Copper plate engraving of the Woodbeam by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, 1809.  Engraving with original hand-coloring on laid paper with visible ribbed paper texture and plate marks.  There are a total of 18 engravings available.

Pierre-Joseph Redouté  was a painter and botanist born in 1759 at St. Hubert in the present-day Belgian province of Luxembourg.  Redouté most celebrated flower painter of quite possibly the entire history of botanical art. Nicknamed “the Raphael of flowers,” Redouté published over 2,100 plates depicting over 1,800 species – many of which had never before been illustrated for publication – throughout his career (University Libraries 2013).

He has been called the greatest botanical illustrator of all time and participated in nearly fifty publications depicting both the familiar flowers of the French court and plants from places as distant as Japan, America, South Africa, and Australia. He worked from live plants rather than herbarium specimens, which contributed to his fresh subtle renderings.

Redouté was an official court artist of Marie Antoinette.  Later his patrons included both of Napoleon’s wives – Empress Joséphine and Marie Louise, Dutchess of Parma, as well as Mara Amalia of Napel and Sicily, wife of Louis Philippe I, the last king of France.