PINARD, Madame Amable Guy Bertrand (fl.1765). “Differentes plantes dessinées d’aprés nature” (cover title). [Rouen, 1762.]

Fine album of original botanical drawings by Madame Pinard, who was published by Pierre Joseph Buc’hoz and has been identified as a student of Madeleine Françoise Basseporte. The drawings are very much in the style of Basseporte (1701-1780), the first (and only) woman to be appointed as the official painter at the Jardin du Roi, a post in which she served for almost 50 years. Not much is known of Madame Pinard other than her credited illustrations in the works of Buc’hoz and that she was married to Amable Pinard, a doctor and professor of botany in Rouen. As noted by Mary Creed of the Morgan Library and Museum: “Existing on the border between art and science, natural-history illustrations offered a point of entry for women into the world of art and royal patronage. It was often a network of women who supported one another as teachers, patrons, and collaborators” (“In the King's Garden with Madeleine Françoise Basseporte,” posted 30 June 2021).

Madame Pinard was published in the following works, all compiled by Pierre Joseph Buc’hoz: Histoire universelle du règne végétaux, [1773-] 1775-1780 (Nissen 287); Traité historique des plantes qui croissent dans la Lorraine, Paris 1762-1770 (Nissen 292); and Herbier artificiel, représentant plus de quine cent plantes tant européennes qu’exotiques, 1783 (Nissen 2322).

Comprises 45 large pencil drawings (approx. 360 x 230mm), often heightened in white and occasionally in color, including four that are more incomplete sketches, three which have small sketches on the versos, and one with full watercolor; two color drawings of shells; 4 small pencil drawings (various sizes and orientations but about half the size of the others); one small watercolor; and a manuscript list of plants. Nearly all captioned in ink manuscript. (Some toning and edge-wear, scattered small stains and creases.) Laid in loose to a contemporary vellum folder labeled in manuscript: “Differentes plantes dessinées d’aprés nature en 1762 a Rouen. / 1er portfeuille / Differentes plantes dessinées d’aprés nature par Madame Pinard.” (Ties lacking, soiled and warped.)