Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775-1840). Combretum trifoliatum, 1803. Copper engraving.

Original copper engraving illustration. No. 58 - Combretum trifoliatum - from the 1st edition of "Choix de plantes: dont la plupart sont cultivees dans le jardin de Cels". Page size: 50 x 31.5 cm, image size: 27.5 x 19 cm. Artist - Pancrace Bessa (1772-1846), student of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840), engraver - Francois Noel Sellier (1737-1790).
The edges are cropped. Minor dirt, foxings /// The edition "Choix de plantes : dont la plupart sont cultivees dans le jardin de Cels" is very rare.
The artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté and the botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat had worked together before. The first joint work of Redouté and Ventenat was a commission from Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais for the artistic decoration of her garden of rare plants in Malmaison. As a result, the famous "Garden of Malmaison" (1803-04) was created . The book "A Selection of Plants, Most of Which Are Grown in Cels's Garden", published around the same time, is further evidence of their successful collaboration. Jacques-Philippe-Martin Cels (1740-1806) was a tax collector from 1761 up until the Revolution, when he was forced to resign and devote himself to the study of botany under the direction of Bernard de Jussie and Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier and under the influence of Rousseau. At the beginning of the 19th century, Cels laid out a garden of about 18 hectares, first described by Ventenat in “Description of new and little-known plants grown in the garden of J.M. Sels” (1800-1802) with 100 color illustrations by P.J. Redoubt. The second book, “A Selection of Plants, Most of Which Are Grown in the Cels's Garden,” is his second book, which reflects the beauty of the famous garden of Celsus, recognized by contemporaries as one of the most beautiful in Europe.