Amaryllis lutea

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was the foremost flower painter of the golden age of botanical illustration that spanned the century from 1750 to 1850. This drawing of the hardy bulbous perennial Amaryllis lutea exemplifies his extraordinary observational and artistic skills. Stark and graceful, it shows the general characteristics of the flowers, leaves, stem, bulb, and roots of the mature plant. Also portrayed in this single image are three stages of flowering, from bud to spent bloom. Two meticulous pencil renderings of the plant’s reproductive system are included, one describing the anatomy of the flower’s corolla and stamens, the other its single pistil. This work was originally part of a collection of flower portraits commissioned by Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Redouté studied many of the specimens for the series at Malmaison, Joséphine’s grand estate near Paris. The composition was engraved for Redouté’s eight volume magnum opus Les Liliacées (1802–16).