French artist and botanist (1775-1840).
Pierre Jean François Turpin (11 March 1775, Vire – 1 May 1840) was a French botanist and illustrator. He was considered as one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators during the Napoleonic Era and afterwards. As an artist, Turpin was largely self-taught. In 1794 he was stationed in Haiti as a member of the French Army. Here, he met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau (1766-1854), through whom Turpin learned botany, and in the meantime, created numerous botanical field drawings that were to become a basis of further study when the two men returned to France. In regard to their work in Hai