Arson

Drawings of cacti were extremely rare in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. It was the development of botanical treatises and scientific expeditions in search of new species, such as Dumont d’Urville’s expedition to South America on La Coquille, as well as the trade in these species, that launched the fashion for cacti and succulents. Known in Europe since Christopher Columbus brought back specimens of Melocactus from the West Indies, we find them represented in John Gerard’s Herball under the name Melocarduus Echinatus or Echino Melocactos, along with two other species, but these plants were still very rare on the European continent and remained almost exclusively American. It was Carl von Linné who first used the word cactus – of Greek etymology, meaning a cardoon – as the generic name for the 22 species then identified. Gradually, several genera and species were distinguished and named: three genera were isolated in 1770 by Philip Miller (Pereskia, Opuntia and Cereus), then in 1812 Adrian H. Haworth isolated five. It wasn’t until George Engelmann and his 1858 publication that more were isolated, followed by Britton and Rose and Backerberg. Backerberg finally counted 300 genera and 2,000 species in 1958-1962, a number that has now been revised downwards.

The cactus pictured here has long been identified as an Echinocereus. In reality, it appears to belong to the echinopsis genus, one of the major cactus genera, with around 180 species. They are native to South America (northern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay). The one represented here by Olimpe Arson could be echinopsis eyriesii or oxigona. But the difference with certain species of the echinocereus genus is very slight, and is limited to the color of the pistil, the internal organization of the flower and the length of the spines. Doubt is therefore permitted.

Olimpe Arson, born and baptized in Paris at Saint-Eustache on September 19, 1814, daughter of François Alexandre Arson (1785 – 1848) and Olympiade Nicolle,[1] was one of Pierre Joseph Redouté’s (1759 – 1840) most serious pupils, assisting him in his work at the Museum. She contributed to Quinze groupes des plus beaux fruits, one of Redouté’s rarest collections. At the Salon, where for several years she exhibited flowers and fruit of a quality praised by all commentators, she was noticed for her precocity – at 21, she was the youngest medalist in the Salon’s history. She contributed several drawings to most of the published series on flowers, such as La Naissance des fleurs ou les 365 jours de floraison, recueil réunissant 300 groupes de fleurs en 50 feuilles [The Birth of Flowers or the 365 days of flowering; a collection of 300 groups of flowers in 50 sheets], Paris, Fleury Chavant, London, CH. Tilt, 1837.  She took part in the illustration of the Cours de fleurs du jardin des Plantes, in which she is described as “M. Redouté’s delegate to the iconography course at the Jardin des Plantes”. Although very young, she had pupils of her own and, in 1842, one of the best of them, Mme Clémentine Martin-Buchère, distinguished herself at the Salon with a study of a camellia, while, at just 28, Olimpe Arson, who had “taken a disgust with the things of this world”, stopped painting and joined a convent.[2] Her death certificate mentions that she was indeed a nun.[3]

Pierre-Joseph Redouté collaborated with Augustin Pyramus de Candolle on a publication devoted to succulents and, by extension, cacti, issued in several editions between 1799 and 1838. Echinopsis eyriesii, which appears to have been introduced into France during the first third of the 19th century, is not included in these works. According to Joseph Labouret, who describes the species in his Monographie de la famille des cactées, it originated in Argentina. The plant is said to have been named after its first European collector, Alexandre Eyries (Le Havre), to whom a French naval captain brought a specimen from Argentina in 1827. A few specimens are recorded in Paris in the 1830s.

The earliest documented specimen in France is probably that reported by Henri-Antoine Jacques (1782-1866), head gardener to the Duke of Orléans, who recounts that it bloomed for a single night – lasting only twenty-four hours – in 1833.[4] Charles Lemaire referred to the species in 1838 and 1839, in connection with Echinocactus – the genera having not yet been clearly differentiated – without providing further detail. Louis Pfeiffer also mentions it in 1837.[5] According to Joseph Labouret, another example of Echinopsis eyriesii was held in the botanical garden of the École de Pharmacie in Paris, where it reportedly fell into a tub of water and remained submerged for three months without suffering any damage.[6] A specimen was also present in Kew Gardens in England in 1835 and described that same year, and again in 1838, in Edward’s botanical register, illustrated by two engraved plates by Miss Drake.

There were thus a few occasions on which Olimpe Arson could have seen – and drawn – a specimen of this cactus in France, in the Natural History Museum circle or in a private collection. In the first half of the 19^th century, the circle of cactus collectors was in its infancy and therefore quite small. Prince de Salm-Dyck assembled a fine collection and owned one Eyriesii.[7] Baron de Monville was also known for his cacti collection, which he had to sell in 1846 after going bankrupt.[8] The horticulturist Cels, based on the Chaussée du Maine in Paris, took advantage of this new fashion to specialize in cactus catalogs.

Echinopsis eyriesii blooms at night, and the dark background and artificial light chosen by the artist may therefore not be merely an aesthetic device. The drawing was probably executed nocturnally, by the faint glow of candlelight, whose subtle flicker is rendered tangible through the delicate handling of the watercolor on the soft, responsive surface of the vellum.

Drawings of cacti were extremely rare at the time: a collection of plates by Redouté, drawn in preparation for his joint publication with Candolle is in the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where are also works by Claude Aubriet and Édouard Maubert. All were produced as part of publishing ventures. The British Museum has a few representations by Mary Delany; the Metropolitan Museum has one anonymous watercolor, while the Louvre has none: drawn representations of cacti remain very rare, reflecting the rarity of the plant in Europe in the 19^th century.

This beautiful watercolor on vellum was once in the Castille collection, a prestigious ensemble of Charles X decorative art and furniture, which included rare and luxurious items such as the Duchesse de Berry’s hourglass, two of the Duc de Bordeaux’s desks and Queen Marie-Amélie’s letter box decorated with Sèvres plates.