Roses & Pivoines: Redouté and Thilo Westermann in Dialogue at Malmaison

The exhibition "Roses & Pivoines" at the Château de Bois-Préau (part of the Malmaison estate) brings together the botanical watercolors of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) and the contemporary glass engravings of German artist Thilo Westermann (born 1980). Joséphine Bonaparte, who purchased the château in 1799, created one of Europe's largest gardens with over 2,000 rose bushes and 250 species. She commissioned Redouté to document her collection, leading to his famous three-volume work "Les Roses" (1817–1824). Redouté, trained in the Flemish flower painting tradition, mastered watercolor on vellum and stipple engraving. Westermann works by incising points into black paint on the reverse of glass plates, creating luminous images. He responds to Redouté by replacing old rose varieties with the contemporary "Pierre-Joseph Redouté" rose. The exhibition also features works by Jan-Frans van Dael and Cornelis van Spaendonck, and a restored peony piece by Redouté. Scent notebooks allow visitors to compare rose essences, while peony is noted as a "mute" flower with no extractable perfume.