Description
These prints are from the octavo edition, which had single sheet prints and larger ones only as foldouts. Most of the ones we have were probably published in the 1870s. There was also a folio edition, we offer prints from that set as well.
Jean Jules Linden was an influential horticulturist and publisher, especially in the realm of orchids. Born in Luxemburg, he attended the University of Brussels. At age 19 he was tapped for a government-sponsored botanical expedition to South and Central America, and traveled there until 1844 collecting new orchid species. From 1845, he worked as a plant dealer in Luxemburg and Ghent, eventually founding the nursery Horticulture Internationale in Brussels, where he imported and introduced new plants, including over 1,100 species of orchids. His son Lucien Linden eventually joined the business and later succeeded Jean Jules. The Lindens oversaw the periodicals L’Illustration Horticole: Revue Mensuelle des Serres et des Jardins (founded by Jean Jules in 1854) and Le Journal des Orchidées. Both publications continued until 1896, after which the Lindens combined it with Le Journal des Orchidées to create a new periodical, Le Semaine Horticole.
Pieter De Pannemaeker was a prolific watercolor artist and print maker active in Ghent, Belgium, in the 19th century. He specialized in landscapes and botanicals and contributed to many periodicals and publications at a time when Belgium was a center for botanical publishing. His credits include art and engraving for Jean Jules Linden’s publications Lindenia and L’Illustration Horticole.
Edouard F. André was a French botanist, horticulturist and landscape architect. The son of a nurseryman, he studied with his father and apprenticed to a municipal horticulturist. At age 20, he became head gardener of the City of Paris, where he gained attention for his transformation of a dump and gallows site into the lovely Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. André also participated in the scientific study of plants, traveling in 1875 to South America on a government-sponsored botanical expedition that collected 3,400 specimens, and publishing writings on plants, especially the bromeliads. He took over the editing of Jean Jules Linden’s L’Illustration Horticole in 1871. In 1892, André was appointed the first professor of garden architecture at the L’Ecole d’Horticulture de Versailles.
Charles Antoine Lemaire was a distinguished French botanist and horticultural writer. Although he began his career as a professor of classical literature at the University of Paris, he developed an interest in botany. A specialist on cacti, he wrote several small books on them, named several species and had one, Lemaireocereus, named after him; he also named other species of plants. His 30-year career as an editor and writer of horticultural journals began in Paris in 1835, where he edited Jardin Fleuriste and L’Horticulteur Universel. He is credited with raising the standard of illustration in botanical publications to include high quality color plates. In 1845 he came to Belgium, a major horticultural center, at the invitation of Louis Van Houtte, to edit his Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l’Europe. He also was the first editor of Linden’s L’Illustration Horticole, founded in 1854. After 16 years, Linden purchased the Verschaffelt Nursery and replaced Lemaire with Edouard André as editor, and Lemaire returned to Paris in poverty. However, upon the death of Lemaire the following year André wrote, “Posterity will esteem M. Lemaire more highly than did his contemporaries,” and his prediction has proved correct.
Condition: Generally very good, the colors bright, the paper with the usual light overall toning, some minor scattered wear, soiling, soft creases. Margins a bit short, as issued, as typical with this work.
References:
Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. France: Librairie Gründ, 1966. Vol 6, p. 503. (De Pannemaeker)
Erickson, Robert F. “Charles Antoine Lemaire.” August 2002. Missouri Botanical Garden. http://ridgwaydb.mobot.org/mobot/rarebooks/author.asp?creator=Lemaire,%20Charles%20Antoine (8 July 2003).
Great Flower Books. 1990. p.159.
“Iconographie Descriptive des Cactées.” Missouri Botanical Garden. 5 May 2003. http://ridgwaydb.mobot.org/mobot/rarebooks/title.asp?relation=QK495F210L46 (8 July 2003).
Nissen BBI 2254. (21)
Savige, T.J. and Branch, Hume. “The Verschaffelts.” Camellia News Australia. June 1998, No. 146, p. 16. http://camellia-ics.org/_ics/journal/austral/au145a.htm (8 July 2003).
