Pierre Valet

Pierre Valet (1575-1650) of Orléans was a French botanical artist, engraver and embroidery designer.

French court patronage of botanical painting was initiated by Marie de Medicis of Florence, second wife of Henry IV of France. Under her tutelage Pierre Valet became the French court's first botanical painter and in 1608 he published Le Jardin du tres Chrestien Henry IV. The work depicted plants from the garden of the Louvre Palace supplied with exotic curiosities by French explorers returning from West Africa and Spain.

Valet also illustrated Jacques-Philippe Cornut's Canadensium plantarum published in 1635, and Les Adventures Amoureuse de Theagenes et Chariclée Sommairement Discrète et Representee par Figures (Gabriel Tavernier, Paris, 1613), the hero and heroine of an erotic 4th century romance in Greek by Heliodorus, Bishop of Trikka.

Plate from
"Le Jardin du roy très chrestien Henry IV"

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