Red Tanagers, Brazilian Bird Print, Descourtilz, 1944

Red tanagers print after Descourtilz, Estampa 31 of the Ornitologia Brasileira, published in Rio de Janeiro in 1944 and printed in color by offset from Jean-Théodore Descourtilz's own painting.

Four birds dominated by red plumage share a flowering branch. At upper right, a bird with a deep maroon-red body and blackish-gray wings and tail hangs from the branch at an angle, its pale bill open. At upper left, a second and brighter red bird, its wings and fanned tail black, perches upright close to a small red flower bud. Lower and to the right, a third bird, similarly red with black-tipped wings and a dark tail, perches on its own section of branch. At the bottom of the plate, a fourth reddish-orange bird with darker wings and a soft pink-toned tail sits beside a fifth, yellow-headed companion whose brown body and yellow throat mark it out from the otherwise uniformly red group. The branch carries a scatter of small red buds and a single berry, rendered in the same careful botanical manner used throughout the volume.

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 red tanagers 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.