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Drawing - Ficus carica L.; Fig; Mespilus germanica L.; Medlar
  • Ficus carica L.
    Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques, born 1533 - died 1588
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Ficus carica L.; Fig; Mespilus germanica L.; Medlar

  • Object:

    Drawing

  • Date:

    ca. 1575 (painted)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques, born 1533 - died 1588 (painter)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    water-colour and body-colours

  • Museum number:

    AM.3267V-1856

  • Gallery location:

    Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, case DP, shelf 19, box CII

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Jacques Le Moyne De Morgues (1533?-1588) was a French painter, illustrator and explorer. He also worked in London and accompanied the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) on his expeditions to Florida in North America. This is one of 59 watercolours of fruit and flowers that Le Moyne de Morgues painted on 33 sheets. We do not know exactly when he painted them, but there are some clues. The watermark in the paper is the same as that used in Paris and Arras in 1568, and the binding is French. It therefore seems likely that they date from the period between 1568 and 1572. This is when Le Moyne fled to England with other Huguenots (French Protestants) to escape religious persecution in France.

The watercolours were originally in a fine tooled-leather binding dating to the late 16th century. Curators identified the watercolours as the work of Le Moyne in 1922. They removed them from the binding and mounted them individually. (The binding is in the collection of the National Art Library at the V&A.)

In the 16th century botanical illustrators revived the practice of working from real plants. Here the degree of naturalistic detail in the representation of the fig suggests that Le Moyne was studying a living plant rather than earlier botanical illustrations.

Physical description

Botanical illustration of a Fig on a branch and on the back, a single fig.

Date

ca. 1575 (painted)

Artist/maker

Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques, born 1533 - died 1588 (painter)

Materials and Techniques

water-colour and body-colours

Dimensions

Height: 10.75 in, Width: 7.50 in

Object history note

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.

Historical significance: This series of watercolours by Le Moyne are outstanding botanical illustrations, remarkable for their directness and truth to nature.

Descriptive line

Botanical study, a branch of medlar and on the verso, a single fig, a sheet from a series of drawings of English flowers, fruits, etc., Jacques Le Moyne des Morgues, 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. 160 The following is the full text of the entry: 21. Recto. Medlar Plate 27d Medlar, Mespilus germanica L. The fruits are yellow shading to dull gold, the seeds reddish brown touched with white, the interlacing sepals over the apex are yellowish green. Watercolours and bodycolours; 274 x 189 mm; 10 ¾ x 7 ⅜ in. Numbered 37. AM.3267V-1856 LITERATURE: Savage (1922), (1923). Verso. Fig Plate 28a Common Fig, Ficus carica L. The fruit on the stem is green, the ripe fruit, separately drawn, dull purple and green, deep red on the inside, heightened with white. Watercolours and bodycolours. Numbered 38. 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)

Materials

Gouache; Water-colour

Subjects depicted

Fruit; Fig

Categories

Illustration; Drawings; Gardens & Gardening

Collection code

PDP

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Qr_O25885
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