Pierre-Joseph Redouté

For the entire set of Les Liliacées:
Acquired from the artist by Empress Josephine;
thence by descent to Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, Bavaria;
thence by descent in the family;
by whom sold, ("Sale of the Library of Eugène de Beauharnais"), Zurich, Braus-Riggenbach and Ulricho Hoepli, 23 May 1935, lot 82;
Erhar Weyhe, New York;
anonymous sale (''The Property of a Private Trust"), New York, Sotheby's, 20 November 1985, lot 40, to W. Graham Arader, New York; the album dismembered;
with The Garden Ltd.;
by whom sold, New York, Sotheby's, 9-10 November 1989, lot 446

Framed. In excellent condition. There are two small spots, one red to the lower left, the other at the centre of the right edge, but they appear to be in Redouté's watercolour or chalk, rather than being later stains.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This and the following lot belong to Pierre-Joseph Redouté's largest and most ambitious work, Les Liliacées, sold in these rooms on 20 November 1985 (see Provenance).  Les Liliacées was conceived as a meticulous exercise to accurately render the different members of the Liliaceae family as well as to produce aesthetically beautiful images.  These highly finished drawings were the basis from which engraved plates were made.  The ensuing engravings were then hand colored and assembled into separate editions.  The complete work was composed of 486 plates of different plants published in 80 separate installments from 1802-1826.  The present watercolor corresponds to plate 61 in part 11 (1804).  While an engraving would have to suffice for the common collector or scientist, the Empress Josephine would ultimately have the original working model.

Josephine, in fact, had a wild passion for flowers. To satisfy her need to surround herself with the exotic blooms she spent vast amounts of time and money beautifying the gardens at Malmaison, Saint-Cloud, Versailles and Sèvres.  Being employed by the Empress, Redouté had access to these gardens as well as to the botanists and scientists she hired to name and catalogue each new flowering species. While this series was not directly commissioned by her, without her patronage the work surely would never have come to fruition.  Knowing that a work such as Les Liliacées would greatly please his patron, Redouté presented his original drawings in a bound volume to the Empress.

The present watercolor corresponds to plate 12 in part 2 (1804) of Les Liliacées.  The flower is known in English as the Butterfly Antholysus; it was brought to Europe from the Cape of Good Hope, and Linnaeus said it was also to be found in Persia.  At Malmaison it flowered in the spring.