Redoute's Flowers

Celebrated for his remarkably precise, soft-colored illustrations of roses, 18th- and 19th-century botanical painter Pierre-Joseph Redoute immortalized Josephine Bonaparte's garden and illustrated Rousseau's La Botanique, among other achievements. Redouter's Flowers gathers more than 60 watercolors and engravings from throughout his career. Alongside the roses are camellias, irises, hyacinths and scores of other flowers both exotic and native European. A concise biography by the editor, Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, explains that Redoute had been a star botany student in Paris and achieved his extraordinary level of detail by studying his subjects under a microscope.