Pierre-Joseph Redouté Lilies

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was born in 1759 to a Flemish family known for creating decorative paintings, and he made a name for himself with his skills of bringing flowers to life on canvas.

Redouté was one of the greatest botanical artists of the golden era of botanical illustration in the early 19th century. The Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, commissioned Redouté to paint an extensive series of paintings of the ornamental flowers in her lavish gardens at Malmaison.

In 1798 The Empress Josephine Bonaparte, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, became his patron and appointed him to paint the flowers of the garden at Malmaison. His works were exhibited in the Louvre; he produced over 2,100 paintings for published plates depicting over 1,800 different species, many of which had never been rendered before

His two famous books were Les Liliacees (1802 - 15) 500 plates of lilies; and Les Roses (1817 - 21)