BHL Staff
Redouté's Fairest Flowers
​by Martin Rix and William T. Stearn - with illustrations by Pierre Joseph 
Redouté
​

​This is probably the classic book about flowers painted by Pierre Joseph Redouté.

​
The book includes Redouté's preface to the original edition plus a 12 page introduction by William Stearn about the life and work of Redouté. Every plate is accompanied by a narrative which traces the origin and history of the plant and discussing its horticulture today.

All but 5 of the 144 color plates are reproduced from the original engravings in The British Museum Botany Library's copy of Redouté's Choix des plus belles fleurs prises dans différentes familles du règne végétale et de quelques branches des plus beaux fruits groupée quelquefois et souvent animéee par des insectes et des papillons (Paris, 1827). 
Hardcover: 312 pages
UK Publisher: Herbert Press in association with the British Museum (Natural History)
USA Publisher: Prentice-Hall;
Date: First edition (1 Sept. 1987)
Dimensions: 313 x 228 mm
Note that this book is an oversized hardback that is out of print and only available as a used book. The quality of reproduction is good.​

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
BUY THIS BOOK
Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:
  • in UK - 5 stars ( based on 20 customer reviews)
  • in USA - 4.9 stars (based on 23 customer reviews)
Redouté's Fairest Flowers from Amazon UK
Redoute's Fairest Flowers from Amazon.com

Pierre-Joseph Redouté - Collections

Collections of images by Pierre Joseph Redouté - in the series he produced - are typically found today either in
  • digitised collections of botanical art heritage (eg the Biodiversity Heritage Library)
  • ​museums with an interest in botanical art or old books
  • the galleries of dealers in vintage botanical art prints i.e. the original engravings. 
Redouté continues to be one of the most popular botanical artists from the past. It's not impossible to aspire to own an 'original' Redouté so long as you understand that what you can aspire to is an original engraving rather than the actual watercolour.

1802-16 - Les Liliacees

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: Pierre Joseph Redouté. From Les Liliaces. Paris, 1802-16.
Folio, 14 x 21 1/2.
Stipple engravings, printed in color, and finished by hand.

​Les Liliacees were produced at the height of Redouté's career and were inspired by Josephine's garden at the palace at Malmaison (acquired in 1798). The project comprised eight volumes containing 86 plates of lilies, irises, and other monocotyledons
REFERENCE:
  • Les Liliacees. Pierre-Joseph Redoute, 1759-1840 | Cincinnati Museum Center
  • Original engravings of Les Liliacees by Redoute | Joel Oppenheimer - this site gives you an idea of the value of original engravings (as opposed to reproductions of same)
  • Les liliacées / par P.J. Redouté.  Volume 1 of 8 | Rare Books of Missouri Botanical Garden​ Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 ​Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8
  • ​Les Liliacees | Wikimedia Commons
  • ► Les Liliacees, vol. 3‎ (3 F)
  • ► Les Liliacees, vol. 4‎ (3 F)
  • ► Les Liliacées, vol. 5‎ (2 F)
  • ► Les Liliacees, vol. 6‎ (2 F)
  • ► Les Liliacees, vol. 7‎ (5 F)
  • ► Les Liliacees, vol. 8‎ (1 F)
  •  Les liliacées | New York Public Library Digital Collections - contains 495 digital illustrations of plates from the book - available for download
Picture
Les liliacees (Plate 27)
The Empress Josephine's copy of Pierre-Joseph Redoute's botanical watercolors for his book ''Les Liliacees,'' (''The Lilies'') was auctioned yesterday at Sotheby's for $5.5 million to W. Graham Arader, a rare-book and print dealer, who organized a syndicate to make the purchase.

The book of 468 watercolors on vellum depicts flowers in the gardens of Malmaison, St.-Cloud, Versailles and Sevres. It was made between 1802 and 1816, and comprises 16 volumes weighing a total of 320 pounds. The sale lasted only three minutes, one of the fastest ever for such an expensive property, and the price achieved was the 10th highest for a work purchased at an art auction house.

