Lot 257 Dα

This plate most likely originates from a series of plates with botanical motifs made before those commissioned by the French Empress Joséphine. An important indication of this is that these plates lack the French inscriptions on the reverse stating where the plant was found. This detailed information was first introduced in the commission of the Empresses botanical dinner and dessert service. This plate also does not belong to the series of plates presented at the Academy exhibition in 1804, the décor of which we know under their Latin names. However, as in the plates made for the Academy, this piece displays the same discrepancy between the décor of the border and the well – both show a different plant.
We would like to thank Mr. Dag Nabrdalik for kindly providing this information.

The botanical motif used here is based on the colour plate in volume I of Pierre-Joseph Redouté's "Les Liliacées", published in 1802. This work features a total of 486 plates in total, depicting plants from the lily family. Redouté was born in Ardenne and moved to Paris in 1782, where he soon began working for Marie Antoinette (also teaching her flower painting). In 1798 Joséphine Bonaparte commissioned him with painting the flowers of Malmaison, and his most well-known work is the publication of a catalogue of Malmaison's roses (first published in 1817).