작품 상세

Beautiful stipple engraving selected from a French work entitled "Flore des Jardiniers, Amateurs et Manufacturiers", published in Paris in 1836 under the supervision of Mordant de Launay and J.L.A. Loiseleur Deslongchamps. Pancrace Bessa was a French natural history artist, best known for his botanical illustrations. Bessa was a student of the great engraver Gerard Van Spaendonck and worked alongside Pierre-Joseph Redouté, some of whose influence shows in Bessa's detailed and delicate treatment of his subjects. He was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salons between 1806 and 1831. Bessa's favourite subjects were fruit and flowers, with occasional digressions to birds and mammals. In 1816, the Duchesse de Berry daughter-in-law ofKing Charles X of France extended her patronage to him, which led to his giving painting lessons to the de Berry family. In the early nineteenth century, Bessa, Redouté, Jean-Louis Prévost raised France to pre-eminence in the genre of botanical painting. Bessa developed a masterful use of stipple engraving technique, an essential part of colour printing. Bessa and Redoute collaborated on the Histoire des Arbres Forestiers de L'Amerique Septentrionale, which appeared between 1810 and 1813. He prepared some 572 watercolours for L'Herbier Général de L'Amateur by Mordant de Launey and Loiseleur Longchamp, which appeared between 1810 and 1826. Description des Plantes cultivees a Malmaison a Navarre used 9 of Bessa's illustrations and 54 by Redouté.