REDOUTÉ: Celebrating Botanical Illustration

We invite you  learn about one of the most prolific botanical artists of the French 18th and early 19th Century Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Scroll down to also view our Flower Power Guide linking you to Exhibitions and Event showcasing floral Artworks.

Rosa Gallica Maheka, From: Les Roses

Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Redouté (1759-1840) is unquestionably the best-known botanical illustrator of any era. The decorative appeal of his original engravings has led to their modern reproduction, which in turn has popularized Redouté’s work in a way unique among botanical artists. Yet no reproduction can capture the great and subtle beauty of his original engravings from Les Roses, nor can any introductory paragraph fully describe his many achievements. These magnificent engravings demonstrate the full mastery of his abilities, as the forms of the roses are set off dramatically by Redouté’s masterful and rich modulations of tone and hue.

Iris Patensis From Redouté's other acclaimed series Les Liliacees

The regal simplicity of the compositions allows the viewer to focus without distraction on the beauty and delicate complexity of the plants themselves. Perhaps better than any other engravings that the artist ever made, these three images demonstrate the flawless and pristine French style of botanical art that Redouté pioneered and brought to a pinnacle of quality. The luminosity of stipple engraving, a technique perfected by Redouté, is particularly suited to the reproduction of botanical detail. The medium involved engraving a copper plate with a dense grid of dots that could be modulated to convey delicate gradations of color.

FLOWER POWER GUIDE

Various museums in San Francisco are showcasing amazing botanical artwork as an homage to the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, celebrating Flower Power as major themes of Peace, Love, and Community. We also added some exhibitions abroad for those traveler's this summer!  

Flower Exhibitions and Events:

Asian Art Museum

Floral Artwork of the Buddhist tradition

San Francisco Fall Antique Show

The largest west coat annual Antique show will host antique dealer, art galleries, and designers showcasing works with a floral themes in mind. 

Garden of Shakespeare's Flowers, Golden Gate Park
Flowers and plants played an important tool for Shakespeare's plays, here you can see many of those flowers he mentioned in his writing.
Musee de la Vie Romantique
Showcasing the works of Redouté  from his Roses to the Lillies
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Look out for a future exhibition which will showcase our own collection of the Raphael of Flowers, Redouté!

For Inquiries Please Contact us at (415) 788-5115, or Visit us at 432 Jacskson St. San Francisc, Ca 94111. Aradersf.com

Thomas Moore: Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland

On View: The Fine works of Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore (1821-1887)

Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland

London: 1855

Pressed Nature Prints

Moore was an English botanist and gardener who most notably helped with the botanical design of Regent's Park gardens, and became editor of several gardening publications; Such as: the Gardeners' Magazine of Botany, the Garden Companion and Florists' Guide, the Floral Magazine, among others. He also acted as the secretary to the floral committee and floral director of the Royal Horticultural Society.  Moore's passion was focused on the study of ferns, which lead to his extensive regional publication, Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland.

From the early fifteenth century on wards experiments with making prints from pressed leaves and flowers were conducted. The first ventures into this technique were relatively simple with the specimen inked and paper laid upon it. Pressure was then applied by hand to gain an impression. This rather crude method was advanced and perfected during the nineteenth century by the Imperial Printing Office in Vienna. Plants were now passed under pressure between a lead and a steel plate and an electrotype made, on the lead plate, from the impression. It was this innovative technique that Thomas Moore chose for the creation of the plates in his splendid book, Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland. The plates were produced for Moore by Henry Bradbury and are the finest example of nature-printing available. Indeed, Thomas Moore’s book heralded a craze for ferns during the nineteenth century perhaps because of the exquisite delicacy of the images projected.

For more information and pricing inquiries Please call 415-788-5115, or visit us at Arader Galleries 432 Jackson Street, San Francisco, Ca 94111.

Inherent in all works of art is the notion of inspiration. The ancient Greeks attributed this phenomenon to the muses. In Christianity, the divine presence of the Holy Spirit anoints the artist with a stroke of genius. The revelation that functions as the starting point for the artist permeates the work - laying dormant, waiting for modern eyes to give it new life.