New York Times - Redoute Watercolors auctioned to Syndicate (21 November 1985)
​The Lilies by Pierre Joseph Redoute
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Taschen gathered together all of the plates from the eight volumes of engravings of the original watercolours (published between 1802 and 1816) to reproduce them all in this "jumbo" volume.  
​Taschen production qualities are always the highest and this book is as good as you can get if you don't want to pay $5.5 million - and the rest! (see item re auction above)

This oversized hardback by Taschen has appreciated in price since publication - such is the love of botanical art lovers around the world. 

New copies typically now sell for well for in excess of £/$100. 
Second hand copies cost less and will vary in price relative to condition and who's selling.
Hardcover: 520 pages
Publisher: Taschen;
​First Edition edition (March 15, 2001)

RECOMMENDED:
Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:
  • in UK - 5 stars ( based on 1 customer reviews)
  • in USA - 5 stars (based on 4 customer reviews)

​BUY THIS BOOK
The Lilies from Amazon UK
The Lilies from Amazon.com
Picture
Musa paradisiaca by Pierre Joseph Redouté (from Les Liliacees)

1803-05 - Jardin de la Malmaison

After the Revolution, Redouté's post of official artist was transferred to the French Natural History Museum where he prepared illustrations for scientific publications.

This involved developing botanical art for the Empress Josephine as part of her project to develop and document the gardens at Malmaison.

Jardin de la Malmaison was
  • written by Ventenat, É. P. 1757-1808 with
  • plates by Redouté, Pierre Joseph, 1759-1840 and Smith, John Donnell, 1829-1928, 
  • ​Published in Paris: 1803-1804

REFERENCE:
  • Jardin de la Malmaison | Biodiversity Heritage Library (contributed by the Smithsonian Libraries) - you can read the original text (in French) as well as view the illustrations. Each illustration page is marked 'illustration' in the navigation window
Picture
Clerodendrum viscosum by Pierre-Joseph Redouté - From: "Jardin de la Malmaison" (1801)

1812-17 - Descriptions des Plantes Rares Cultivees a Malmaison

Description des plantes rares cultivees a Malmaison et a Navarre  is a Description of rare plants cultivated in Malmaison and Navarre. The book was written by Aimé Bonpland and dedicated to the Empress Josephine. Bonpland was a French explorer and botanist who had travelled to South America (Venezuela, Cuba, New Granada, Peru, Mexico between 1799-1804).

The book comprised 157 pages and 64 coloured plates by Redouté (published in 11 parts).  
​
Copies of ​Description des plantes rares cultivees a Malmaison et a Navarre are very rare and don't come up for auction very often. 
REFERENCE:
  • Description des plantes rares cultivees a Malmaison et a Navarre | Internet Archive - the book is available online in different formats
  • Bonpland, Aime Jacques Alexandre (1773 - 1858) | Australian National Herbarium (Biographical Notes)
Picture
Metrosideros glauca by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (as described in 1815 by Aimé Bonpland). Now known as 'Melaleuca glauca', commonly known as 'Albany bottlebrush'

1817-24 - Les Roses

"The plates in 'Les Roses' have artistic value, botanical and documentary value, both for the species and cultivars still surviving and for those that have disappeared'
(Gisele de la Roche).
The Empress Joséphine had a passion for flowers and was in constant contact with the foremost rose-growers of Europe. Her rose-gardens at Malmaison contained examples of virtually every known species.
  • Justifiably proud, in 1800, she commissioned Redouté to paint them.
  • Some eighty of the roses pictured in Les Roses were definitely Malmaison-grown. 
Les Roses comprised three volumes of Les Roses and 168 unnumbered folio plates. It was published in 30 instalments over seven years between 1817 and 1824.

These were done at the height of Redouté's career and were published just after he had finished his Les Liliaces. 

​Les Roses achieved even greater fame than the previous series. They are said to be the flower paintings (of any botanical artist) which are most often reproduced.

