Pierre-Joseph Redout (1759-1840)

The branch of a plum-tree bearing fruit with a wasp drinking water on a leaf

Details

Pierre-Joseph Redout (1759-1840)
Redout, P.-J.
The branch of a plum-tree bearing fruit with a wasp drinking water on a leaf
signed 'P.J. Redout'
black lead, watercolor, bodycolor on vellum
13.3/8 x 10 in. (340 x 260 mm.)

Provenance

Jean-Joseph Espercieux, to
Caroline Gasnier, to her sister
Marie-Franoise Dey, ne Marie-Franoise Gasnier, to her adoptive daughter
Madame Charles Damour, ne Lucie-Marie Curly-Gasnier, 1878; Paris, 24 March 1903, lot 107.
Amde Damour, to his niece
Jeanne Riondel, according to an inscription on the back of the frame.

Lot Essay

Jean-Joseph Espercieux (1757-1840) is recorded by an inscription on the verso as being the first owner of this drawing. He probably received it as a gift from Redout for having sculpted in plaster the painter's bust for the Salon of 1802. The present drawing presumably dates from that time. It could have been taken from a plum tree from Malmaison. Redout had been working there for Josphine de Beauharnais for two or three years and in 1803 and 1804 he published two volumes of the Jardin de la Malmaison.