Jacques Barraband (French, 1767-1809), Le Tocan

JACQUES BARRABAND (FRENCH, 1767–1809)Le Tocan [Red Billed Toucan]Prepared for Plate 3 in Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers, suivie de celles des toucans et des barbus (1801–1806)Watercolor and gouache on paperSigned: Barraband fecitAnnotated: 224 upper rightParis, ca. 1800Paper size: 20 1/2 x 15 in.Frame size: 31 1/4 x 26 1/4 in.Price: $275,000 The red-billed toucan is a subspecies of the White-throated toucan, and it is found in south-eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern Brazil. Levaillant wrote of this bird: “This toucan has the body, tail, and wings modeled, for proportions, on these parts of the preceding species; but its beak is not nearly so disproportionate to its size, for it is, in the largest individuals, only about six inches in length by two inches in height, and ten lines in width at the base. These two birds differ again in the form of their beaks, in that that of the toco is much thicker throughout its entire extent, and that the upper m