You can see some of his original watercolour paintings of roses on vellum at the Fitzwilliam Museum
  • Centifolia rose with peacock butterfly​

REFERENCE: DIGITAL ARCHIVE
Edition in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
  • "Les Roses" Vol. 1 (1817)
  • "Les Roses" Vol. 2 (1821)
  • "Les Roses" Vol. 3 (1824)
Les Roses (Redouté) | Wikimedia Commons

Les roses | New York Public Library Digital Collections - an excellent reproduction of the illustrations in the book which allows download of the images.

Les Roses | Internet Archive - a digital copy of the book which displays the illustrations within the context of the narrative of the book (in French); digitized by the California State library
'P. J Redouté - Painter of Flowers' - from the title page of 'Les Roses'
'P. J Redouté - Painter of Flowers' - from the title page of Les Roses (1817)
"It was discovered by English printers that stipple engravings printed most successfully from plates that had been well used. A number of black impressions were run off to take the sharpness off the plate. Redouté's printers also took some black impressions from plates for both the Liliacées and the Roses. For the interest of connoisseurs Redouté included a set of black plates as a parallel series to the usual color-printed versions in special issues of both books. Significantly, the black impressions are always printed on paper with a strong ochre-yellow tint. … Since black has a much greater force than the delicate colored inks washed with thin watercolor that Redouté normally used, black impressions on reflective white paper would have produced prints with grossly exaggerated tonal contrasts. By using paper devoid of brilliance, he was able to subdue that contrast and produce black prints that enabled the reader to appreciate the purity of his engravers' stipple and roulette technique"
Bridson & Wendel
Picture
Rosa Gallica Versicolor; Rosier de France a fleurs panachees by PJ Redoute - from 'Les Roses' (1817) - The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library
Picture
Rosa Damascena Variegata; Rosier d'Yorck et de Lancastre by PJ Redoute - from 'Les Roses' (1817) - From: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library
The Roses by ​Pierre Joseph Redoute
The ORIGINAL of 'Les Roses'  was originally published in three volumes between 1817 and 1824 and remains his most famous and most celebrated work
Picture
The 2023 version of this book is published by Taschen

In essence, it's the equivalent, in terms of book-buying, of buying a contemporary cleaned up digital print of the original engravings contained in the original three volumes of "Les Roses".  


You get the experience of buying the original three volumes without having to pay $200,000 at Sotheby's!
​​Hardcover, 14 x 19.5 cm, 0.43 kg, 192 pages
Publisher: Taschen
Publication date: 2024 
BUY THIS BOOK
Redouté: Roses; the Complete Plates 1817-1824  (Taschen 2024) from Amazon.co.uk 
Redouté: Roses; the Complete Plates 1817-1824 (Taschen 2024) from Amazon.com
REDOUTE ROSE COLLECTORS

Redoute's Roses generated fans who liked them a LOT.  One of these was Lord Hesketh who bought many. However not many know that one of Redoute's biggest fans was Steve Jobs (who helped create and run Apple).
Steve Jobs and the Gallery go back a long way. He was a client back in the 90s and the one thing that Graham will always remember most about the man was that he knew what he wanted. And what he wanted at the time was Redoute roses..... Steve loved Redoute roses. He really loved Redoute roses. He loved them so much that in addition to the roses we sold him he wanted us to gather up and buy every original Redoute rose in the known universe.
​Memories of Steve Jobs | Graham Arader
REFERENCE | ORIGINAL PRINT AND BOOKSELLERS

Below are references to websites where it's possible to acquire ORIGINAL prints of the Redoute paintings of roses - as opposed to contemporary reproductions (eg available from the Royal Horticultural Society and British Library)
These are listed as a source of further information about prints and I don't vouch for the quality of the artwork they sell.
  • Redouté, Pierre Joseph, and Claude Antoine Thory LES ROSES. PARIS: FIRMIN DIDOT, 1817–1824 | Sotheby's (New York) - 3 volumes sold for $200,000 (before buyer's premium)
  • ​REDOUTÉ, Pierre Joseph. Les Roses, peintes par P.J.R. Descrites par Cl. Ant.Thory. Paris, C.F.L. Panckoucke, 1824. (3 volumes, large 8vo, with 160 coloured stipple-engraved plates) | Bernard Quaritch Ltd
  • REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840) & Claude-Antoine THORY (1759-1827) Les Roses, peintes par... Redouté...décrites et classes selon leur ordre naturel, par...Thory. Troisième edition, publiée sous la direction de M. Pirolle | Donald Heald
  • PIERRE-JOSEPH REDOUTÉ (1759-1840), Les Roses Paris, 1817-24 | Arader Galleries​

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, North American Sylva illustrations

The category Pierre-Joseph Redouté, North American Sylva illustrations contains illustrations attributed to Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759 – 1840) in François André Michaux's The North American Sylva.

