Pierre Joseph Redouté’s Pontederia cordata (1802–1816), published in 1802, presents the freshwater plant commonly known as pickerelweed with characteristic clarity and poise. Broad green leaves rise in a measured fan around slender stems, while the composition culminates in dense spikes of blue flowers. Set against an open cream ground, the specimen appears both abundant and carefully ordered: an entire plant reduced to its most informative forms without losing the vitality of its growth.

Redouté was celebrated as the “flower painter” of his age, admired for botanical studies that joined close observation to exceptional refinement. His work belongs to a period when natural history depended upon images not merely as decoration, but as instruments of study and identification. In this plate, scientific description and visual elegance are inseparable. The characteristic foliage, upright habit and clustered blossoms are made legible at a glance, yet the arrangement has the balance and rhythm of a consciously composed work of art.

A closer look

The eye is led upwards through the plant. At the lower centre, the leaves spread out in overlapping arcs, their elongated, heart-like forms gently curving towards the edges of the page. Fine veins run through their surfaces, while gradual shifts from pale to deeper green suggest their folds and changing angles. The stems are comparatively spare and vertical, giving the upper flowers room to register clearly against the pale background.

The blue flower spikes provide the strongest concentration of colour. Individual blooms are distinguished within each cluster through precise outlines, stippled detail and small touches of lighter blue and pale yellow. Rather than treating the flowers as a single decorative mass, Redouté preserves the structure of their separate petals. Soft tonal modelling gives the spikes a restrained sense of volume, while the absence of a conventional setting keeps attention firmly on the plant itself.

Smaller floral studies near the lower left isolate aspects of the blossom for closer examination. These supplementary details are easy to overlook beside the larger specimen, but they reveal the plate’s descriptive purpose: the viewer is shown not only the plant’s overall silhouette but also the construction of its flowers. Along the lower edge, the Latin name Pontederia cordata appears in flowing script, accompanied by a French vernacular caption. The lettering forms a graceful visual base beneath the rising stems.

Context and significance

Early nineteenth-century botanical illustration occupied a productive meeting point between art and science. Before photography could record plants directly, illustrators had to select, clarify and organise what mattered: the junction of stem and leaf, the shape of a bloom, the relationship between the whole specimen and its constituent parts. Redouté became especially admired because that process of clarification never feels mechanical. His plants remain recognisably living things, their leaves bending and their flowers opening with subtle irregularity.

Pontederia cordata exemplifies this balance. Its largely vertical structure is stabilised by the outward movement of the leaves, while the cool blue blossoms punctuate a restrained range of greens and cream. The result is at once a botanical record and an exceptionally disciplined composition—one that rewards both an interest in plant life and a closer appreciation of how scientific knowledge can be shaped through line, colour and space.

Choosing the right size and finish

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The model in the listing images is holding the 36x24in (90x60cm) version of this art print.

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Selected artworks can be produced at statement sizes up to 3 metres (10ft). Custom sizing and specialist framing are also available. If the exact option you need is not listed, contact our workshop.

This artwork is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The work is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present an art print without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas art and explore the differences between my different finishes.