Jacques Barraband. Petit Oiseau de Paradis Emeraude Male. 1800

Jacques Barraband (French, 1767-1809)Petit Oiseau de Paradis Emeraude MaleStudy for Histoire Naturalle des Oiseaux de Paradis et des RolliersWatercolor on paperca. 1800Paper size: 20 ¼ x 15 ¼ inPinault Painter as Naturalist, 203Provenance: Collection of Marcel Jeanson. $375,000 Jacques Barraband (french, 1767-1809) Jacques Barraband’s watercolors of birds are masterpieces of French ornithological illustration. Most of his stunning portraits were done for the distinguished ornithologist Francois Levaillant, who commissioned the artist to illustrate his landmark works on African ornithology, including the lavish and striking Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets. Images of African birds were popular in early 19th-century France both for their exoticism and for Africa’s interest that Napoleon’s campaigns were generating. The collaboration of Levaillant and Barraband represented a departure from previous ornithological texts in its emphasis on beauty and luxury, with sumptuously colored and fl