#Madeleine Françoise Basseporte

[thebotanicalarcade]

Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle, 1701-1780, Double Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) (left). Purple cress (Cardamine douglassii) (right), ca. 1750. Watercolor over pencil on vellum.

[love-for-carnation]

L'Oeillet Peint d'apres nature par Madeleine Françoise Basseporte (1701-1780, French) From 1741 until her death, Madeleine served as the Royal Painter for the King's Garden and Cabinet (now the Jardin des Plantes), an unprecedented appointment for a woman artist at the time. Basseporte was a teacher to Louis XV's daughters and was responsible for educating them on the art of flower painting.[4] It is during this time that she is believed to have also worked as an interior decorator for Madame de Pompadour, the king's official mistress. Basseporte's connections to major botanists of the time, such as the previously mentioned Carolus Linnaeus and Georges-Louis Leclerc, reveal the artist's status within the genre of botanical illustration. Despite this, however, there is very little additional information available on her. The majority of said information derives from the Louis Poinsinet de Sivry and Jean Castilhon's the "Notice", which can be found inside the 1781 volume of Le Nécrologe des hommes célèbres de France, par une société de gens de lettres.

[clawmarks]

Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle - White lilac (Syringa vulgaris alba) - c.1750 - via The Morgan

[heaveninawildflower]

Pompadour hollyhock (circa 1750) by Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle (1701-1780).

Watercolour over graphite.

Image and text information courtesy The Morgan Library and Museum.

[k00297442]

Artist Research-Madeleine-Françoise Basseporte

Madeleine-Françoise Basseporte was a french painter, born and died in Paris. Before becoming the Royal Painter for the King’s Garden, the first female artist to hold this title - Basseporte specialised in pastel portraits.

Basseporte was best known for botanical illustrations, which took a scientific approach focused on plant structure.

I really like Basseportes work, I like how she lets the plants and flowers speak for themselves with the white background and gold frame. i also like how the colours pop with the background.

[carloskaplan]

Madeleine Françoise Basseporte

[lodxolconxbsseub]

Madeleine Françoise Basseporte doesn’t seem to be too well known today, but she was once a liked botanical artist who taught the princesses of France to paint flowers.

[percehaies]

Acacia

Madeleine Françoise Basseporte (1701-1780)

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Nicolas-Antoine Taunay - Portrait of Gerard van Spaendonck - 1813-15

Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (10 February 1755 – 20 March 1830) was a French painter known best for his landscapes with scenes from ancient and modern history, mythology, and religion and also portraits.

Gerard van Spaendonck (22 March 1746 – 11 May 1822) was a Dutch painter of still lifes with flowers.

Gerard was born in Tilburg, an older brother of Cornelis van Spaendonck (1756–1840), who was also an accomplished artist. In the 1760s he studied with decorative painter Willem Jacob Herreyns (also known as Guillaume-Jacques Herreyns) (1743–1827) in Antwerp. In 1769 he moved to Paris, where in 1774 he was appointed miniature painter in the court of Louis XVI. In 1780 he succeeded Madeleine Françoise Basseporte (1701–1780) as professor of floral painting at the Jardin des Plantes, and shortly afterwards was elected as a member of the Académie des beaux-arts. Among his pupils were Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Henriette Vincent.

Gerard van Spaendonck painted with both oil and watercolors. He contributed over fifty works to the Vélins du Roi, a famous collection of botanical watercolors possessed by French royalty. From 1799 to 1801 he published twenty-four plates of Fleurs Dessinees d'apres Nature (Flowers Drawn from Life), which were high-quality engravings for students of floral painting. Today, Spaendonck's Fleurs Dessinées d'après Nature is a highly treasured book on floral art.

In 1788 he was appointed adviser to the Académie, and in 1795 became a founding member of the Institut de France. In 1804 he received the Légion d'honneur and soon afterwards was ennobled by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Spaendonck died in Paris in 1822 and is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

[alainlesourd-14]

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A post shared by Gallica BnF (@gallicabnf)

Madeleine-Françoise Basseporte, Recueil de dessins de fleurs.18e siècle Madeleine-Françoise Basseporte, Collection of flowers drawings.18th century

(via Gallica BnF (@gallicabnf) • Photos et vidéos Instagram)

[clawmarks]

Burning bush (Dictamnus albus) - Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle - c.1750 - via The Morgan

[heaveninawildflower]

Jacobean lily and double hollyhock (circa 1750) by Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle (1701-1780).

Watercolour over pencil on vellum.

Image and text information courtesy Morgan Library and Museum.

[k00297442]

Artist Statement

When i saw the brief “portrait” I knew immediately that i didn’t want to do a portrait of myself, I find it difficult to draw myself or derive my artwork from myself. So, instead, I focused on a plant in my apartment. When there is a new beginning in my life, whether moving out or starting something new, I often buy or am given an object to symbolise that. My mam got me a keyring for starting college and so I bought my roommate a plant (Florence) for moving in. “Portrait” is often seen as a reflection like looking into the mirror or viewing yourself as a drawing and a version of this for me is this plant.

I think it has been a symbol of reflection of me in my first year in college and my growth as a person, it is the first thing i see in the morning and the last thing I see at night so I wanted to showcase that. My meaning of “portrait.”

Although I really enjoyed this project, if I had more time here are some things I would have done- I would have developed my concepts more, I feel like not much development went into my concept, I think I just dived straight into it without much research. I also would’ve experimented and tried things a lot more within this project, I felt like I kept it pretty safe and literal so if I had more time I would have experimented more with different mediums. And lastly, honestly I wish I tried more with my self portraits and had more confidence in myself with them but other than that, I’m glad with how my project turned out.

Artists I researched:

• Lucien Freud

• Claude Monet

• Madeleine Françoise Basseport

My favourite parts- I really like the painting of Florence and I am very proud of it since it’s my biggest painting to date. I also really like the painting of the apple and banana, I feel it is a strong painting for myself and I also enjoyed painting it a lot.

Things I struggled with- Definitely the life drawing, I think I struggled with the poses a lot. Especially, the sitting poses, I found them really difficult. I also found the rate of how many artworks I was producing very hard to handle. I find I am slower than others with producing artworks, especially with painting I take too long and get very specific with my paintings so I am trying to work on being more free with my painting.

Overall, I struggled with this project at first as I was ill during a good bit of it so I am annoyed at the amount of artworks that were produced but I really enjoyed this project, I really like what i have created and the quality of them. I also learned so much through the life drawing, book making, colour theory and the project as a whole.

[design-is-fine]

Circle of Madeleine Françoise Basseporte, Iris (Iris oncocyclus), 18th century. Watercolor over pencil on vellum. Via Morgan Library

[heaveninawildflower]

Poppies (circa 1750) by Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle (1701-1780).

Watercolour over graphite.

Image and text information courtesy The Morgan Library and Museum.

[heaveninawildflower]

Pot marigold and Double flowered stock (circa 1760) by Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle.

Watercolour over pencil on vellum.

Image and text information courtesy The Morgan Library and Museum.