A botanical illustration of various vegetables arranged against a white background. The collection includes tomatoes, chard, root vegetables, a watermelon and a bunch of carrots.

19th Century French vegetable catalogue paintings reproduced in all their painstaking glory

Words: Rob Alderson
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Date: 14 June 2012; Work
Illustration

Imagine a time when vegetables could stop you in your tracks, when the very sight of a weird and wonderful foodstuff could cause you to gawp and gasp. You can’t can you – what with your Tesco-infused metropolitanism and your exotic-fruit snack packs.

But there was a time when people weren’t as gastronomically savvy as you and so in those days it was important for certain pioneers to catalogue and document things like vegetables. Grain merchant Philippe Victoire de Vilmorin and his father-in-law Pierre Andrieux, botanist to the King, together formed Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie and produced their first seed catalogue in 1766.

As the business grew they became hugely respected botanical experts and a series of publications followed, culminating in arguably the company’s most famous work Album Vilmorin. Les Plantes potagères (The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895). For this stunning tome of “agro-botanic iconography” 15 painters were hired to render fruits and vegetables and these illustrations have been collated and republished by pharmaceutical historian Werner Dressendörfer.

It’s clearly a significant record of botanical history but it’s also just ruddy beautiful, with skill and flair poured into this fairly prosaic topic.

Album Vilmorin. Les Plantes potagères is out now from Taschen.

The cover of a book titled “The Vegetable Garden”. A botanical illustration of a pumpkin, with one slice cut away, sits against a plain white background. — Above
Werner Dressendörfer: The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895 (COurtesy of Taschen)

A botanical illustration of various root vegetables, including carrots, radishes and onions. The vegetables are arranged in a grid on a plain white background with handwritten labels and a title at the top. — Above
Werner Dressendörfer: The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895 (COurtesy of Taschen)

A botanical illustration of a large, leafy cabbage with deep green, ruffled foliage. Text at the top reads “Album Vilmorin” and a caption at the bottom reads “Chou de Milan des Vertus”. — Above
Werner Dressendörfer: The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895 (COurtesy of Taschen)

A botanical illustration of various root vegetables and gourds arranged on a white page. A list on the left identifies the subjects, including “Turnip”, “Jerusalem Artichoke”, “Beet”, “Scorzonera”, “Tomato” and “Squash”. — Above
Werner Dressendörfer: The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895 (COurtesy of Taschen)

A botanical illustration of various carrots in different shapes and shades of orange. Below the vegetables, a list of varieties is titled “Betteraves Fourragères”. — Above
Werner Dressendörfer: The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895 (COurtesy of Taschen)

A botanical illustration of red tomatoes, purple-stemmed celery and potatoes. To the right, a book cover reads “The Vegetable Garden” above the publisher “Taschen”. — Above
Werner Dressendörfer: The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895 (COurtesy of Taschen)

Further Info

www.taschen.com

About the Author

Rob Alderson

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Rob Alderson is a freelance writer, editor and strategist. He was previously editor-in-chief of It’s Nice That and WePresent, and editor of Design Week. He publishes the newsletter Undo, which tries to make sense of how AI is changing design work, the design process and the design industry.

19th Century French vegetable catalogue paintings reproduced in all their painstaking glory

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