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Lot Essay
Completed when the artist was only nineteen, these watercolors on vellum make an impressive pair. Camille de Chantereine quickly received recognition for her talent when she was still young. A pupil of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, the renowned painter and botanist from the Netherlands, de Chantereine was praised for her skillful technique. A watercolor depicting Redouté's workshop busy with many young female artists was sold at Christie’s Paris, 17 March 2005, lot 434 (fig. 1).
From 1827 to 1844, de Chantereine regularly exhibited at the Salon in Paris, winning several medals. A contemporary reviewer wrote of one of her works in 1836 ‘a painting of flowers of such beautiful form and such vivid colors, that it is impossible to do better. This young woman has a very confident brush. Nothing is sought after, nothing is silly; all this is firm and clear, and well understood’ (quoted in French in C. Yeldham, Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France and England. Their Art Education, Exhibition Opportunities and Membership of Exhibiting Societies and Academies, with an Assessment of the Subject Matter of their Work and Summary Biographies, New York, 1984, I, pp. 59 and 247). While women artists were excluded from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Camille de Chantereine's lifetime, a handful of independent ateliers had been founded and run by successful female artists. In 1836, de Chantereine herself started to teach a flower painting course in her home near the church of La Madeleine.
These two watercolors are striking in the originality and appear to be unique in de Chantereine’s known oeuvre. Typical works by Redouté and his pupils were usually bouquets of cut flowers such as roses, irises, lilac and lilies. Here the artist painted two flowers less common at that time: Ipomoea purpurea (Morning Glory) and Schlumbergera, both native to Central and South America. It is possible that the artist had access to these species through one of her important patrons, Amélie of Leuchtenberg (1812-1873), widow of Emperor Pedro I and former Empress of Brazil.
Fig. 1. Julie Ribault, Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s school of botanical drawings at the Jardin des Plantes. Private collection.
From 1827 to 1844, de Chantereine regularly exhibited at the Salon in Paris, winning several medals. A contemporary reviewer wrote of one of her works in 1836 ‘a painting of flowers of such beautiful form and such vivid colors, that it is impossible to do better. This young woman has a very confident brush. Nothing is sought after, nothing is silly; all this is firm and clear, and well understood’ (quoted in French in C. Yeldham, Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France and England. Their Art Education, Exhibition Opportunities and Membership of Exhibiting Societies and Academies, with an Assessment of the Subject Matter of their Work and Summary Biographies, New York, 1984, I, pp. 59 and 247). While women artists were excluded from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Camille de Chantereine's lifetime, a handful of independent ateliers had been founded and run by successful female artists. In 1836, de Chantereine herself started to teach a flower painting course in her home near the church of La Madeleine.
These two watercolors are striking in the originality and appear to be unique in de Chantereine’s known oeuvre. Typical works by Redouté and his pupils were usually bouquets of cut flowers such as roses, irises, lilac and lilies. Here the artist painted two flowers less common at that time: Ipomoea purpurea (Morning Glory) and Schlumbergera, both native to Central and South America. It is possible that the artist had access to these species through one of her important patrons, Amélie of Leuchtenberg (1812-1873), widow of Emperor Pedro I and former Empress of Brazil.
Fig. 1. Julie Ribault, Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s school of botanical drawings at the Jardin des Plantes. Private collection.