The Precision of the Botanical Eye Adèle Riché did not merely paint flowers; she documented them with the clinical accuracy required by the French Natural History Museum in Paris. Born in 1791, she occupied a specific niche where art met science. Her lineage provided her entry into this world, as her father, François-Joseph Riché, served as the chief gardener of the Paris Jardin des Plantes. This proximity to living specimens shaped her technical development. She was not a self-taught amateur but a disciplined student of Jan Frans van Dael and Gerard van Spaendonck, masters who understood th…