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Large Folio Hand-Colored Fine Art Restrike Edition after:
POMOLOGIE FRANÇAISE
RECUEIL
des
PLUS BEAUX FRUITS
CULTIVÉS EN FRANCE
PAR A. POITEAU
Madelaine blanche
(Prunus persica, Madeleine de Courson Peach)
This sumptuous fine-art edition folio is one of a set of 4 different famous pomology (fruit trees) I have from this exceptional edition.
I know not of the origins of this painstaking re-making of the historic original. The artwork for this one is said to be attributed to the renowned botanical artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté, but most of them were by Poiteau & Turpin.
I'm not entirely sure of its printing process, but it appears to be a restrike-engraving or etching that's been hand-colored with watercolors. It's printed on sublime Fabriano thick handmade cotton paper & most are watermarked.
The original engraving is done in black, & shows no dot-screen under magnification, & it does have a plate-mark, which has me wondering if the printmaker who made these somehow etched a new plate based on the original. The apparent hand-coloring is quite beautifully done.
These fruit tree plates originate from Duhamel du Monceau's Traité des Arbres Fruitiers (Treatise on Fruit Trees, full title: Nouveau Duhamel, ou Traité des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France), expanded by Poiteau and Turpin, published in parts from 1807-1835.
It was republished ten years later in 1845, after Turpin's death, reprinted from the original copper plates with the new title Pomologie Française under the name of Poiteau on his own, with Turpin's name removed from all but 10 plates.
It's a truly stunning plate from an incredibly beautiful portfolio, displaying the lush, soft, hyper-real painting style associated with Pierre-Joseph Redouté & Pierre Jean François Turpin, cut into copper with Redouté's famed Stipple-Engraving technique that imparted fine toning more closely duplicating his original watercolor paintings, & expertly inked with subtle colors in the plate & pressed into thick, handmade rag paper.
I've done my best with the scans, it's too large to fit on even my large-format scanner, so the full photo is done with a camera & not too detailed. My large-format scanner is able to capture the full image, but not to the paper's edges, which is 20" tall (!) (this one is about 2" shorter than the others, perhaps someone was getting ready to frame them).
The Volumes:
These monumental volumes contained the exquisite work of the two great watercolorists, Turpin and Poiteau, as well as several other engravers; together 422 stipple-engraved plates cover the varieties of fruits & nuts including almonds, peaches, pears, apples, plums, cherries, strawberries, and grapes. This 6 volume edition contains non-consecutive plate numbers as they are in the order of the original 66 livraisons.
The new edition by Antoine Poiteau and Pierre-Jean-François Turpin of Duhamel’s 1768 work is certainly one of the most exceptional botanical books produced in France during the great era of botanical writing. Poiteau was a pupil of Redouté and head gardener of the castle of Fontainebleau.
He travelled widely in the Caribbean and South America, where he met Turpin in Haiti, and brought back 1,200 species to France. Pierre-Jean-François Turpin was a self-taught artist, and one of the finest and most prolific botanic illustrators of the Napoleonic era. In 1846 the present work was re-issued as the Pomologie française with Poiteau's name on the title, but Turpin's removed from all but 10 of the plates.
"One of the finest and rarest books on fruit, with many beautiful plates" (Dunthorne).
The Artist:
Pierre-Antoine Poiteau (23 March 1766 Âmbleny – 27 February 1854) was a French botanist, gardener and botanical artist. He was born in Ambleny, France. After having worked in kitchen gardens and for the Parisian market gardeners, he was appointed by André Thouin (1746–1824) garçon jardinier in 1790 at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris. There he studied the Linnaeus' Systema vegetabilium and the art of painting with the artist of the museum Gérard van Spaendonck (1746–1822) but his main influence is Redouté (1759–1840).
Pierre Jean François Turpin (11 March 1775, Vire – 1 May 1840) was a French botanist and illustrator.[1] He is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators during the Napoleonic Era and afterwards. As an artist, Turpin was largely self-taught. In 1794 he was stationed in Haiti as a member of the French Army. Here he met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau (1766-1854), through whom, Turpin learned botany, and in the meantime, created numerous botanical field drawings that were to become a basis of further study when the two men returned to France. In regard to their work in Haiti, they were able to describe approximately 800 species of plants. Turpin would have a working relationship with Poiteau throughout his career.
The Author:
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (20 July 1700, Paris – 13 August 1782, Paris), was a French physician, naval engineer and dendrologist.[1] The standard author abbreviation Duhamel is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau was the son of Alexandre Duhamel, lord of Denainvilliers. In his youth he developed a passion for botany, but at his father's wish he studied law from 1718 to 1721.
After inheriting his father's large estate, he expanded it into a model farm, where he developed and tested new methods of horticulture, agriculture and forestry. The results of this work, he published in numerous publications on trees, botany, fruit growing, as well as many other topics. His works are nearly ninety in number and include many technical handbooks.
In 1738 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences, and served three times as its president. He was appointed Inspector-General of the Marine in 1739, and made scientific studies of shipbuilding, the conservation of wood.
Starting in 1755, Duhamel began publishing an eight-volume work titled Traité complet des Bois et des Fôrets that would attempt to detail all aspects of trees including their planting, growth, maintenance, and transportation. The first installation started with two volumes titled Traité des Arbres et Arbustes (1755), the precursor to the edition which contained these magnificent prints.
The Prints & Technique:
In the original print upon which this restrike was based, the technique of color stipple engraving is used to reproduce the delicate flowers & leaves. Redouté learned about the potential of stipple engraving on his visit to England in 1786 and experimented with and perfected the method on his return to France. He promoted the technique as effective in recreating the sheen of the leaves and petals found in his original watercolors.
This restrike doesn't appear to be an engraving, perhaps the original was used to photographically create a new metal plate, or some other technique was used to recreate the intaglio original.
Condition:
All these 5 in this group appear to be in excellent, near pristine condition, with the occaisional minor artifact from handliong such a huge sheet.
About this Gorgeous Fruit:
(To follow)
Size:
20 x 15 inches approximately.
Combined Shipping:
Yes! Multiple prints can be combine into one package. Larger prints may need to be shipped in tube. eBay should auto-combine your items if you put all of your selections into your shopping cart & check out all together as one order. If you purchase them individually, eBay charges shipping on each. If you're assessed multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund any overage asap.
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