Klopfenstein, Elisa — West European Orchids

Meise National Botanic Garden of Belgium 43x30 cm cm. 5 maps, each with a total 12 plates in colour (together 60) in an original cloth case (of 43 x 30 x 3,7 cm). With handwritten dedication by the author on a separate card. In a very good, almost as new condition. Elisa Klopfenstein was born in 1921. As a ten-year-old she already amazed the headmistress of her school in Mechelen by her talent for drawing and was oriented by her to the Academy of the city. She was so attracted to plants and drew so well that her science teacher predicted her a future career as a plant illustrator. Her life took a different turn. After her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, she worked as an illustrator at the Normal School in Laeken. She devoted her entire professional life to this educational task, but never abandoned completely the drawing of flowers. In 1971 she took on the plan to achieve a collection of watercolors of the orchids of Belgium, encouraged by her husband Philippe Toussaint. After three years of working alone, both took contact in 1974 with the former National Botanic Garden of Belgium in Meise. Botanists are usually very uncooperative when it comes to revealing places where rare plants grow, but at the sight of the watercolors their resistance disappeared quickly. They gave the couple all necessary information and escorted them even to the most secret sites where rare orchids were growing. Each plate took at least a week of work. The plant was cautiously dug out with a clod of soil, and a part of the surrounding vegetation and, after completion of the work, carefully planted back at the same location. The watercolor paintings by Elisa Klopfenstein show us every orchid species in its actual size and in its natural setting, along with several detailed figures in an adjusted magnification. The clear viewing of the structure of the unusual floral orchids and the exact mapping of individuals of known locations give these plates, apart from an artistic quality, also a high scientific value.