In the cultural landscape of 17th century Europe, many artists sought to represent this divine inspiration quite literally. This period, which came to be known as the Baroque, is characterized by opulence and drama. Artwork was grandiose and direct, designed to inspire piety in peasants and aristocracy alike. The term baroque, meaning a large, irregularly-shaped pearl, was attributed to art of the 17th century by 18th century critics, who disparaged the movement as absurd and grotesque – an aberration, like an irregularly-shaped pearl.[i]

The Baroque era was also a period of significant scientific and philosophical discovery. Monumental advancements in optics and measurement provided artists with new tools to more accurately represent the human experience, while Rationalist thought inspired artists to question the nature of representation.[ii] As powerhouse artists like Caravaggio and Velasquez were using novel scientific discoveries to address massive ideas about human existence, individuals like Giovanni Baptista (Battista) Ferrari (1584-1655) took on smaller, more specified pursuits of equal significance.

In line with the fashions of the time, Ferrari’s interest in orangeries – a precursor to the greenhouse – led him to produce the first scholarly study of lemons, limes, and oranges. This four-part, illustrated book about citrus was accurate and all-inclusive, touching on everything from the taxonomy to the mythology of these exotic fruits. Ferrari is noted for his imaginative compositions[iii] and scientific accuracy, which he achieved through close observation of his subject matter, made possible by scientific and technological innovations of the time. In fact, his first work, De Florum Cultura (1633), a study of ornamental plants and horticulture, includes an illustration of the seeds and seed pods of the Chinese Rose – the first ever botanical illustration produced using a microscope.[iv] As Caravaggio’s works were thought grotesque in their starkness, Ferrari’s, too, are fundamentally baroque. Ferrari presents the citrus fruit as it exists in nature, authentic and imperfect.

Giovanni Baptista (Battista) Ferrari - copperplate engraving from Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum Cultura et Usu Libri Quatuor (Concerning the Cultivation and Uses of the Golden Apple in Four Volumes), 1646

Giovanni Baptista (Battista) Ferrari - copperplate engraving from Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum Cultura et Usu Libri Quatuor (Concerning the Cultivation and Uses of the Golden Apple in Four Volumes), 1646

Influenced by the work of Ferrari, the wealthy German silk merchant, Johann Christoph Volckamer (June 7, 1644 - August 26, 1720) sought to show off his own collection of exotic citrus through his book of engravings titled, Nürbergisches Hesperides. Volckamer’s book expresses the zeitgeist of Europe in the 17th century unambiguously.  In Nürbergisches Hesperides, grotesque citrus fruits float above charming views of the gardens and palaces of Germany, Austria, and Italy[v], showcasing the Baroque architecture of the period. Volckamer’s book addresses the relationship of objects to the space they inhabit, extending the “meaning” of the citrus fruits beyond the scientific. With no source information, a viewer looking at an engraving from Nürbergisches Hesperides could identify the locale and even hypothesize about the cultural significance of the citrus depicted. For instance, one could deduce from visual clues that citrus trees were a fashionable staple of European gardens during the Baroque period[vi], and furthermore, the more monstrous the fruit, better. Visual clues reveal meaning, yet the illustration is not overtly didactic. Volckamer dissolves traditional notions of perspective, as his citrus exists neither in the foreground or the background, but is collaged on top, creating an effect that brings to mind artwork produced three centuries later by the surrealists - in particular that of Belgian artist René Magritte (1898-1967).

Johann Christoph Volckamer - copperplate engraving from Nürnbergische Hesperides, oder gründliche Beschreibung der edlen Citronat-, Citronen- und Pomeranzen-Früchte, 1708

Johann Christoph Volckamer - copperplate engraving from Nürnbergische Hesperides, oder gründliche Beschreibung der edlen Citronat-, Citronen- und Pomeranzen-Früchte, 1708

Magritte, perversely inspired by works of the Rationalist order, utilized the aesthetics of a tradition he rejected to challenge the status quo, which he deemed oppressive. In his attempt to subvert the skeletal structure of bourgeois society, he scrambled the puzzle that Rationalist thinkers committed to solving. The aura of mystery that characterizes the Surrealist movement is achieved through Magritte’s application of symbolic non sequiturs. As Ferrari imparted the knowledge, this is an orange and these are its characteristics, Volckamer fine-tuned his achievements, adding the “where, when, and why” to his “who and what.” This empirical evidence functions as a point of departure for Magritte’s own artistic integrity as he attests of his realistic rendering of a pipe, this is not a pipe. Despite Magritte’s repudiation of history, glaring consistencies endure, including an interest in the identity of objects and a penchant for the grotesque. Magritte’s representations of the human body - distorted, amputated, veiled, and fused with other species, objects, and elements of setting – have a similar impact on the human psyche as Volckamer and Ferrari’s disfigured citrus fruits. Through imagery of the strange and unusual, our instinctive curiosity is peaked and our senses engaged, inviting us to meditate on the inspiration that motivated the work of art before our eyes.

