The branch of a plum-tree bearing fruit with a wasp

Details

PIERRE-JOSEPH REDOUTÉ (SAINT-HUBERT 1759-1840 PARIS)
The branch of a plum-tree bearing fruit with a wasp
signed ‘P. J. Redoute pinx.’ (lower left)
black chalk, watercolor and bodycolor on vellum
13 x 10 1⁄4 in. (33 x 25.7 cm)

Provenance

Jean-Joseph Espercieux (1757-1840), Paris; bequeathed by him to
Caroline Gasnier, Paris; by inheritance to her sister
Marie-Françoise Dey, née Gasnier (died 1878), Paris; bequeathed by her to her adoptive daughter
Lucie-Marie Damour, née Cucily-Gasnier, Paris (according to an inscription on the back of the frame signed by her husband, the artist Charles Damour).
Amédée Damour, Paris; to his niece
Jeanne Riondel (according to an inscription on the back of the frame).
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, New York, 28 January 1999, lot 169.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

A handwritten note attached to the back of the frame, signed by the pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Charles Damour (1813-1901?), and dated 25 January 1879, documents the noteworthy provenance of this beautiful sheet, starting with the sculptor Jean-Joseph Espercieux. He may have received it as a gift from Redouté himself for having sculpted in plaster the painter's bust for the Salon of 1802. The lovingly rendered branch could have been taken from a plum tree at Malmaison, where Redouté had been working for Joséphine de Beauharnais creating the illustrations for Jardin de la Malmaison, published in 1803-1804.

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