Colorful Tropical Fish – LionFish – Antique Engraving by Turpin
Tropical Fish
From Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles by Pierre Jean Francis Turpin, published in France by Levrault, 1816.
Handcolored antique engraving. Turpin was one of the greatest botanical and natural history engravers of his time.
This engraving shows – the Lionfish or Pterois is a genus of venomous marine fish, native to the Indo-Pacific and another tropical fish which is probably incorrectly identified as the Taenianotus or leaf-scorpion fish.
1816
11 March 1775, Vire – 1 May 1840
In-octavo format - Most sheets measure approximately 15 x 23 cm
The French botanist and illustrator Pierre Jean François Turpin is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators of his time. He began his study of nature while stationed in Haiti in 1794 as a member of the French army. There he met the botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau and began to create botanical field drawings. As an artist, Turpin was largely self-taught.
The Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles was published by Turpin. Most of the illustrations in this work were engraved after paintings by Jean-Gabriel Prêtre.
