Treatise on Fruit Trees Plate 05
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau
1768
Step right up to meet the 'Abricot Hâtif,' or Early Apricot, captured in glorious scientific detail. You can almost feel the fuzzy skin of the ripe fruit and trace the intricate veins of the large green leaves, while a cross-section at the bottom reveals the hard pit hiding inside. This print comes from a massive 1768 encyclopedia of fruit trees by Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, but the actual drawing was done by Madeleine Basseporte. She was a rockstar of her day—the official painter of the King's Garden in Paris—and her work helped gardeners identify exactly what a healthy harvest looked like, from delicate pink blossoms to juicy fruit.
- Technique
- Hand-colored engraving
- Material
- Paper
Views: 9