Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
Toucans and Aracaris, Brazilian Bird Print, Descourtilz, 1944
€170 ($190, £145, €170)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1944
- Technique
- Other
- Coloring
- Printed color
- Condition
- Fair. Fair to good condition for its age. The image panel has visible creases across the upper half and a faint gray mark; the mount is toned with small spots and light edge wear. Please review the images for further condition details.
- Period
- 20th century
- Section
- Birds
- Reference
- BG-14389-1-13
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Toucans and aracaris print after Descourtilz, Estampa 13 of the Ornitologia Brasileira, published in Rio de Janeiro in 1944 and printed in color by offset from Jean-Théodore Descourtilz's own painting.
A large toucan occupies the upper part of the sheet, its enormous curved bill pale yellow with a black patch at the tip and a black band at the base, its throat white shading to a black head, neck and underside, and its back partly visible in dark olive. It grips a stout branch wrapped by a pale looping vine or tendril, the vine coiling decoratively through the composition. Below and hanging at an angle from the same branch, two smaller aracaris cling with gray-blue feet: one shows an orange-red body with a black head and green-black wing, the other a green body broken by a yellow band across the chest and a touch of red toward the vent. The three birds and the winding vine fill almost the whole plate, leaving only a narrow margin of plain paper at the edges.
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 toucans and aracaris 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 fair to good condition for its age. The image panel has visible creases across the upper half and a faint gray mark; the mount shows ordinary age toning, with small spots and light edge wear. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
