Tanagers on a Fruiting Branch, Brazilian Bird Print, Descourtilz, 1944

Tanagers on a fruiting branch, a print after Descourtilz: Estampa 37 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 share a leafy, fruiting branch. At the top, a bird with a warm red-orange body finely streaked in darker red, a matching long red tail and a pale bill perches at the tip of the branch, looking upward. Below and to the left, a second bird shows a black head and wing broken by a patch of yellow, with a clean white belly. To the right, a third bird has a yellow-green head, a blue-black body and touches of blue in the wing and tail. At the bottom of the plate, a fourth bird, black overall with a patch of orange-red at the crown and yellow at the wing, perches near a small stalk of red fruit, its long tail trailing below the branch; its markings resemble those of the flame-crested tanager. The leaves are drawn in generous, slightly overlapping clusters typical of the volume, with small dark berries scattered among them.

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 print of tanagers on a fruiting branch 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, a faint surface crease in the upper left and light edge wear. Please review the images for further condition details.