Paris, P. Dufart, 1828-1829.
3 parts in 3 volumes large 8vo [239 x 162 mm]. One engraved frontispiece hand-colored, 2 portraits and 183 full-page engravings.
Bound in green quarter-shagreen, spines ribbed and richly decorated with gilt fleurons and red morocco mosaic medallions in which gilt roses have been stamped, top edge gilt. Binding from the second half of the 19th century.
Partly original edition of Redouté’s Roses, sought-after as it is the most complete.
This is one of the main works by the famous Redouté, nicknamed the “Raphael of flowers”, by his contemporaries.
Nissen 1599 (2 portraits et 181 planches); Great Flower books, 71; Stafleu, 1044.
It is illustrated with 183 full-page plates (239 mm high), drawn by P.J. Redouté, printed in colors and contemporary enhanced with watercolor “before his eyes” and with portraits of Thory and of Redouté.
“It is the most complete of the 8vo editions. It is illustrated with 2 portraits and 181 plates including 21 appearing for the first time. It encloses a new methodic classification of the roses by C.E. Thory”.
Our copy encloses 183 plates, that is 2 additional ones compared to the 181 plates mentioned by all the bibliographers.
Born in an artistic family, Pierre-Joseph Redouté discovered Van Huysum’s excellent flowers productions thanks to a travel in Holland.
Giving free rein to his natural inclination, Redouté executed small watercolors “that showed an anatomical science of the flower and of the plant unknown until him, as well as a richness of effects, a brightness of colors that left all the models far behind”.
Redouté became Queen Marie Antoinette’s private teacher.
At each of the royal lessons, the most beautiful flowers in Versailles’ greenhouses were displayed in vases from Japan and Sèvres before being marvelously watercolored before the eyes of the Queen by the painter.
Teacher of Josephine and then of Marie-Louis, he also taught his art to the duchess de Berry, to Queen Marie Amélie and to Madame Adélaïde. In 1822, Louis XVIII named Redouté “professor of vegetal iconography to the King’s Garden”.
Through the 183 marvelous plates, with a line both precise and light, revive all these species of ancient rosebushes that enchanted Versailles or Bagatelle’s rose gardens.
Rosa centifolia, gallica, alpina, multiflora, muscoa, indica, rubrifolia… printed in colors have been very subtly enhanced with watercolor before Redouté’s eyes in a very varied range from the most delicate rose to purplish-blue.
An attractive copy, particularly wide-margined (height: 239 mm) preserved in its elegant bindings with richly decorated spines.
