The Redouté brothers

This work provides the first comprehensive biography of the three Redouté brothers, Antoine-Ferdinand, Pierre-Joseph and Henri-Joseph. Originating from humble origins in the Ardennes, they all took root in Paris where Antoine-Ferdinand became a decorative painter. By contrast Pierre-Joseph and Henri-Joseph embarked as botanical illustrators on a scientific and aesthetic career including numerous contributions to the prestigious royal paintings on vellum. The central figure of this work is Pierre-Joseph, whose accurate illustrations document science during the late phase of the Enlightenment, throughout the turbulences of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era and into the Restoration. Thus, Pierre-Joseph provided works for Empress Josephine and Queen Maria Amalia. An indefatigable worker, he produced an enormous number of botanical illustrations, many of a very high calibre. A large number of which were reproduced as engravings for a long list of publications which multiplied by many times the effect of his work. His association with the new Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, but also notably with C.-L. L’Héritier and the Geneva botanist A. P. de Candolle, ensured successive commissions. Henri-Joseph joined the scientific team that accompanied Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, documenting plants, animals and artifacts. Although his output was more geared towards paintings of animals, he was frequently asked to contribute botanical works for Pierre-Joseph. In essence the focus of this book is not on the written record but on the pictorial. Furthermore it offers a panorama of the travellers, collectors, scientists, gardeners and illustrators in one of the great centres of the time – Paris.

Hans Walter Lack is professor at the Freie Universität Berlin and served as director at the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin from 1990 to 2014. His PhD was at the University of Vienna on the systematics of the genus Picris. He is a specialist of the Cichorieae and has published and lectured widely on the history of plant taxonomy. His focus is now on plant illustration. He is a member of the Academies of Sciences in Göttingen and Erfurt, a recipient of the Linnaean Medal and has organized major botanical exhibitions in Berlin, Oxford and Vienna.

James A. Compton studied horticulture at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, then at Chelsea Physic Garden, London. His PhD was at the University of Reading on the Systematics of the genus Actaea including Cimicifuga. He went on to postdoctoral DNA sequencing research on Cyclamen and Eranthis. He has collaborated on a revision of tribe Wisterieae and is now studying the genus Lilium.

Martin W. Callmander gained his PhD at the University of Neuchâtel on the Biogeography and Systematics of the Pandanaceae family. His postdoctoral research at the Missouri Botanical Garden focused on its Conservation in Madagascar. Now Curator of the Library, Archives and publications at the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques in Geneva, where his research includes the scientific enhancement of botanical historical collections and archives.