Les Roses (1817-24) by Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Les Roses is a true classic – few flower books have endured so much popularity. Published by Pierre-Joseph Redouté in three instalments between 1817 and 1824, this collection gives us an invaluable glimpse into the ancestry of the rose.

While a number of the roses Redouté pictured in Les Roses will be familiar garden subjects to a lover of old roses, some are the only record we have left of them. They fell into extinction as times changed and the old roses gave way in popularity to the new.  In recent years, some believed to be extinct have been found again, giving hope that perhaps others will too.

The inspiration – an Empress and her roses

Through her enthusiasm, it was the Empress Joséphine who was amongst the most influential in bringing about an interest in flower gardening to 18-19^th Century France. Prior to this, flower growing amongst the aristocracy was not yet fashionable. Flowers were usually grown away from the main gardens in ‘cutting gardens’; the cut flowers used as interior decoration. Through her influence the Empress brought about change, bringing flower gardening as an art form to centre-stage. 

During her years at the Châteaux Malmaison, she cultivated many different flowering plants in romantic settings around the estate. Among those she grew was the rose and at the time of her death, her ‘roseraie’ contained more than 250 roses – a tally revealing 167 Gallica roses, 27 Centifolias, 22 Chinas, 9 Damasks, 8 Albas and a sprinkling of others. Many were new introductions from the nurseries of the English, Dutch and French rose breeders of the day.

By 1829, the botanist, Narcisse Henri François Desportes (1776-1856) named 2,562 rose varieties in France. While at the end of the previous century, French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713-1784) had described just 80. Joséphine’s support for the industries surrounding the rose had much to do with its rapid rise in popularity.

The creation – a fusion of science and art

Over the years Redouté had produced a number of commissioned works for the Empress, detailing the plant species at Malmaison. These included a small selection of rose specimens, but a work devoted solely to the rose was something he yet hoped to accomplish.

Joséphine died in 1814, three years before the first instalment of Les Roses was published, and with her death the garden at Malmaison quickly fell into a state of ruin.  With the rose garden all but gone, Redouté searched further a field for subjects to paint. Among these were roses from the rose breeders of the day, including Jean-Paul Vibert, and from the public gardens of Paris and Sévres. Others came from Redouté’s own garden at Fleury, on the outskirts of Paris, where he raised a number of varieties including some he had collected from the wild.

For each specimen Pierre-Joseph studied, he rendered its picture with masterly precision, adhering to strict botanical accuracy in his fine brushstrokes and masterly aesthetics in his choice of composition.
The 170 original portraits, painted in watercolour on vellum, were translated into engraved plates by both by the artist and his assistants. While the engraved prints could not capture the luminous beauty of the original watercolours perfectly, they do come very close. Each expresses an artistry of its own in the matrix of engraving marks that define each rose.

These prints were published in 30 instalments over seven years and subsequently bound into the limited editions that would form the three volumes of Les Roses. The accompanying text was written by the botantist Antoine-Claude Thory, in conjunction with Redouté.

The editions of Les Roses

The first edition of Les Roses was printed in a deluxe folio edition, 12” x 18” (30 cm x 45 cm) dedicated to Redouté’s new patroness, the Duchesse de Berry. It contained two sets of prints – each rose represented by both a black and white print on tan paper and a colour print on vellum.  Owing to its size and technique it proved so expensive to produce that finding buyers, even amongst the nobility, proved difficult. Redouté wrote on one copy “I have printed only five copies of my Roses on this paper and in this form with the plates in black and in colour, of which this is number one.”

Second and third editions appeared respectively in 1824 and 1828. The third, an octavo edition, met with great success. It is estimated that 200-300 copies were produced. While it was less costly than the deluxe first edition printings, it was still a book only the privileged could afford.

The rarity of Les Roses

Very few of Redouté’s original watercolours from Les Roses have survived to the present day.  Through financial necessity, Redouté in his later years was obliged to sell most of the originals to King Charles X for the sum of 30 000 francs. The King’s chief residence was the Tuileries, a royal palace adjacent to the Musée du Louvre (Louvre museum). In 1871 the palace and parts of the Louvre were completely destroyed by arson. Sadly Redouté’s paintings are believed to have been lost in the blaze. The few that do remain are held mostly in private collections.

To give some indication of the value of Redouté’s works, an original colour print can fetch up to USD $18,000.  That’s for just one print – not the whole book!