The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 18, 2026

A vertically oriented color print on cream paper depicts a bundle of flowers with fine, speckled shading and a poppy in the center, a red flower with a black interior. A slim petal cluster of two peonies gather below the poppy, and purple-gray bell-shaped flowers dangle from a foxglove stem above. Green-gray leaves and smaller orange, purple, yellow, and white flowers surround this central cluster, the bare stems extending in the lower third of the print.

Collection of Flowers and Fruits Painted after Nature: Bouquet of Foxglove, Clematis, Pansy, Peony, Poppy, and Yellow Day Lily

1805

Louis Charles Ruotte

(French, 1754–1806)

after Jean Louis Prévost

publisher

Jean Louis Prévost

France, late 18th-early 19th Century
color stipple with watercolor added by hand
Gift of Kennedy and Company 1951.419
Catalogue raisonné: Dunthorne 227.229.7e
Location: Not on view

Description

By the mid-17th century, there was a surge of interest in beautiful, exotic plants and formal royal gardens. At Fountainebleau and the Louvre, the gardens were filled with flowers from far-away places, such as the Near East, India, the East and West Indies, and South America. In 1735 Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) invented the first scientific classification system for 7,700 plants. As a result, accuracy as well as artistic skill were required for the numerous portfolios of botanical prints popular with gardeners and those involved with the decorative arts. In these lavish productions, some of the color is printed but the remainder is added with watercolor, giving the illusion of transparency, luminosity, and the delicacy characteristic of flowers. Stipple was a technique developed in England from the 1760s. A point is used to build up a mass of flicks and dots to create a wide range of tones.
  • (Kennedy & Co., New York, NY)
    November 15, 1951
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Flowering of the Botanical Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-July 3, 2016).
    Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001).
    The Perennial Garden: 18th and 19th Century Botanical Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 3-July 31, 1983).
    Flower Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 7-June 6, 1965).
    Flower and Fruit Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 25-October 10, 1960).
  • {{cite web|title=Collection of Flowers and Fruits Painted after Nature: Bouquet of Foxglove, Clematis, Pansy, Peony, Poppy, and Yellow Day Lily|url=false|author=Louis Charles Ruotte, Jean Louis Prévost, Jean Louis Prévost|year=1805|access-date=18 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.419