LE MOYNE DE MORGUES, Jacques (French, ca. 1533-1588). f.52: Wild Sage and butterfly. Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2" x 5 5/8" sheet, 16 1/4" x 14 1/4" framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). France's greatest Huguenot Renaissance Natural History artist. These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moyne's career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moyne's reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
LE MOYNE DE MORGUES, Jacques (French, ca. 1533-1588). f.33: Pot Marigolds. Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2" x 5 5/8" sheet, 16 1/4" x 14 1/4" framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). France's greatest Huguenot Renaissance Natural History artist. These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moyne's career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moyne's reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
LE MOYNE DE MORGUES, Jacques (French, ca. 1533-1588). f.4: Dog Rose and caterpillar. Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2" x 5 5/8" sheet, 16 1/4" x 14 1/4" framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). France's greatest Huguenot Renaissance Natural History artist. These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moyne's career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moyne's reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
Jacques Le Moyne (1533-1588), Floridae Americae Provinciae Recens & exactissima descriptio..., Frankfurt, circa 1591, engraving on laid paper, plate 14-1/2 x 17-7/8 in., sheet 15-1/4 x 18-1/2 in.; frame 24-7/8 x 27-1/4 in. Provenance: Cheryl M. Newby, Inc., Pawleys Island, South Carolina (label verso); Collection of Jean and Jim Barrow
LE MOYNE, Jacques (1533-1588). Floridae Promontorium ad quad Galli appellunt Gallicum abillis nuncupatum. Woodcut. Frankfurt: De Bry 1590. 13 1/2" x 9 1/4" sheet. One of the earliest views of the Florida coast, made by the French in the late 16th Century.
LE MOYNE, Jacques (c. 1533-1588). Floridae Americae Provinciae Recens & Exactissima Descriptio Auctore Iacobo le Moyne... Engraved map. De Bry: Frankfurt, 1591. From: Grand Voyages, Part II. 15 3/8 x 19 1/8 inches sheet, 24 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches framed. This is one of the most influential maps of colonial North America. De Bry purchased Jacques le Moyne's map from his widow to illustrate the early French colonial attempts in the region. Le Moyne accompanied the second expedition to Florida in 1564 where he recorded and mapped the region. The small settlement and Fort Carolina on St. John's River (called River May by the French) was destroyed by the Spanish and Le Moyne narrowly escaped. He made his way to London where he settled. Despite the fact that his map is not very accurate it was extremely influential; partially because Hondius copied it and included it in his editions of the Mercator Atlas, which had wide circulation and popularity. The map's inaccuracy is mainly in the longitude, which resulted in an extended eastward slant to the Atlantic coastline. Most of the information presented was derived from Indian sources including several spurious lakes. Many of these features were copied by subsequent cartographers for over 150 years. The large body of water at top is variously thought to be a representation of the Sea of Verrazzano (thought at the time to connect to the Pacific and provide a route to Asia) or the Great Lakes. The waterfall nearby is thought to be derived from Indian tales of Niagara Falls. The map is richly adorned with a superb compass rose, two fine cartouches, sailing ships, a fanciful sea monster, and the royal arms of Spain's Phillip II and France's Charles IX. Ref: Burden #79; Cumming #14; Garratt (TMC) #G2; Pritchard & Taliaferro #3. Plate 38 in Schwartz / Ehrenberg "The Mapping of America".
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (Dieppe ca. 1533-1588 London) A grasshopper, a spider, a ladybird and a may-bug, a Maltese cross and two... black chalk, watercolor, bodycolor on an old album sheet, watermark armorial 6 1/8 x 8 1/8 in. (15.7 x 20.7 cm)
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (Dieppe ca. 1533-1588 London) Two day lilies and a caterpillar black chalk, watercolor, bodycolor on an old album sheet, watermark armorial 6 3/8 in. x 7 ¾ in. (16.1 x 19.6 cm)
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (Dieppe ca. 1533-1588 London) A bearded iris and three violets black chalk, watercolor, bodycolor on an old album sheet, watermark indistinct 7 ¾ x 5 3/8 in. (19.7 x 13.7 cm)
Floriae Americae Provinciae. Jacques Le Moyne (c.1533-1588). Copperplate engraving. Frankfurt: 1591. 18 x 14 1/2 inches sheet, 26 x 29 1/4 inches framed
f.61: Redcurrant. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue (1533-1588). Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches sheet. 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moynes career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moynes reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
f.57: Gooseberry and butterfly. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue (1533-1588). Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches sheet. 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moynes career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moynes reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
f.33: Pot Marigolds. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue (1533-1588). Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches sheet. 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moynes career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moynes reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
f.32: Clove Pinks. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue (1533-1588). Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches sheet. 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moynes career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moynes reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
f.14: Cyclamen. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue (1533-1588). Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches sheet. 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moynes career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moynes reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
f.11: Lesser Periwinkle. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgue (1533-1588). Watercolor and gouache on paper prepared as vellum. ca. 1565. 7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches sheet. 16 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: DuMarry (from the inscription on the frontispiece). These magnificent botanical paintings, executed in watercolor and gouache, are part of only the fifth substantial compendium of works by Jacques Le Moyne to be identified to date. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia. Most examples were printed, following in the tradition of the herbals of such authors as Leonhart Fuchs, but a few original painted florilegia were commissioned by wealthy amateur botanists and aristocrats who wished to have pictorial records of the valuable plants to be found in their gardens. The extraordinary career and oeuvre of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is unique in the history of art; he worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, traveled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. The superior quality of the present work is unquestionable. In color and attention to detail the present works relates most closely to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but is unsurpassed in the freshness and spontaneity of the images, perhaps reflecting the early date of the manuscript, completed during the earlier part of Le Moynes career in France. Each flower seems to burst forth from the sheet, the three-dimensional quality of the composition heightened by the surrounding framing lines. These magnificent watercolors are rare works of the sixteenth century and fully justify Le Moynes reputation as one of the most exceptional artists to have worked in Elizabethan England. The delicate nuances of color and three-dimensional quality of the images is truly breathtaking and most skillfully achieved. Each composition stands alone as a masterpiece.
