A Bouquet of Flowers in a Wicker Basket

Etching and engraving; c. 1680

Robert Dumesnil 31 II (of III). Watermark: Grape with inscription margin. A superb and even impression with full margins, and before the address of N. de Poilly was erased. Monnoyer was active at Versailles and other palaces of the French king, Louis XIV. He designed flowers and fruits to ornament the borders of tapestries woven at the Gobelins and Beauvais manufactories. The engravings from his portfolio Le Livre de toutes sortes de fleurs d'après nature (Book of All Kinds of Flowers from Nature), with their botanically accurate images arranged in beautiful displays, were widely copied. In 1690 Monnoyer left France for England, where he died nine years later. 37.7 x 48.4 cm.