Background:

The Fruit and Flower prints shown on this page are based on the illustrations of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840), one of the best known - and most respected - botanical artists in Europe in the early 1800s.

The prints were part of a folio originally published in 1827 and selected by Redouté as some of the most beautiful paintings of his career.  The folio was published with the title Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs et des Plus Beaux Fruits.

These prints are from a mid-1950s folio published in England with the printing by K. G. Lohse of Frankfurt.   Regarded as some of the best reproductions of Redouté's work, the prints are produced on heavy paper stock, include the "plate mark", and names of each variety of fruit or flower, as originally appeared in Redouté's work.

The preface to this series notes two reasons that Redouté published the folio.  The first was that he was in urgent need of money.  The other reason was that as a Professor of Botanical Art he wanted to demonstrate to his students that a botanically correct study need not be dull but rather a creation of beauty.