Motmots and Puffbirds, Brazilian Bird Print, Descourtilz, 1944

About this piece

Motmots and puffbirds print after Descourtilz, taken from the 1944 Rio de Janeiro edition of the Ornitologia Brasileira, where it appears as Estampa 22, printed in color by offset.

Four birds are arranged along a bent branch. At the top, a gray-blue bird with a small patch of yellow at the crown and a red eye perches upright, a very long dark tail extending down behind the branch in a broad, fan-like sweep. Below it, hanging head-down from the same perch, a second bird shows a head striped in black and white, a bright yellow breast and belly, and warm brown wings. Lower still, a streaked buff-and-brown bird with a touch of yellow at the crown and a scaled dark breast perches close to a small butterfly drawn beside it. At the base of the branch, a fourth bird, its head again marked in black and white with a patch of orange at the crown, shows a chestnut back and an orange-yellow belly, its tail long and trailing. The branch itself bends and forks through the whole height of the plate, giving each bird its own distinct position within a single continuous design.

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 motmots and puffbirds 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.

This is an original print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.