Cotingas and Long-Tailed Manakins, Brazilian Bird Print, Descourtilz, 1944

Cotingas and long-tailed manakins print after Descourtilz, taken from the 1944 Rio de Janeiro edition of the Ornitologia Brasileira, where it appears as Estampa 40, printed in color by offset.

Four birds share a leafy branch hung with small pale berries. At upper right, a bird with a black body, a patch of red across the back, and a clean white belly perches with two extremely long, thread-like black tail streamers trailing well beyond the leaves. To the left, two smaller birds sit close together, one black with a patch of yellow at the wing and a white belly, the other black shading to blue; their proximity suggests they are meant to be read as a pair. At the center of the plate, a bird with a bright yellow-orange head and a black body perches with several long, pale, wire-like tail feathers extending far below it. At the bottom, a fourth bird with a red head and crest and a black body perches on its own section of branch. The berries and simple leaves link all four birds into a continuous design running the height of the sheet.

The Ornitologia Brasileira ou História Natural das Aves do Brasil, notáveis por sua plumagem, canto e hábitos was published by Livraria Kosmos Editora in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in 1944: the first Portuguese edition, translated by Eurico Santos, of a work first published in French in the 1850s, limited to 1,315 copies (1,000 plus 315 numbered). Its 48 color offset plates reproduce Descourtilz's own paintings of Brazilian birds, each captioned "Estampa" with its number and mounted on a toned card within a printed green ornamental border.

The artist, Jean-Théodore Descourtilz (circa 1796 to 1855), was a French painter and naturalist. He traveled to Brazil in the late 1820s, devoted himself to painting its birds, and published his first work on the birds of Brazil in 1834.

Decorative and strong in color, this cotingas and long-tailed manakins print after Descourtilz would frame well for a study, library or garden room, or sit alongside other Brazilian bird prints in a natural history collection.

This plate is in good condition for its age. The mount shows ordinary age toning, with a few small spots and light wear to the edges; the image itself is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.