Artist: Pancrace Bessa

Title: Lumie Poire du Commandeur (Commander’s Pear)

Date: 1826

Technique: Watercolour on vellum

Dimensions: 33.7 × 21 cm

Todolí Citrus Fundació Collection

Botanical illustrations played a fundamental role in the study and dissemination of citrus varieties during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Before the invention of photography, watercolours such as this one made it possible to document the morphological characteristics of each fruit with great precision, facilitating their identification, cultivation and study.

Created in 1826, this work depicts the Lumie Poire du Commandeur, a historic lumia variety described by the botanists Antoine Risso and Pierre Antoine Poiteau in Histoire naturelle des Orangers. Pear-shaped and with a smooth rind, this citrus fruit was still a rarity in the gardens of Paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century, attracting both scientific and ornamental interest.

Bessa’s remarkable precision allows every detail of the fruit, leaves and blossoms to be appreciated, reflecting the close relationship between art and science that characterised French botanical illustration. More than an aesthetic representation, the watercolour is a scientific document that records the remarkable diversity of citrus varieties and the fascination these species inspired throughout Europe.

The work was commissioned by Charles X of France, who presented it as a New Year’s gift in 1826 to his daughter-in-law and Bessa’s pupil, Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Berry (1798–1870).

Pancrace Bessa (Paris, 1772 – Écouen, 1835)

Pancrace Bessa was one of the foremost French botanical illustrators of the nineteenth century. He studied at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris under Gérard van Spaendonck and Pierre-Joseph Redouté, going on to establish a distinguished career as a painter specialising in flowers, fruits and birds.

Between 1806 and 1831 he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon and, from 1823 until his death, worked as Peintre des Fleurs on the celebrated Vélins du Roi collection. His watercolours illustrated numerous scientific publications devoted to botany, horticulture and agriculture, documenting newly introduced species from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia. Regarded as one of the great masters of botanical illustration, his work represents the union of art, scientific observation and the study of nature.