Background:

The beautiful Rose prints shown here are from Les Roses, based on the illustrations of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, one of the best known - and most respected - botanical artists in Europe in the early 1800s.  It has been recorded that on a visit to Redouté's studio Napoleon Bonaparte expressed disappointment that such a gifted artist would spend his time painting roses instead of recording historical events!

Les Roses was begun in 1817 and completed seven years later after 30 installments had been published.  The prints shown on this page are from a mid-1950s folio published in England featuring a selection from Les Roses.  The printing was done in Frankfurt by K. G. Lohse.   Regarded as some of the best reproductions of Redouté's work, the prints are produced on heavy paper stock, include the "plate mark", and names of each variety of Rose in Latin and French, as originally appeared in Redouté's work.

Please note - The background color on some prints may appear darker than others shown on this page.  This is due to how our scanner captured the print image.  The actual prints in this series all have similar background coloring.