Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs (1827-33)

After the success of Les Roses, Redouté produced a number of subsequent works including the masterpiece of his later years, Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs (selection of the most beautiful flowers). This album is comprised of 144 flower and fruit portraits, including 17 of the rose. Among those roses pictured are a couple of new varieties that were not illustrated in Les Roses.  

A classic, but not without its critics

Although Redouté depicted all the specimens he painted with the same botanical accuracy of his earlier works, unlike earlier works, Choix came with only a limited botanical text. Also, some specimens were obviously ‘posed’ complete with dew-drops and butterflies; for aesthetic appeal, as some critics have been quick to point out. However, Choix was never intended to be a strictly scientific work. It was created primarily as an art book of exemplary quality. In Redouté’s own words from the preface of Choix, “Being constantly engaged in encouraging the numerous students and teachers who follow my course in illustration, I came to believe that this course required new models which would help them avoid their commonest faults: inexactitude, stiffness, monotony. The models that will be found in this work have been faithfully and with great care portrayed from nature, so that the pupil who copies them during the winter will be able, on the return of spring, to compare them with the flowers it brings to rebirth, without fear of having been misled.”

Six years in the making

The first editions of Choix were published between 1827 and 1833 in a series of 36 instalments. Each watercolour flower portrait was meticulously translated into a hand-coloured stipple engraving by the artist’s team of engravers. Redouté’s preface to Choix is notable, giving a retrospective insight into his inspiration and achievements in the art of flower painting.

Hopes for financial succour

Redouté’s lifestyle, during the time Empress Joséphine was his patroness, was one of much prosperity. This ended with her death in 1814 and the way of life Redouté and his family had become accustomed to, soon incurred much debt. Redouté hoped that sales from Choix would ease the financial strain but unfortunately they could not. Financial help did come his way via the last royal king and queen of France; Louis-Philippe & Marie-Amélie, whose two daughters studied flower painting under Redouté’s tutor ledge.  Redouté dedicated Choix to both the princesses; Marie and Louise-Marie d’Orléans (later the Queen of the Belgians).

The rarity of Choix

The distribution of Choix, like Les Roses, was almost entirely confined to the royalty and upper bourgeoisie who had the means to purchase such an expensively produced book.

Today Choix is still among Redouté’s most costly works for the collector of first editions. To give some idea of its current value, in the mid 1990s a first edition sold at auction for GBP 66,000 – that’s approximately $130,000 converted into American dollars.