Plate 49, Koempferia Longa, from "Les Liliacées"
Pierre Joseph Redouté French
Engraver de Gouy French
Not on view
Published in eighty parts between 1802 and 1816, Les liliacées is Redouté’s largest and most ambitious work, and perhaps the one for which he is best known today. Each of its 503 plates contains a lifesize and naturalistic depiction of a flower, carefully rendered in stipple engraving and watercolor. Redouté created the portfolio under the patronage of Josephine Bonaparte, who cultivated a great variety of flowers in her garden at the Château de Malmaison. Her roses served as Redouté’s models for his equally elaborate publication Les roses (1817–24).
