Pierre Jean François Turpin
1775–1840
French botanical artist and botanist. Joined the Battalion of Calvados at the age of 14 and was posted to the French colony of Saint Domingue. On his return to France became secretary and artist to General Charles Leclerc. Studied drawing at the École des beaux-arts in Vire. Learned botany from Antoine Poiteau in Haiti; collaborated with Poiteau in a study of Haitian flora. During a period of revolutionary unrest, he escaped to the US and eventually settled in France in 1802. In Philadelphia, met Alexander von Humboldt and was commissioned by him to make drawings of his South American collections. Collaborated on some of the most important botanical publications of the early nineteenth century.
Sources
DSB
JSTOR Global Plants, plants.jstor.org (accessed 24 June 2016)
Bibliography
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
