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1/3/2002

Pierre Joseph Redoute

Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC

A Man Passionate About Flowers

The fields of botany, horticulture and agriculture were profoundly advanced by the late 18th century intersection of science and art in the persons of botanist André Michaux and artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté.

Michaux's monumental publications, The North American Oaks (1801) and The Flora of North America (1803) will be celebrated as part of the André Michaux International Symposium held May 15-19, co-hosted by the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, Belmont Abbey College, Gaston Day School and the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society. The Mint Museum of Art will display many of Michaux's botanical discoveries in the exhibition Pierre-Joseph Redouté: A Man Passionate About Flowers, March 2 through July 14, 2002.

The individual lives of Michaux and Redouté were as disparate as the Carolina wilderness and the drawing rooms of Paris nobility where each man made their significant marks.

André Michaux was born with gifts for languages and for growing plants, the son of hard working farmers from Satory, a royal domain in the park of Versailles. His skills caught the attention of officials in the government of King Louis XVI. Devastated by the death of his young wife after childbirth, Michaux was encouraged by the king's physician to channel his grief into to study of botany in service to the crown. His subsequent zealous studies and experiments brought him under the tutelage of Bernard de Jussieu, the celebrated French botanist who developed the first natural system of plant classification, and with other leading botanists in Paris at the Jardin du Roi (now the Jardin des Plantes).
His education complete, Michaux traveled widely in search of plants to improve the agriculture and forestry of France. Collecting seeds and plants across Persia (present Iran), the resilient Michaux survived three years of perils ranging from kidnappings by hostile tribes to severe desert storms. The physical trials of his Mideast ventures would serve him well on his next assignment - the exploration of the North American continent.
The primary goal of Michaux's American mission was to find new species of trees to rebuild the forests of France, depleted by the building of warships in a century of conflict with England. The energetic botanist arrived in New York in 1785, establishing a 30-acre garden in Hackensack, New Jersey. His cultivation efforts included relationships with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and William Bartram, the leading American botanist of the time. Within a year Michaux sailed with his son, Francois André, to Charleston where he established an 111-acre garden, his base of exploration of the American wilderness for the next ten years.
Michaux's pioneering explorations ranged from Florida to the Hudson Bay and west to the Mississippi. He crisscrossed the Blue Ridge mountains and the Piedmont Carolinas seven times, identifying 26 genera and 283 plant species new to science in the Carolinas alone. In addition to research and shipping American plants to France, Michaux also introduced new plants to America, including the mimosa or silk tree, the crape myrtle, the tea plant and the camellia.
His dedicated work for France continued after the overthrow of the monarchy in the French Revolution of 1789. Plants that were being cultivated in Louis XVI's Ramboulliet Park and the Jardin des Plantes were now also being grown at Empress Josephine's country estate, Malmaison. A rare, new species of magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla, found by Michaux along the west bank of the Catawba River in Gaston County, North Carolina and sent by his son Francois André to Malmaison, was a sensation among European botanists and horticulturists for its huge deciduous leaves and fragrant flowers up to 18 inches in diameter.

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, often called the Raphael of Flowers, was the most celebrated artist in the history of botanical art.
Depictions of plants prior to the 17th century were of a more practical concern, illustrating herbs and their uses. Human curiosity and the desire to document newly discovered species spurred the development of the great flower books of the 18th and 19th centuries. The creation of the botanical print involved a team of artisans including the scientist who recorded the natural environment, the artist that drew the specimen, the printer who engraved the images into metal plates, the painter who hand-colored the print and the publisher who circulated the volumes.
Redouté, the son of a Belgian artist, came to Paris as a scene painter for an Italian Opera Company. His particular passion for drawing flowers in his spare time at the Jardin du Roi caught the attention and patronage of botanist Charles-Louis L'Héritier de Bratelle and Gérard van Spaendonck, professor of flower painting. This union of tutors developed the special qualities to Redouté's work.
Redouté adopted Francesco Bartolozzi's technique of stipple printing, engraving by dots rather than lines, for greater delicate gradations of tone and balance. He embellished his work further by adopting van Spaendonck's techniques of watercolor painting on vellum. The results were printing in brilliant colors never before achieved. The pupil soon became the master, attracting the patronage of Marie-Antoinette and surviving such a perilous royal association during the Reign of Terror, to become drawing master to the Empress Josephine.
Redouté first encountered the botanical discoveries of André Michaux while serving as staff artist for the Muséum d Histoire Naturelle. Redouté's illustrations of the native American plants became part of the Vélins du Roi, the largest and most important collection of natural-history drawings and paintings in the world (began by Louis XIII's brother Gaston, Duc d' Orleans in 1652 and continued through 1905).

Additional Michaux discoveries were illustrated by Redouté in his two indisputable masterpieces of botanical art, Les Liliacées, printed in eight volumes between 1802-1816, and Les Roses, printed in three volumes from 1817-1824.
André Michaux's return to Paris in 1796 was governed by misfortune. A gale nearly cost him his life and much of his personal possessions. His journals from 1787-96 and his herbarium (now housed in the Muséum National d' Histoire Naturelle) were saved. His American discoveries were acclaimed by scientific colleagues, however, the new government refused payment promised by its royal predecessor. Financially ruined, Michaux non-the-less began drafting his two landmark books, The Oaks of North America and The Flora of North America. Before finishing, he departed on an expedition to Mauritius and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean where he would die of fever. Colleagues completed his books, engaging the services of Redouté as illustrator. The publications elevated Michaux's reputation as one of the world's great botanists.
His son, Francois André Michaux, became a celebrated botanist in his own right. His North American Sylva, also illustrated by Redouté, is considered the seminal work of the American forest conservation movement, resulting in the creation of vast government reserves of timberland and culminating in the birth of the United States Forest Service.

Over forty Redouté works of art, including engravings and watercolors on vellum, and original bound volumes will be on display at the Mint Museum of Art. Included are works illustrated in Les Liliacées, Les Roses, The Flora of North America and The Sylva of North America. Of particular interest to Charlotte area audiences will be Strelitzia regina (Queen's Bird of Paradise), first flower in cultivation at Kew named in honor of Queen Charlotte (Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) and Magnolia macrophylla, the rare native magnolia that was such an attraction at Malmaison.

The Redouté exhibition is made possible by sponsorship of the Charlotte Garden Club, Community Foundation of Gaston County, Dr. and Mrs. Joe H. Woody, Mr. and Mrs. T. Price Zimmermann, Chris and Bee Jensen, Davidson Horticultural Symposium, Davidson Garden Club and Isaac and Sonia Luski.

opening Saturday March 2 at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC.

For information on the André Michaux International Symposium to be held May 15-19, 2002 contact Jeanne Miller at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens at 704/868-3181 or e-mail at miller@dsbg.org.
Updated information on speakers, features and activities are posted on the symposium website at http://www.michaux.org.

The Mint Museum of Art is located at 2730 Randolph Road, two miles south of downtown Charlotte (exit on Third or Fourth Street off I-277).

Hours are Tuesdays 10am - 10pm; Wednesdays through Saturdays 10am - 5 pm; and Sundays 12-5pm.

Admission is $6 adults, $5 seniors and college students, $3 ages 6-18 and free for members and children 5 and under. Free hours are Tuesday evenings from 5pm - 10pm.

For information, call 704/337-2000 anytime or check the museum web site.

The photo is entitled Rosa Gallica Aurelianeses.

Mint Museum of Art
2730 Randolph Road,
Charlotte NC

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