René Magritte - La trahison des images (The Treachery of Images), 1928-29, oil on canvas

René Magritte - L'invention Collective (Collective Invention), 1935, oil on canvas

René Magritte -  Le Château des Pyrénées (The Castle of the Pyrenees), 1959, oil on canvas

René Magritte -  La Chambre d'Écoute (The Listening Room), 1952, oil on canvas

Here at Arader Galleries we have a fantastic selection of original, hand-colored engravings from the striking and historically significant works published by Volckamer and Ferrari. The plates were prepared by some of the most esteemed painters and draughtsmen of the Baroque era, including Paulus Decker, The Elder and Cornelis Bloemaert. Please contact Arader Galleries for further information.

---

[i] Camara, Esperança. “The Baroque: Art, Politics & Religion in 17th-century Europe.” Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Web. Accessed 4 June 2014.

[ii] Brown, Betty Ann. “Art & Mass Media: Second Edition Revised.” California State University, Northridge. 2005. Web. Accessed 4 June 2014.

[iii] DeLaurentis, Denise and Hollie Powers Holt. The Art of the Garden: Collecting Antique Botanical Prints. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2006. Print.

[iv] Erickson, Robert F. “Giovanni Battista Ferrari.” Rare Books from the MBG Library. Missouri Botanical Garden. Web. Accessed 4 June 2014.

[v] Blunt, Wilfrid. The Art of Botanical Illustration: An Illustrated History. New York: Dover, 1994. Print.

[vi] Kaden, Vera. The Illustration of Plants & Gardens: 1500-1850. England: Crown, 1982. Print. 

Arader Galleries Presents: The Plant Hunters

Friends of Arader Galleries,

Arader Galleries is proud to present a fantastic botanical exhibition in partnership with Lotusland of Santa Barbara titled: The Plant Hunters: Botanical Illustration from the 16th through 19th Centuries. This exquisite exhibit presents an overview of the history of botanical prints starting with Fuchs’s early 16th century herbals through the explosion of plant material finding its way to Europe from all over the world through trade and exploration during the 17th through mid-19th centuries. Magnificent botanical prints resulted from this newly discovered plant material. The exhibit will focus on plants that can be found at Lotusland or grow well in the Santa Barbara area. The exhibit is in cooperation with Arader Galleries, www.aradersf.com. All of the prints are for sale with of portion of proceeds going to Lotusland.

To learn more about Lotusland, please visit their website 

http://www.lotusland.org/

Artists include:
Dr. Robert John Thornton
Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Basil Besler
Leonhart Fuchs
Giovanni Battista Ferrari
Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Draakestein
Maria Sybilla Merian
Mark Catesby
Johann Wilhelm Weinmann
Georg Dionysius Ehert
and more!

Besler's 'Hortus Eystettensis'

Basil Besler (1591-1629) was an apothecary and botanist from Nuremberg, who managed the gardens of Prince-Bishop Johann Conrad von Gemmingen (approx. 1561-1612) in Eichstatt, Bavaria. The Prince-Bishop’s remarkable garden was one of the most extensive in Europe, containing a huge variety of European shrubs and flowering plants as well as exotic specimens from Asia and the Americas. Besler was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop to compile a codex of the plans in his garden. This encyclopedic resource became the basis for the Hortus Eystettensis (Garden at Eichstätt) which took sixteen years to complete (the Biship died shortly before  printing) and was published in 1613 by Basil Besler and Ludwig Jungermann. The work contains 1086 illustrations of plants from 367 copperplate engravings, most of which were depicted in their natural size. The copperplates were engraved by a group of skilled German draughtsmen and artists including Wolfgang Kilian, Dominicus Custos, and Levin and Friedrich van Hulsen and according to the oversight and drawings by Basilius Besler. The accompanying descriptive text was written primarily by botanist Ludwig Jungermann (1572–1653).

Published one hundred and fifty years before Linnaeus created his thorough system of classification, Besler’s great florilegium represents an impressive early attempt to classify plants for the benefit of botanists, doctors, and apothecaries. Each plant is given a distinct and often descriptive Latin title, and related species are grouped together on the same plate, or over a series of plates. Almost all specimens are shown complete and accurately colored, including delineations of their root systems. While Besler’s work is obviously motivated by a scientific impulse to document and describe a remarkable collection of species, the beautiful presentation and dramatic stylization of the illustrations also convey a sense of the visual grandeur of the Bishop’s great garden. Each specimen is placed on the page with an artist’s understanding of formal and spatial relations. Most notably, the stylized depiction of foliage and root systems betrays a lively baroque sensibility, as the plants seem to dance across the page.