Other illustrations in that 3-volume work are attributed to his brother Henri-Joseph Redouté (1766 – 1852) and to his student Pancrace Bessa (1772 – 1846).
Picture
Plate 58 from The North American Sylva: Gordonia lasianthus - loblolly-bay.

Plantarum historia succulentarum by A. P. Decandolle
with colour drawings by P.J. Redouté

Redoute was described in the portrait frontispiece to the book as the Raphael of the Succulents

There are 187 plates in the copy in the Library at Kew with accompanying text.

Where you can see the images or the book online:
  • Plantarum historia succulentarum | Wikimedia Commons
  • Plantarum historia succulentarum =Histoire des plantes grasses /par A.P. Decandolle ; avec leurs figures en couleurs, dessinées par P.J. Redouté. 
    Publication info: Paris :A.J. Dugour et Durand,an VII [1799-1837] | Botanicus
  • New York Public Library | Digital Records - Plantarum historia succulentarum =Histoire des plantes grasses / Text at the front of this record is Reprinted from The Cactus and Succulent Society Journal 1956-7 
  • Plantarum historia succulentarum = Histoire des plantes grasses / par A.P. Decandolle ; avec leurs figures en couleurs, dessinées par P.J. Redouté.  Volume 1 of 3 | Rare Books of Missouri Botanical Garden
Picture
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, who was originally from Geneva, Switzerland, studied medicine and natural history in Paris. In that city, he became acquainted with some of the leading scientists of the day and chose botany as his principal interest. During his Paris years-1796 to 1808, he participated in the publication of a number of important botanical works, of which the first was Plantarum historia succulentarum. The proposal for this book was made initially by the botanist, Charles Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800) to his close friend, Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840), who was at the time the favorite painter of Queen Marie Antoinette. Redouté was asked to do the plates, and de Candolle was chosen to write the descriptive texts. The result was published in many sections, beginning in 1799 and continuing intermittently, with many difficulties, until 1837. One authority on the publication history of Plantarum historia succulentarum has stated that it is very difficult to know what constitutes a "complete copy" of the book.
Rare Books of Missouri Botanical Garden

Pierre-Joseph Redouté - Individual Images
​

A number of ​Redouté's original paintings are watercolour on vellum. Many are considered to be his greatest works.

However most of the images we see tend to be engravings due to their publication for wider distribution.

Redouté originally went to London and Kew in 1786 to learn the art of stipple engraving and color printing which was to provide him him with the technical expertise needed to produce his beautiful botanical illustrations.

He later introduced "stipple-engraving" to France.

​Latterly, he certainly developed to perfection a method of colour application which involved the use of a minute chamois leather or cotton mop for the application of a succession of colours to a copper engaving.

In later years, he also learned how to paint using pure watercolour - from a Dutch artist, Gerard van Spaendonck.
​
Most of the images of Redouté's work which can now be seen online via galleries which are
  • either selling original prints / colour engravings
  • or are providing giclee prints of the originals.

