Pancrace Bessa (1 January 1772 – 11 June 1846)[1] was a French natural history artist, best known for his botanical illustrations. Bessa was a student of the great engraver Gerard van Spaendonck and worked alongside Pierre-Joseph Redouté, some of whose influence shows in Bessa's detailed and delicate treatment of his subjects. He was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salons between 1806 and 1831. The standard author abbreviationBessa is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[2]
Bessa's favourite subjects were fruit and flowers, with occasional digressions to birds and mammals.[3] In 1816, the Duchesse de Berry, daughter-in-law of King Charles X of France, extended her patronage to him, which led to his giving painting lessons to the de Berry family. Their art connections went back to the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.[4] Bessa also worked on the French royal watercolour collection on vellum the Velins du Roi from 1823 until his death.
In the early nineteenth century, Bessa, Redouté, Jean-Louis Prévost, Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé, and Madame Vincent raised France to pre-eminence in the genre of botanical painting. Bessa developed a masterful use of stipple engraving technique, an essential part of colour printing. Bessa and Redoute collaborated on the Histoire des Arbres Forestiers de L'Amerique Septentrionale, which appeared between 1810 and 1813. He prepared some 572 watercolours for L'Herbier Général de L'Amateur by Mordant de Launey and Loiseleur Longchamp, which appeared between 1810 and 1826.[5]Description des Plantes cultivees a Malmaison a Navarre used 9 of Bessa's illustrations and 54 by Redouté.
Bessa’s final work was Flore des Jardiniers, published in 1836.
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, was a painter and botanist from Belgium, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at the Château de Malmaison, many of which were published as large coloured stipple engravings. He was nicknamed "the Raphael of flowers" and has been called the greatest botanical illustrator of all time.
Michel Adanson was an 18th-century French botanist and naturalist who traveled to Senegal to study flora and fauna. He proposed a "natural system" of taxonomy distinct from the binomial system forwarded by Linnaeus.
Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician.
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, or Très Riches Heures, is the most famous and possibly the best surviving example of manuscript illumination in the late phase of the International Gothic style. It is a book of hours: a collection of prayers to be said at the canonical hours. It was created between c. 1412 and 1416 for the extravagant royal bibliophile and patron John, Duke of Berry, by the Limbourg brothers. When the three painters and their sponsor died in 1416, possibly victims of plague, the manuscript was left unfinished. It was further embellished in the 1440s by an anonymous painter, who many art historians believe was Barthélemy d'Eyck. In 1485–1489, it was brought to its present state by the painter Jean Colombe on behalf of the Duke of Savoy. Acquired by the Duc d'Aumale in 1856, the book is now MS 65 in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.
Georg Dionysius Ehret was a German botanist and entomologist known for his botanical illustrations.
Martín Sessé y Lacasta was a Spanish botanist, who relocated to New Spain during the 18th century to study and classify the flora of the territory. The standard author abbreviation Sessé is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Madeleine Françoise Basseporte, was a French painter. From 1741 until her death, she served as the Royal Painter for the King's Garden and Cabinet, an unprecedented appointment for a woman artist at the time.
Pierre-Antoine Poiteau was a French botanist, gardener and botanical artist.
Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species. They are generally meant to be scientifically descriptive about subjects depicted and are often found printed alongside a botanical description in books, magazines, and other media. Some are sold as artworks. Often composed by a botanical illustrator in consultation with a scientific author, their creation requires an understanding of plant morphology and access to specimens and references.
Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy was an 18th-century Mexican botanical artist and naturalist who trained at the Royal Art Academy in Mexico. The genus Echeveria was named in his honour by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.
François André Michaux was a French botanist, son of André Michaux and the namesake of Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania. Michaux père botanized in North America for nearly a dozen years (1785–96) as royal collector for France.
Mary Emily Eaton was an English botanical artist best known for illustrating Britton & Rose's The Cactaceae, published between 1919 and 1923.
Étienne Pierre Ventenat was a French botanist born in Limoges. He was the brother of naturalist Louis Ventenat (1765–1794).
Jacques Philippe Martin Cels was a French botanist specializing in horticulture.
Alfred Riocreux, a French scientific illustrator and described as the "most distinguished botanical artist of his day".
Olivia Marie Braida-Chiusano is an American botanical artist, author, and educator.
Henriette Vincent (1786–1834) was an early 19th-century botanical painter at the French court.
Les Vélins du Roi is a compendium of 6984 plant and animal paintings started in 1631 to document specimens from the royal garden and animal collection. Foremost illustrators such as Nicolas Robert, Pancrace Bessa, Gerard van Spaendonck, Claude Aubriet and Madeleine Françoise Basseporte contributed to the codex through the reigns of Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV, and the codex was finally entrusted in 1793 to the Museum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle, where it remains.
Jenny Brasier was a botanical artist and book illustrator.
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