Pierre Joseph Redouté

Searching for information on Queen Marie-Amélie, I stumbled across a charming website on the life and work of the celebrated Belgian botanical artist Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-1840). A humble man, he is nonetheless considered to have been possibly the greatest floral illustrator of all time. His royal patronesses included Queen Marie-Antoinette and both of Napoléon's empresses, Joséphine and Marie-Louise. Despite hardships and reversals of fortune, Redouté was an inveterate survivor, managing to lead a relatively peaceful life and pursue a brilliant career, even in the turbulent, tragic times of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. During his later years, Redouté enjoyed the support of Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie and taught flower painting to their artistically talented eldest daughters, Louise and Marie d'Orléans. He dedicated his masterpiece, the "Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs," a 36-part series of albums featuring exquisite, hand-colored stipple engravings of the loveliest flowers and fruits, to the two young princesses. Louise, as we know, would become the first Queen of the Belgians.

More HERE, HERE and HERE.