One of the better examples are the Redouté prints by Joel Oppenheimer. I don't buy but I do enjoy looking!
Picture
Metrosyderos glauca (1812). Drawing (watercolour and bodycolour over graphite on vellum, margins ruled in red and gold ink) The Fitzwilliam Museum

Pierre-Joseph Redouté - individual images ​in Museums and Art Galleries

Picture
A Flowering Cactus: Heliocereus Speciosus (1831) | watercolour on vellum, Framed- 27 5/8 x 22 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (70.17 x 57.15 x 8.26 cm) | Los Angeles County Museum of Art
  • Auckland Art Gallery | Engravings on Paper by Pierre Redoute - Engravings on Paper by Pierre Redoute
  • Paeonia Suffruticosa, 1812 by Pierre-Joseph Redouté 1759-1840 | Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge - This watercolour was made for the Empress Josephine and featured in Bonpland’s Descriptions de plantes rares et cultivées à Malmaison et à Navarre. In 2011, the Museum had an exhibition of his Flower Paintings in their collection
  • A Flowering Cactus: Heliocereus Speciosus
    Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) France, 1831
    Watercolor on vellum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Not currently on public view)
  • Camellia Japonica by Pierre Joseph Redout | Fitzwilliam Museum - It is interesting to note the very different surface effect of watercolour on paper as opposed to vellum.
  • Teylers Museum | Nu te zien - Redout's Roses From 19 January to 5 May 2013T his exhibition is the first in the Netherlands to provide a variegated overview of his work, with, at its heart, the beautiful books that the Teylers Museum purchased immediately after their publication.
The Floral Art of Pierre-Joseph Redouté
with essays by Marianne Roland-Michael, Peter Sutton, Carolyn Rose Rebbert and Cynthia A Drayton
Picture
​On the left is my vintage copy of this book. This book was produced in relation to a 1992 exhibition in the USA of the work of artist and one notable feature is it identifies artwork to (some) collections.
​It includes: a timeline and essays on:
  • "Redoute and Northern Flower Painting" by Peter C Sutton - which links him to other important flower painters
  • "Is Botany an Art?" by Marianne Roland Michel
  • ​"Excursions into Botany" by Carolyn Rose Rebbert
​
Hardback: 104 pages
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Publication date (1st edition): 2002

​The book was published in association with the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth Texas.
BUY IN UK: The Floral Art of Pierre-Joseph Redouté
[object Object]

Pierre-Joseph Redouté ​Online

Apart from Wikimedia Commons, the Biodiversity Heritage Libary and the New York Public Library, most of the onlines sites highlighting images are those selling reproduction prints by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Some are much better than others. Some are the ONLY places online that you will see certain images of the less popular variety so I make no apologies for including them.
Wikimedia Commons: 
  • P.J. Redouté botanical illustrations
Biodiversity Heritage Library / Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library
  • Les Roses
  • Les Liliacées
  • Plantarum historia succulentarum =Histoire des plantes grasses
New York Public Library - Digitized Collections
  • Les Roses
  • Les Liliacées
Other reputable online sites
  • Artcyclopedia - Pierre Joseph Redoute Online ​Pierre Joseph Redoute [Luxembourgeois-born French Painter, 1759-1840] Guide to pictures of works by Pierre Joseph Redoute in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
  • Web Archive - Pierre-joseph Redoute (1759 - 1840) Artwork Images, Exhibitions, Reviews Artworks in Museum Collections: (40)Click the artwork titles to see actual examples of artwork or works of art relevant to works by Pierre-Joseph Redoute.
Sites selling prints
  • Pierre-Joseph Redout - Artists - RHS Prints - ​Prints of artwork produced for the Royal Horticultural Society
  • Pierre-Joseph Redouté - Limited edition reproduction prints by Joel Oppenheimer
Picture
Kamtschatka Rose (Rosa Kamtschatica), from Redouté, " Les Roses", Paris, 1817–1824)
Pierre-Joseph Redoute - the Raphael of Flowers
by Pieter Baas, Terry Van Druten, Pascale Heurtel, Alain Pougetoux
Picture
​This book was produced to accompany a survey and exhibition of Redouté  works at the Teylers Museum in the Netherlands.

The book is richly illustrated with a wide selection of his sketchbooks, drawings and watercolors.
Paperback: 167 pages
Publisher: NAI Publishers;
Publication date (1st edition): 15 Oct. 2013
BUY In UK: Pierre-Joseph Redoute - the Raphael of Flowers
BUY in USA: Pierre-Joseph Redoute - the Raphael of Flowers by Baas, Pieter, Van Druten, Terry, Heurtel, Pascale (2013) Paperback

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