"Poire de Provence" by Langlois
publisher: 1846 Pomologie Francois
Pierre Poiteau (1766-1854) / Bouquet eng.
Hand Colored Engraving
Image size: 10" x 12 1/2"
Artist and Publisher Information
Pierre Jean François Turpin and Pierre Antoine Poiteau were two friends who were contemporaries of Redouté.
Pierre Turpin (1775-1840), who has been hailed as possibly the finest French natural botanical artist of his period, came from humble beginnings. He was the son of a poor artisan and learned the elements of drawing at the art school at Vire before enlisting in the batallion du Calvados at the age of fourteen.
Pierre Poiteau (1766-1854) was a self-taught botanist and artist who spent his early career working as a gardener at the Jardin des Plantes where he made enough of an impression to be chosen to be sent to set up a botanic garden at Bergerac. This accomplished, he was next sent as a plant collector to Santo Domingo by the Jardin, where fate stepped in as he met and became friends with Turpin, who was stationed there with the French army.
The friendship developed into an artistic collaboration which provided illustrations for some of the most elaborate botanical publications of the period including several of the botanical volumes depicting the discoveries made by Friedrich Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in the course of their exploration of Central and South America from 1799 to 1804.
The two artists also worked both independently and with other collaborators.
It is considered by many to be the most beautiful work on fruit ever produced.