Until the nineteenth century, the French contribution to botanical flower prints (as opposed to decorative arrangements) was meager. During the early nineteenth century, though, Pancrace Bessa and other French artists such as Redoute, Prevost, Turpin and Madame Vincent brought France to world pre-eminence in this genre.
Bessa was a pupil of van Spaendonck, the great engraver and his success was due in part to Spaendonck, but also to his masterful use of the stipple engraving technique which allowed for color printing.
Bessa and Redoute sometimes worked together, as on the "Histoire des Arbres
Forestiers de L'Amerique Septentrionale," published in 1810-1813 as a quarto with colored stipple engravings by both artists. An English
translation of this was published in Philadelphia in 1818-1819.