Floridae Americae Provinciae Recens. Jacques Le Moyne (c. 1533-1588). Engraved map. De Bry: Frankfurt, 1591. 15 1/4 x 19 inches sheet, 25 x 28 inches framed.
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (Morgues circa 1533-1588 London) >A pomegranate (<i>Punica granatum<i>) >bodycolor on vellum, gold framing lines <br>7¼ x 5½ in. (18 x 14 cm.)
LE MOYNE DE MORGUES, JACQUES Brevis narratio eorum quae Florida Americae Provinciae Gallia acciderunt, secunda in allam Navigatione. Frankfurt: Theodore De Bry, 1591 Folio (14 x 9 3/8 in.; 355 x237 mm). Engraved title-page, engraved sectional title "Indorum Floridam provinciam inhabitantium eicones," engraved armorial on dedication leaf, engraved folding map of Florida "Floridae Americae Provinciae recens & exactissima descriptio," 43 half-page plate engravings, errata leaf at the end; additional double-folding plate of calendrical volvelles dated 1696–1715; skillful marginal repairs to approximately 17 leaves, some browning and closed tears chiefly along folds of map, sectional title remargined on all 4 sides, light browning in quire K. Modern limp vellum, brown morocco lettering piece on spine.
Gooseberry and butterfly Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 57 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Rue Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 37 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Lavender Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 55 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Gilliflower, Matthiola incana Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 43 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Gilliflower, Matthiola incana Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 48 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Larkspur Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 41 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Gilliflower, Matthiola incana Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 23 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Staversacre, Delphinium staphisagria Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 22 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Corn Cockle Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 18 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Plume Pink Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 35 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Pot Marigolds Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 33 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Clove Pinks Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 31 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
Red Clover Very fine watercolor and gouache drawing of a wildflower, on paper prepared as vellum (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 192 x 146 mm), originally folio 28 in a manuscript florilegium by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, (France ca. 1570). Floated and glazed in a handsome gilt frame.
CLOVE PINKS AND A SMALL TORTOISESHELL BUTTERFLY measurements note 146 by 110mm inscribed on the verso: 30. gouache and gold leaf on vellum PROVENANCE Eric Korner, London, sold by his heirs, New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 1997, lot 56 LITERATURE Paul Hulton, The Works of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Huguenot Artist in France, Florida and England, 2 vols., London 1977, vol. I, pp. 77, 168, under no. 50, 173, no. 88, vol. II, reproduced plate 49b NOTE This extraordinary miniature-like gouache is one of the finest works of the Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, whose astonishing career and oeuvre have only relatively recently been defined and described (see Hulton, op. cit.). The varied circumstances of Le Moyne's artistic production must surely be unique in the history of art; although large periods of his career are undocumented, he appears to have worked as a court artist in France, under Charles IX, is known to have travelled to Florida in 1564, as official artist and cartographer to the ill-fated French attempt to establish a colony there, and to have ended his career as a highly regarded botanical artist in Elizabethan London, where his patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. This exquisite gouache embodies and combines in a most original manner three diverse artistic traditions: the first is that of manuscript illumination in Le Moyne's native France; the second is the recording of exotic and native flora, fauna and cultures, which was the artistic expression of the late 16th-century fascination with exploration and scientific investigation; and the third is the purely aesthetic love of flowers and gardens which was so apparent in Elizabethan court culture. Le Moyne was born in around 1533, in Dieppe, which was at the time a great centre of cartography and illumination. Nothing is known of his training and earlier career, until early 1564, when he seems to have been instructed by the French King Charles IX to travel as cartographer and official recording artist on an astonishing and ill-fated expedition to establish a Huguenot settlement in Florida, led by the notable mariners Jean Ribault and René Goulaine de Laudonnière. After his return to France in early 1566, Le Moyne wrote a remarkable, illustrated description of the voyage and account of the various disasters that befell the party, most of whom perished, some at the hands of the local Indian tribes or the Spanish, and others as a result of mutiny and rebellion within their own ranks. Only fifteen returned alive. This account was published in Frankfurt by Theodor de Bry in 1591, under the title Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae provincia Gallis acciderunt; it contains 42 engraved maps and illustrations of the inhabitants of Florida and their customs, and is an extremely important early source of information on these subjects. In 1572, Le Moyne fled to England to avoid the