Physical description
Three clove pinks and two marigolds on the recto and a pot marigold on the recto.
Place of Origin
France (probably, painted)
Date
ca. 1575 (painted)
Artist/maker
Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques, born 1533 - died 1588 (painter)
Materials and Techniques
Watercolour and body-colour on paper
Marks and inscriptions
Numbered '10' on the recto and '11' on the verso, in brown ink, on the top right corner
Dimensions
Height: 27.5 cm, Width: 18.8 cm
Object history note
Purchased in 1856 (Lugt 2503). No record of previous history.
Historical context note
The present drawing belongs to an album of 59 botanical watercolours depicted on 33 sheets of paper, some of these being double-sided like the present one, and attributed to Jacques Lemoyne de Morgues. The present work shows three clove pinks and two marigolds on the recto and a pot marigold on the verso.
The drawings from this series were acquired in 1856 as one of the first purchases of the V&A, almost by accident, and solely because they were bound up in an extremely fine French late-16th-century brown calf binding.
Although Lemoyne has been long considered as an obscure artist providing designs for simple woodcuts, he was recognised at the beginning of the 20th century as one of the most remarkable early botanical painters.
The V&A binding and the inscriptions on the drawings in both French and Latin suggest that the series was probably made in France around 1575. Lemoyne left the Continent to London where he settled shortly before1580. The V&A album can be compared with another album, reputed to have been made around 1585 in England, and now in the British Museum.
Another group of 27 sheets stylistically close and on similar paper to the V&A watercolours appeared on the market in 2004, followed by a bound florilegium with eighty drawings in an 18th-century French mottled calf gilt and lettered ‘anno 1770’ in 2005.(See Sotheby's, New York, 21 January 2004, lots 29-55 and Sotheby's, New York, 26 January 2005, lot 46.) A highly finished group of six gouaches on vellum on blue and gold background were sold from the Korner collection in 1997 (Sotheby's, New York, January 29, 1997, lots 55-60).
The interest in plants for their medicinal properties and religious symbolism was well anchored since the Middle Ages in Western Europe. A great number of manuscripts were beautifully illuminated with flowers and plants, echoing an interest that goes back to the Antiquity. However this impressive album of botanical watercolours shows a renewed curiosity for the flora from both a scientific and an aesthetic point of view.
In this respect, Lemoyne de Morgues’ representations of plants and insects, which show a particular attention to details and a great sense of realism, can be seen as a forerunner of such projects as the Museum Chartaceum (Latin for ‘Paper Museum’), made by Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) who commissioned to minor and major artists a vast collection of drawings recording, among others, natural history subjects (see V&A E.731-1949 to E.735-1949, E.2776-1962 to E.2777-1962, E.426-2009 to E.428-2009, and E.1026-2011 – and also Royal Library, Windsor Castle, and British Museum, London).
Descriptive line
Watercolour, three clove pinks and two marigolds on the recto and a pot marigold on the recto, attributed to Jacques Lemoyne de Morgues, French school, ca. 1575
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Paul Hulton, The Work of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Huguenot Artist in France, Florida and England, vol. I, London, 1977, p. 156-157 The following is the full text of the entry: 6.Recto. Clove Pinks and Marigold Plate 21a Above, Carnation (Clove Pink), Dianthus caryophyllus L. Three cultivars (double): top left, the flower has profuse dull red markings; top right, the flower is dull red shading to deep orange, streaked with white at the centre; centre, the flower is pale pink. Below, French Marigold, Tagetes patula L.: left, the flower is dark red inside showing yellow stamens; right, the same is seen from the back is brownish yellow, the reversed tips of the ray florets showing dark red, the involucre pale green. Watercolours heightened with bodycolours; pencil outlines visible in the central flowers; 273 x 181 mm; 10 ¾ x 7 in. Numbered 10. AM.3267F-1856 LITERATURE: Savage (1922), (1923), the marigold as ‘Tagetes erecta’. The top left-hand flower is similar in treatment to ‘L. Caryophilus flore albo punctato’ in H. F. (Su.), pl. 18. Verso. Pot Marigold Plate 21b Pot Marigold, Calendula officinalis L. The flowers are a variegated dull orange, the involucre strong green. Watercolours touched with bodycolours, pencil outline visible in places. Numbered 11. LITERATURE: Savage (1922), (1923).
Spencer Savage, ‘The discovery of some of Jacques Le Moyne’s botanical drawings’ in The Gardeners’ Chronicle, 3rd s., vol. LXXI (1922)
Spencer Savage, ‘Early botanical painters. No. 3. – Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues’ in The Gardeners’ Chronicle, 3rd s., vol. LXXIII (1923)
Lionel Lambourne, Portraits of Plants: Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (1533- 1588), London (undated)
Exhibition History
Picturing Plants: masterpieces of botanical illustration (Victoria and Albert Museum, Galleries 88a and 90 05/02/2011-25/09/2011)
Labels and date
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues 1533-88
Clove Pinks and Marigolds ('Dianthus caryophyllus' and 'Tagetes patula')
About 1575
These flower stems are arranged on the page with ample space around them. The delicate, serrated petals of the pinks, and the front and back of the marigold, are delineated with clarity and simplicity. In Le Moyne's later drawings the composition tends to be more elaborate and oranmental, perhaps with the inclusion of a butterfly.
Probably France
Watercolour and bodycolour
V&A: AM.3267f-1856
Materials
Gouache; Water-colour; Laid paper
Subjects depicted
Flowers; Plants
Categories
Science; Gardens & Gardening
Collection code
PDP
