(1772-1835)
Prints are from Flore des Jardiniers (1836) and are approximately 9.25" x 12.25" in size, and from Herbier General de L’Amateur (1810-1827) Size 6 ½” x 9 7/8”

Spanish Lachenalia	American Bee Balm	Australian Sowerbea Juncea	Mexican Sisyrinchium
Oriental Lysinachia	Magnolia Umbrella, #198	Camellia Japonica, #45	Azalea Indica, #465
Blakea trinervia, #475

Pancrase Bessa (1772-1835) was the prized pupil of Pierre Joseph Redoute, the great French painter of Les Roses 1817-24 and Les Lilacees 1802-16, (roses and lilies). Redoute’s great patroness was Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, while Bessa’s was the Duchesse de Berry, to whom Bessa gave painting lessons.

Most of the original watercolors for his beautiful Herbier General de l’Amateur 1810-37 were given by Charles X to the Duchesse de Berry in 1826 and passed into the collection of her sister the Empress of Brazil.

Bessa’s Fleurs et Fruits 1808 has magnificent stipple engravings, but according to Blunt and Stearn in their The Art of Botanical Illustration 1950, Bessa wasted too much of his time and energy upon small sentimental flower books. Bessa also contributed to the collection of animal drawings on parchment – the velins – preserved in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.