Huguenot massacres, and remained there until his death in 1588. Soon after his arrival in England, he came to the attention of Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom he was probably introduced by his fellow artist John White, who shared similar interests in exploration, and Raleigh remained one of the artist's most important patrons for the rest of his career. In this cultural milieu, where the interest of the ethnographer and the curiosity of the explorer were entwined with the refined aesthetic sensibility of the Elizabethan period, Le Moyne produced some of his most fascinating works, including the exquisite gouache of the so-called Young Daughter of the Picts (fig. 1, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven). Prior to the identification of any original drawings by the artist, Le Moyne was only known to a very specialised audience as the writer and the illustrator of the account of Laudonnière's Florida expedition, and also as the author of an extremely rare book of woodcuts of plants, animals and birds, published at Blackfriars in 1586, under the title La Clef des Champs. In 1900, however, an original gouache on parchment by Le Moyne, relating to the Florida expedition, was discovered; representing The Indian Chief Athore showing Laudonnière the Marker Column set up by Ribault, this drawing is now in the collection of the New York Public Library (see Hulton, op. cit.,vol. I, cat. no.34, illustrated vol. II, pl. 6). The rediscovery of the talent of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues as a botanical artist is also relatively recent. In 1922 Spencer Savage, librarian of the Linnean Society, recognised that a group of 59 watercolours of plants on 33 sheets, originally contained in a small volume with a late 16th-century French brown calf binding and purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1856, were in fact the work of this previously little-known artist (see Spencer Savage, 'The discovery of some of Jacques Le Moyne' s botanical drawings', The Gardeners' Chronicle, 3rd series, vol. LXXI, London 1922, p. 44, and idem, 'Early botanical painters, no.3, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues', ibid., vol. LXIII, 1923, pp.148-49). These publications by Savage paved the way for further attributions to the artist, notably the album of 50 botanical watercolours acquired by the British Museum at Sotheby's on 11 December 1961 (lot 177; see Hulton, op.cit., cat. nos. 36-86, illustrated pls. 35-48). The botanical drawings in that album were preceded by a sheet with a manuscript sonnet dated 1585 (in a hand that has been identified as that of the Huguenot writing-master John de Beauchesne). Much more recently, two further, very significant groups of watercolours were brought as anonymous works to Sotheby's, where they were recognised as major additions to the artist's oeuvre. The first was a folder of 27 individual sheets, each bearing unrelated studies of several plants, fruits, etc, a few also incorporating the artist's only known drawings of birds (sold, New York, Sotheby's, 21 January 2004, lots 29-55). Though exquisitely drawn in Le Moyne's characteristic technique, and demonstrating a highly sophisticated and artful mise-en-page, those 27 drawings were still very much less formal than any previously known drawings by the artist, and must have been the sort of studies made from life, on which he based his more elaborate compositions. (A comparison between the sheet from that group depicting clove pinks (fig. 2) and the present work illustrates this relationship very well.) The second recent discovery was a superb, complete manuscript florilegium of 80 botanical watercolours, closest in style to the album in the Victoria & Albert Museum, but somewhat more miniature-like in overall impression (sold, New York, Sotheby's 26 January 2005, lot 46). But undoubtedly the finest of all the artist's known works are the handful that are conceived and executed like the present example, seemingly as fully independent, miniature-like works of art, rather than as sheets destined for a florilegium. Eight such miniatures, also on vellum, are in the The Garden Library, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., while the six most spectacular of all are those formerly in the collection of the late Eric Korner (sold, New York, Sotheby's, 29 January 1997, lots 55-60), of which this is one. The great manuscript collector Eric Korner acquired his Le Moynes as the work of an anonymous Netherlandish artist of circa 1600. Their authorship was, though, soon recognised by Dr. Rosy Schilling and Mr. Paul Hulton, by comparison with the drawings in the British Museum. Though in some ways similar in conception to the British Museum drawings, and surely also dating from around 1585, the gouaches are, however, far more lavishly executed. Here, as in the others, the support is fine vellum, rather then paper, and the flowers are shown within an elaborate painted border, against a gold background. The artist has also created a highly sophisticated trompe l'oeil effect, playing the delicately painted shadows off against the decorative borders to give the illusion that the viewer is looking at actual plant specimens, enclosed in a small display box. Among Le Moyne's works this gouache, like its former companions, occupies a unique position, combining aspects of the technique of the Young Daughter of the Picts with the subject-matter of the artist's three known florilegia, and also the astonishing observation of nature in all its textures and colours, as seen in the informal study sheets.
MATERIAL/MEDIUM: bears remains of numbering, largely cut, at the edge of the backing sheet bears later Latin inscription in pen and ink, partly cut, under the central plant: orchis watercolor and gouache, heightened with grayish white (slightly oxidized), over black chalk A SHEET OF STUDIES OF FLOWERS: A ROSE, A HEARTSEASE, A SWEET PEA, A GARDEN PEA AND A LAX-FLOWERED ORCHID
