{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O25896"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O25896/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AV7088/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AV7088/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AV7088","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EL5408","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O25896/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O25896","accessionNumber":"AM.3267O-1856","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Dragon arum flower and tortoiseshell butterfly","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Botanical illustration of a single dragon arum flower and a tortoiseshell butterfly.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques","id":"A3229"},"association":{"text":"painter","id":"AAT25136"},"note":"These botanical watercolours have been attributed to a contemporary of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues."},{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"These botanical watercolours have been attributed to an unknown artist and contemporary of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"bodycolour","id":"x34671"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour and bodycolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"ELISE","id":"THES48961"},{"text":"Botanical art","id":"THES277744"},{"text":"Books","id":"THES48986"},{"text":"Manuscripts","id":"THES48922"}],"styles":[{"text":"French school","id":"x31263"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AV7088","2010EL5408"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"WD","shelf":"231","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"botanical illustrations","id":"THES399050"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France?","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1560-1575","earliest":"1555-01-01","latest":"1575-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"10.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"7.50","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased in 1856 as part of a sketchbook bought for its 16th-century binding. In 1922, De Morgues's signature was discovered and the significance of the watercolours recognised. Following this, the 34 leaves with watercolours were extracted from the volume to be transferred to the Prints and Drawings department (now Museum nos. A.M.3267a – 3267hh-1856). The binding remained in the library.","historicalContext":"The present drawing belongs to an album of 59 botanical watercolours depicted on 34 sheets of paper and attributed to Jacques Lemoyne de Morgues. \nThe 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. Although Lemoyne has been long considered as an obscure artist providing designs for simple woodcuts, he was recognised at the beginning of the 20th century as one of the most remarkable early botanical painters.\r\n\r\nThe V&A binding and the inscriptions on the drawings in both French and Latin suggest that the series was probably made in France around 1575. Lemoyne left the Continent to London where he settled shortly before1580. The V&A album can be compared with another album, reputed to have been made around 1585 in England, and now in the British Museum.\r\n\r\nAnother group of 27 sheets stylistically close and on similar paper to the V&A watercolours appeared on the market in 2004, followed by a bound florilegium with eighty drawings in an 18th-century French mottled calf gilt and lettered ‘anno 1770’ in 2005.(See Sotheby's, New York, 21 January 2004, lots 29-55 and Sotheby's, New York, 26 January 2005, lot 46.) A highly finished group of six gouaches on vellum on blue and gold background were sold from the Korner collection in 1997 (Sotheby's, New York, January 29, 1997, lots 55-60).\r\n\r\nThe interest in plants for their medicinal properties and religious symbolism was well anchored since the Middle Ages in Western Europe. A great number of manuscripts were beautifully illuminated with flowers and plants, echoing an interest that goes back to the Antiquity. However this impressive album of botanical watercolours shows a renewed curiosity for the flora from both a scientific and an aesthetic point of view. \r\n\r\nIn this respect, Lemoyne de Morgues’ representations of plants and insects, which show a particular attention to details and a great sense of realism, can be seen as a forerunner of such projects as the Museum Chartaceum (Latin for ‘Paper Museum’), made by Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657)who commissioned to minor and major artists a vast collection of drawings recording, among others, natural history subjects (see V&A E.731-1949 to E.735-1949, E.2776-1962 to E.2777-1962, E.426-2009 to E.428-2009, and E.1026-2011 – and also Royal Library, Windsor Castle, and British Museum, London).\r\n","briefDescription":"A single dragon arum flower and a tortoiseshell butterfly, a sheet from a series of drawings of English flowers, fruits, etc., attributed to a contemporary of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, French school, ca.1560-1575.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Paul Hulton, <u>The Work of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Huguenot Artist in France, Florida and England</u>, vol. I, London, 1977, p. 158-159\r\n\r\nThe following is the full text of the entry:\r\n\r\n14. <i>Verso</i>. <b>Arum and Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly</b>\r\n<i>Plate</i> 25<i>a</i>\r\n\r\nDragon Arum, <i>Dracunculus vulgaris</i> Schott. The stalk is deep pink, the spadix black, the sheath of the stalk greenish white, blotched with greyish brown. Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, <i>Aglais urticae</i> (L.), seen from above. The fore wings are orange and black, spotted with white at the apex, the hind wings orange and black, the front edges a dull brownish white, the body black and hairy with white segments.\r\n\r\nWatercolours and bodycolours, the white on the wing edges and body somewhat oxidised.\r\n\r\nInscribed at the foot, <i>Serpentaria</i>, and above the butterfly, <i>Tortoise shell Butterfly</i> and numbered <i>26</i>.\r\n\r\nAM.3267O-1856\r\n\r\nLITERATURE: Savage (1923).\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Spencer Savage, ‘Early botanical painters. No. 3. – Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues’ in <u>The Gardeners’ Chronicle</u>, 3rd s., vol. LXXIII (1923)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gill Saunders, <u>100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum</u>, London, 1985, p.46."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Paul Hulton, <u>The Work of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Huguenot Artist in France, Florida and England</u>, vol. I, London, 1977, p. 156\r\n\r\nThe following is the full text of the entry:\r\n\r\n2. <i>Recto</i>. <b>Daisy and Painted Lady Butterfly</b>\r\n<i>Plate</i> 19 <i>b</i>\r\n\r\nDouble Daisy, <i>Bellis perennis</i> L., var. <i>hortensis</i>  L. The flowers are pink, deeper towards the yellowish centre. The Painted Lady Butterfly, <i>Vanessa cardui</i>  (L.), seen from beneath. The wings are mottled in brown and white, deeper brown on the forward edges, the body is dark grey.\r\n\r\nWatercolours and bodycolours; 274 x 183 mm; 10 ¾ x 7 ⅛ in.\r\n\r\nInscribed above the butterfly, <i>The painted Lady revers’d</i>  and numbered <i>3</i>. \r\n\r\nAM.3267B-1856.\r\n\r\nLITERATURE: Savage (1922), (1923).\r\n\r\n\r\n<i>Verso</i>. <b>Species Rose</b>\r\n<i>Plate</i> 19 <i>c</i>\r\n\r\nRose, <i>Rosa</i> sp. The flowers are pink, paler towards the outer edges, showing yellow stamens. \r\n\r\nWatercolours touched with bodycolours.\r\n\r\nNumbered <i>4</i>.\r\n\r\nLITERATURE: Savage (1922), (1923) as ‘Rosa sp.’\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Spencer Savage, ‘The discovery of some of Jacques Le Moyne’s botanical drawings’ in <u>The Gardeners’ Chronicle</u>, 3rd s., vol. LXXI (1922)"},{"reference":{"text":"Lambourne, L., <u>Portraits of Plants</u>, London: V&A, 1984.","id":"AUTH352283"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"FOR A RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SKETCHBOOK, SEE https://web.archive.org/web/20230424123753/https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-botanical-album-of-jacques-le-moyne-de-morgues"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bindings in NAL: https://web.archive.org/web/20230424123626/https://nal-vam.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1008049857 "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Flowers","id":"x31099"},{"text":"butterfly","id":"x30161"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["AM.3267O-1856"],"accessionNumberNum":"3267","accessionNumberPrefix":"AM","accessionYear":1856,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Incorrect number","id":"THES54053"},"number":"AM.3267O-1856"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-21","recordCreationDate":"2000-03-03","availableToBook":false}}