Galerie Paul Prouté

A painter and engraver, Pancrace Bessa was a pupil of Gérard van Spaendonck and Pierre-Joseph Redouté, with whom he specialised in botanical illustration. Between 1806 and 1831, he exhibited regularly at the Salon, and in 1823 succeeded Henri-Joseph Redouté as painter at the Museum of Natural History. Bessa also produced the illustrations for the Herbier général de l’amateur (Paris, 1816-1827) by Mordant deLaunay – and later by Loiseleur-Deslongchamp – describing rare and new plants growing in Paris gardens in watercolour on vellum.