Riche Adèle (1791-1887) - Throwing Flowers - Gouache Watercolor And Black Pencil On Vellum

Adèle Riché was a painter specializing in watercolors of flowers, born in 1791 in Paris and died in 1887 in Fontainebleau. She was able to practice her art thanks to her father, head gardener of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and by taking classes with the artists Van Spaendonck and Van Dael. She was hired as a painter and illustrator cataloguing species at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Most of her productions on vellum are in museum collections in Paris, and this one is one of her creations for the museum. She also created plates for several botanical books, including "Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique Septentrionale" by François André Michaux, published in 1813. Subsequently, her recurring exhibitions at the Salon between 1819 and 1833 earned her a gold medal in 1831.

Here, the black pencil lines provide the shadows and are then enhanced with gouache and watercolor to give depth to the drawing. The composition is very fine, almost lively, in the vein of the scientific plates of the 18th and 19th centuries. A bouquet of fuchsias and hydrangeas is represented. These two plants were described in the scientific work "Species Plantarum, 1753", by Carl von Linné almost 100 years earlier, almost for the first time.

Signed ADELE RICHE lower left.


Similar works in Museum collections and Past Sales :

- Christies 2011, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5474669

- Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/agent/agent-114821

- Museum d'Histoire Naturelle Paris, https://www.imprimerie.lyon.fr/fr/actualite/lart-au-service-de-la-science-la-collection-des-velins

- Museum of Fine Arts of Tours, https://musees.tours.fr/collections/bouquet-de-fleurs-dans-un-vase-grec/