Erica Fulgida
A single heath blossom, painted with an empress’s patience.
- Work
- Erica Fulgida
- Artist / naturalist
- Pierre-Joseph Redouté
- Origin & date
- France, 1813
- Held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$19.00
The story
Dated 1813, this plate belongs to Redouté's late imperial period, when his patron Empress Joséphine's collection of heaths (Erica) at Malmaison was among the most extensive in Europe — an obsession that outlived her marriage to Napoleon and, briefly, outlived the empire itself. Erica fulgida's tubular, glowing blossoms cluster along a single woody stem, rendered in the same color stipple-engraving process Redouté used across his career: layers of separately inked plates built up like watercolor, never a single flat block of color. What to notice: the plate isolates one small stem against bare paper — no ground, no setting, nothing to distract from the plant's own architecture. It is a specimen study elevated to portraiture, the same reverence a naturalist gives a species and a painter gives a face.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper: smooth, no glare.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guarantee.
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