BOTANICAL ART BY REDOUTE UP FOR AUCTION

The most famous series of botanical paintings still in private hands--468 watercolors of lilies by Pierre-Joseph Redoute--will be sold at auction today and are expected to bring between $5 million and $7 million.

Redoute painted 16 albums of iris, amaryllis and tulips from 1802 to 1814 on commission by French Empress Josephine, who collected exotic plants at her home, Malmaison, near Paris, after she was divorced by Napoleon. The paintings are essentially a record of the species in Malmaison’s greenhouses.

They were inherited by Josephine’s son, Eugene de Beauharnais, and owned by his descendants, the Russian-Bavarian dukes of Leuchtenberg, until 1935. They were then purchased by a New York book dealer who later sold them to a private trust that has consigned them to Sotheby’s auction gallery for sale.

Almost none of the flower studies have ever been publicly displayed and they are in prime condition. They are painted on vellum in brilliant color that looks as though it were applied yesterday. All but 65 are signed by the artist. The albums’ green morocco bindings are original.

The paintings will be offered as a lot, but if there is no bid higher than the confidential reserve placed on the paintings by the consignor, each painting will be sold separately.