Sixteen watercolors on vellum - photo 1

Sixteen watercolors on vellum

Lot 309
26.05.2022 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 100 800
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 752932
Lot 309 | Sixteen watercolors on vellum
Estimate value
$ 30 000 – 50 000
Sixteen watercolors on vellumPancrace Bessa, 1810-27[BESSA, Pancrace (1772-1835). Sixteen watercolors on vellum. Paris, 1810-27.] Original drawings for Mordant de Launay’s Herbier ge´ne´ral de l'amateur by the most celebrated of Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s students. The Herbier, dedicated to King Charles X, was the most important French flower periodical of its day. The first eight volumes were published between 1810-1827 and illustrated solely by Bessa, containing a total of 572 of his works depicting rare and new plants in the gardens of Paris. They were first edited by Mordant de Launay and after Bessa’s death by Jean-Louis-Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps. Bessa was one of the most notable natural history artists of the 19th century and he studied with both Gérard van Spaendonck (1746–1822) at the Jardin du Roi and Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) at his studio in Paris. Charles Paul Landon, who reviewed the exhibits in his Annales du Musée et de l'Ecole Moderne des Beaux-Arts, thought Bessa's work rivaled that of Redouté's, finding they both approached their subjects with lightness, grace and nuance. Bessa’s work found a diverse audience and in 1823 he was hired as a peintre des fleurs to portray rare plants for the famous collection of vélins—the paintings on vellum begun in the mid-17th century for Gaston d'Orléans, inherited by Louis XIV and transferred to the Jardin. Bessa's watercolors on vellum rivaled the work of his predecessors, including van Spaendonck and Redouté. The Duchesse de Berry would become both a patron and student of Bessa’s and his watercolors were gifted to her by Charles X as a new years gift in 1826 (Hunt). Oblong folio (363 x 495 x 30mm). 16 watercolors on vellum, bodycolor over pencil, 263 x 210mm, each within a gold and black-ink ruled border, signed "P. Bessa" lower left, numbered in ink in the lower right, and tipped to larger sheets. French purple morocco gilt, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt. Provenance: King Charles X of France (1757-1836) (given to): – Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870) (given to her sister): – Teresa Christina Maria de Bourbon, princess of the two Sicilies (1822–1889).
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