This rare stipple engraving with original hand-coloring is from Pierre Jean Francis Turpin's Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles. The work was published in France by Levrault in 1816. The engravings were completed by Jean-Gabriel Pretre. The work depicts a vast array of images from the animal and plant kingdom.
Turpin was noted as one of the greatest botanical and natural history engravers of his time. He began his study of natural history while he was stationed in Haiti in 1794 as a member of the French Army. It was during this time he met the botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau. The pair began to create botanical field drawings, and this inspired Turpin's passion for natural history. He was a largely self taught artist.
