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1807 American Redstart Illustration - 'Le Moucherolle doré mâle' Old Bird Print
$495 (£375, €440)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1807
- Size
- 20.3 × 13.5 in (51.5 × 34.4 cm)
- Condition
- Good. General age-related toning. Minor wear and foxing, blank verso. Please study image carefully.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Section
- Birds
- Reference
- f_39081862
Male American redstart, an original hand-colored engraving titled "Le Moucherolle doré mâle" with the Latin "Muscicapa ruticilla", from Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot's Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale, published about 1807. The plate number is lettered in the title line, and the credits below read "Prêtre pinx.", "Langlois imp." and "Bouquet sculp.", naming the painter, the printer and the engraver.
The bird perches near the top of a gnarled branch, turned to the left. The head and back are a deep blue-black, the breast and belly white, and the wings and tail are marked with bright orange-red patches. The plumage is finely stippled and the color was applied in the printing and then finished by hand. The bird is drawn at about life size on a large open sheet with no background.
Vieillot's study of North American birds was among the first to show birds as living animals in their natural attitudes, and Prêtre's paintings, printed in color from the plates, give the series its distinctive finish.
