What is your new book about? The lives and work of the three Redouté brothers. All were phenomenal artists based in Paris during the turbulence of the French Revolution, Napoleonic era and into the Restoration. The eldest, Antoine-Ferdinand, was a painter of murals and large landscapes. Next came Pierre-Joseph, who is probably best known for his works Les Roses and Les Liliacées but worked extensively depicting plants for botanists in the Jardin du Roi that became, after the Revolution, the Jardin des Plantes of the Museum d’Histoire Naturel. Last, but not least, Henri-Joseph was one of the artists on Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign and who, like his brother Pierre-Joseph, painted plants on vellum for the King’s Vellums or Vélins du Roi in Paris.
The Redouté Brothers: Masters of Scientific Illustration in Paris
by Hans Walter Lack, James Compton and Martin Callmander
£40.99, NHBS
ISBN 978-2383270201
What did you learn from writing it? An enormous amount, both about the history of France and the evolution of botanical illustration. How botanical painting differed from flower painting and in particular, the importance of the science of natural history during this period of time in Paris.
What books are on your shelves? As you might expect, I have many botanical works old and new but a lot also on horticulture. I enjoy old books such as Philip Miller’s The Gardeners Dictionary of 1768
with their archaic descriptions and, in some cases, artfully printed illustrations of plants. I equally appreciate modern pictorial Field Guides to various parts of the world that are now so well illustrated. I wouldn’t be without Hellmut Baumann’s Greek Wild Flowers and Plant Lore in Ancient Greece, which delves into the Greek mythology associated with the native plants. Outside of my professional interest I am a sucker for crime novels, especially historical ones. I am currently enjoying SG MacLean’s Seeker series, told from the perspective of a captain working for the spy master John Thurloe during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.
What sparked your interest in gardening? Bonfires! There was nothing more mesmerising or satisfying for a child than being next to a bonfire, although nowadays I prefer to shred and compost as it is far better for the environment. I was also heavily influenced by my mother’s love of wildflowers. My father, who was a Latin scholar and a brilliant jazz pianist, taught me to say Metasequoia glyptostroboides when I was only seven.
What is your favourite garden? I have always loved Rousham House garden because it is so completely uncommercialised. There is a walled garden that could have been the inspiration for The Secret Garden and a huge old-fashioned dovecote, but the pièce de résistance has to be the narrow meandering rill running through a copse into a small pond in William Kent’s simple landscape. It is such a restful garden and so atmospheric.
Do you have any plans for your own garden? I leave all the planning to my brilliant wife who is a professional garden designer, and just do as I am told. I have an area to myself that is called the Play Pen, which houses many of the plant collections gathered with my two dear friends John d’Arcy and Martyn Rix from all over the world on our various collecting expeditions.
What is your biggest growing failure? So many things. I found a branch on a Sarcococca confusa with beautifully silver-variegated leaves but it failed to take root. Another was a new species of Buddleja with fabulous highly fragrant and large white individual flowers, which we found up a mountain in Yunnan province in China, but the seed failed to germinate. I have lost several great plants through either over or under watering, especially in winter.
Do you have any guilty gardening secrets? Yes. I am fundamentally lazy and put off having to do some gardening chores until the very last minute. Inevitably, the business of weeding in March and April
to prevent bindweed choking more precious plants never gets done on time. How that plant loves beautifully rotted garden compost!