[Les oiseaux les plus remarquables par leurs formes et leurs couleurs. Scènes variées de leurs moeurs & de leurs habitudes.

Descripción

Folio (21 3/4 x 14 1/2 in.; 55.3 x 36.8 cm). 58 (of 79) fine consecutively numbered handcolored lithographic plates by Traviès;(early plates a bit spotted, last plate with longish closed tear affecting the image. Contemporary full blue morocco gilt, the spine in 6 compartments gilt with raised bands, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; boards a trifle scuffed, corners bumped, rebacked to style. ".SIMPLY WONDERFUL. AMONG THE BEST PORTRAITS OF BIRDS EVER PAINTED" (Wood). FIRST EDITION of this beautiful work by "one of the finest painters at work in the first half of the 19th century" (Jackson). The plates were originally issued in serial form, without title or text, and traditionally this work calls for 79 plates, but it has been thought that plates 60 and 79 were never published. Traviès' artistry represents a pinnacle in French ornithological illustration. Natural history, as a descriptive pursuit bent on identifying new species, demanded detailed illustrations. The minute precision of Traviès' work places him with the best of France's scientific artists. Traviès was born in Doullens, in the Somme district of France, in March 1809, the younger brother of the caricaturist Charles Joseph Traviès de Villier (1804-1859). Throughout his career he concentrated on natural history subjects, both in watercolor (he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon between 1831 and 1866) and lithography. Unlike a number of his contemporaries, he was an artist both with the brush and on stone. The majority of the illustrations show species of birds native to Europe, but some plates are birds native to America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and the Pacific region. The artist depicts the birds in association with flowering plants indigenous to their habitats, such as orchids, passion flowers, and varieties of eucalyptus. Traviès' original watercolors were reproduced as both engravings and lithographs, which are considered among the best portraits of birds ever painted. REFERENCES: Fine Bird Books, p. 147; Nissen IVB 946; Wood 601 PROVENANCE: Madelaine Jay (modern armorial bookplate on the front paste-down) (L64F21H). N° de ref. del artículo 72nhr223

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