Les Prévost, peintres de fleurs : des jardins de La Celle-Saint-Cloud à l’expédition La Pérouse en passant par Trianon

• Main Author: Gabriela Lamy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles 2017-02-01
• Series: Bulletin du Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles
• Subjects: Jean-Jacques Prévost; Guillaume Prévost; Jean-Louis Prévost; Jean-Louis-Robert Prévost; Jacques-Jérémie Roussel; Château de La Celle-Saint-Cloud
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/crcv/14000

Studying botanical illustration at the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres from 1754 to 1762 allowed three Prévosts – Jean-Jacques, Guillaume and Jean-Louis – sons of a winegrower from Nointel in the Val-d’Oise, to distinguish themselves through their participation, individually or together, in important late-eighteenth century undertakings in the art of gardens. These include illustrating the collection of plants in the garden of the Château de La Celle-Saint-Cloud (volume of illustrations held in the French National Library) and at Trianon (drawings that to date remain unlocated), scientific participation in the Lapérouse Expedition, and a career as a well-known flower painter. The study of the family and the professional lives of the various members of this sibling group will enable us to discover a body of iconographic achievements that will be interesting to analyse in the future. The diversity of these productions, realized in accordance with commissions (from garden owners, porcelain manufacturers, embroiderers and flower painters in search of new models) testifies to the existence of new plants acclimatized in the gardens of the collectors or drawn during scientific expeditions.