Yellow Corn Flower

By Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Evoke the era of botanical art with this superb rendition of "Ixia Dubia" (Yellow Corn Flower) created by the great French painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) (Lack, n.d.). Known as "The Raphael of Flowers," Redouté was the official court painter of Empress Joséphine Bonaparte and was tasked with recording the exotic plants collected by her from all around the world in her Malmaison gardens (Callmander et al., 2017).

This print is a portrayal of the impressive Ixia Dubia, which belongs to the Iridaceae family, and is a star-shaped South African bulbous perennial (Goldblatt & Manning, 2011). With beautiful butter-yellow petals, which contrast vividly with its dark-indigo center, this stunning flower hangs gracefully from an elegant stem, surrounded by long spear-like green leaves.