Basil Besler’s great botanical work is a landmark of botanical documentation and pre-Linnaean classification, as well as one of the most splendidly stylized and aesthetically powerful botanical works ever produced.

The work was published twice more in Nuremberg in 1640 and 1713, using the same plates, plates which were destroyed by the Royal Mint of Munich in 1817.

Sadly, the original Eichstatt gardens were sacked by invading Swedish troops under Herzog Bernhard von Weimar in 1633-4; however reconstructed gardens were opened to the public in 1998.

French botanist Charles Plumier honored Besler posthumously by naming a climbing bush Beseleria.

These illustrations of various flowers are among the most dramatic and desirable of Besler’s illustrations. Each is in excellent condition, and would represent wonderful additions to any collection of European botanical art. Please contact Arader Galleries for further information.

In the Garden

French School
An Allegorical Garden
Gouache on vellum with contemporary frame
Framed size: 23 1/4” x 23 1/8”
France, Seventeenth century

Johann Christoph Volckamer (1644-1720)
Plate 20 from Hesperidum Norimbergensium
First Latin Edition: Nuremberg, 1713
Hand-colored copperplate engraving; 14” x 9”

François Duvillers (1807-1881)
Plate 57 - Plan du Parc Sericicole, Agricole, Gruitier, Potager ... des Proprietes de Mr. Eugene Chaband
From Les Parcs et Jardins
Paris: 1871-78
Hand-colored engraving; 14 ¼" x 21 ¼"

Arader Galleries is pleased to present you our latest catalog, In the Garden, featuring our fine collection of art relating to gardens, including sweeping views of garden estates, garden design diagrams, garden ornament and botanicals. Gardens became very important in Western Europe beginning in the 17th century. The medieval period had seen gardens turn inward with cloisters and private, walled environments. During the Renaissance, a revival in garden design, first reflected in Italian gardens, saw the outdoor environment as more an extension of the home. This Italian style of formal, or Baroque, gardens would dominate European garden design through the early 18th century, with many countries adopting their own styles. The French style of the Baroque garden, or Garden à la française was known for its elaborate, geometric designs, as seen in gardens at Versailles.

The characteristics of a typical Baroque garden include a grandness of scale, rich ornamentation and sweeping vistas. The decoration of the Baroque garden reflected the culture of the time. There was a wide interest in botanicals and natural history, due to the 17th century world explorations, which affected the appearance of gardens. Exotic plants, such as citrus trees, animals, shells and stones imported from all around the world were incorporated into garden design. Fountains, hydraulics and painted perspectives reflected the scientific and technological innovations of the era. Additionally, there was a wide interest in antiquities, and thus classical sculpture became a main element of garden design.

If you have an interest in receiving the In the Garden catalog, please call Arader Galleries at 415.788.5115.

Arader Galleries Hosts Botanical Watercolor Class

Arader Galleries was pleased to coordinate a botanical exhibition in honor of Mary Harden (botanical artist and educator) and her students Wednesday afternoon. Approximately 50 art enthusiasts gathered to study the splendor of Arader Galleries’ magnificent botanical collection. The exhibition included works by Georg Ehert, Baldassare Cattrani, Jacques Le Moyne, and lastly Pierre Joseph Redoute—the indisputable star.

Everyone was pleased to learn an exciting fact regarding the influence of Redoute on botanical art: Mary pointed out that stippling (technique in printmaking of carving small dots to which ink is applied to produce a greater or lesser density of ink, which simulates varying degrees of shading) is seen in numerous 19th century, hand drawn, botanical illustrations because artists drew directly from the minute study of Redoute’s hand-colored stipple engravings rather than from nature itself—therefore including unnatural elements such as stippling. The implication is clear: artists felt Redoute had depicted the elusive character of nature so exquisitely that it made drawing from nature seem obsolete!

Like most still-lifes, flowers permit artists to display refinement in their artistic methods, yet botanical artists distinguish themselves in that they examine their objects with scientific rigor while simultaneously employing sensitivity for the aesthetic means of its reproduction. Indeed, few subjects in art are more beguiling and universally admired than flower still-lifes.

Arader Galleries’ material provided the perfect platform for Mary as she found numerous examples enabling her to relay her extensive knowledge of the technical and aesthetic challenges botanical artists face, as well as history of botanical illustration. Arader Galleries would like to thank Mary and her students for joining us in our appreciation for rare works on paper. Please contact Arader Galleries at 415.788.5115 for more information on upcoming events!