 After Queen Marie-Antoinette, his patrons included both of Napoleon's wives -- Empress Joséphine and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma -- as well as Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily wife of Louis Philippe I, the last king of France.Redouté collaborated with the greatest botanists of his day and participated in nearly fifty publications depicting both the familiar flowers of the French court and plants from places as distant as Japan, America, South Africa, and Australia.He worked from live plants rather than herbarium specimens, which contributed to his fresh, subtle renderings.