The Fitzwilliam Museum Explores the Legacy of Joseph-Pierre Redouté

Written by Jonathan Bennington Saturday, 27 August 2011 01:27

Cambridge, UK.- An exhibition of flower drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, is to explore the legacy of Joseph-Pierre Redouté as a teacher through a comparative display of his work alongside that of his pupils. The 'Raphael of flowers', Joseph-Pierre Redouté (1759-1840), internationally famous for his prints of roses and lilies, was the finest botanical draughtsman of his age.  In France he had a prestigious reputation in his own time, working for the Royal court both for Queen Marie-Antoinette and then for the Empress Joséphine following the French Revolution. "Flower Drawings: Redouté and his Pupils" is on view at the Fitzwilliam Museum until October 30th.

Later in life his school of botanical drawing in Paris had over 80 pupils, the majority of them women, a number of whom became professional painters of flowers. This latest exhibition from the Fitzwilliam Museum’s prestigious Broughton collection of flower paintings and drawings will show the legacy of Redouté as an artist and teacher through a dual display of his work and works by some of his most accomplished students.  The exhibition will also celebrate the recent acquisition of a watercolour by artist Julie Ribault.  Painted in 1830, Redouté's school of botanical drawing in the Salle Buffon of the Jardin des Plantes has not been exhibited since it was first shown at the Paris Salon of 1831. Director of The Fitzwilliam Museum Dr Timothy Potts commented: “We are delighted to be showing this wonderful exhibition of flower drawings by Redouté and his pupils.  Thanks to the bequests of collector and outstanding maker of gardens Major Henry Broughton in 1966 and on his death in 1973, the Fitzwilliam has one of the most splendid collections of flower paintings and drawings of any Museum in the country and the most important collection of Redouté drawings in the UK.  The Fitzwilliam mounts an exhibition of the more delicate works on paper from the Broughton collection every three years, and we hope all will enjoy this charming and varied selection of flower drawings.”

The Fitzwilliam Museum was described by the Standing Commission on Museums & Galleries in 1968 as "one of the greatest art collections of the nation and a monument of the first importance". It owes its foundation to Richard, VII Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion who, in 1816, bequeathed to the University of Cambridge his works of art and library, together with funds to house them, to further "the Increase of Learning and other great Objects of that Noble Foundation". Fitzwilliam's bequest included 144 pictures, among them Dutch paintings he inherited through his maternal grandfather and the masterpieces by Titian, Veronese and Palma Vecchio he acquired at the Orléans sales in London. During a lifetime of collecting, he filled more than 500 folio albums with engravings, to form what has been described as "a vast assembly of prints by the most celebrated engravers, with a series of Rembrandt's etchings unsurpassed in England at that time". His library included 130 medieval manuscripts and a collection of autograph music by Handel, Purcell and other composers which has guaranteed the Museum a place of prominence among the music libraries of the world. In recent years, the Museum's traditional base of support from alumni and private collectors has been augmented by generous provision from the National Art Collections Fund and other charitable organisations and public bodies, including H M Treasury (under the provision for the allocation to Museums of works of art accepted in lieu of capital taxes). Today, the Museum pursues a vigorous acquisitions policy as one aspect of its abiding commitment to hold the nation's "treasures in trust". The Standing Commission's view is both echoed and expanded by the University itself:

"The Fitzwilliam Museum is one of the greatest glories of the University of Cambridge. It is a museum of international stature, with unique collections most splendidly housed... Like the University itself, the Fitzwilliam Museum is part of the national heritage, but, much more, it is part of a living and continuing culture which it is our statutory duty to transmit". Few museums in the world contain on a single site collections of such variety and depth. Writing in his Foreword to the catalogue of the exhibition for Treasures from the Fitzwilliam which toured the United States in 1989-90, the then Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, wrote that "like the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam addresses the history of culture in terms of the visual forms it has assumed, but it does so from the highly selective point of view of the collector connoisseur. Works of art have been taken into the collection not only for the historical information they reveal, but for their beauty, excellent quality, and rarity... It is a widely held opinion that the Fitzwilliam is the finest small museum in Europe". Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

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