OISEAUX. DESSINES D’APRES NATURE (A LA PLUME).

Antoine-Charles Thelot (French, 1798-1853)
Oiseaux. Dessines d’apres nature (a la plume).
France, 1826
4to (10 1/4 x 7 in). 21 outstanding pen and ink drawings on paper of birds in elaborate natural settings (image size 6 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches), 20 tipped-in, and one drawn directly into a sketchbook, each signed and dated by the artist, and preceded by a leaf bearing the common (French) name and Latin scientific name in manuscript. Original red morocco gilt (extremities rubbed).
Provenance: Bookplate of Marcel Jeanson on the front paste-down, Ornithological
library.
A selection is shown in this catalogue.

An exquisite album of bird drawings by renowned watercolor artist Antoine-Charles Thelot reveals his uncommon eye for intricate detail all conveyed without color. Each bird, from the exotic “Les Marabout” (or crane), to the humblest “Alouette” (or sparrow), is drawn against a dramatic, sophisticated backdrop. Loosely inserted is a small watercolor (image size 3 6/8 x 2 inches), signed by Thelot, of six cats gamboling in the moonlight, on the verso of which Thelot has written a long, apparently original, love poem to “Mitis.”

From the distinguished ornithological library of Marcel Jeanson, author of “Les Oiseaux de France” (1941-1999), who commissioned Master Painter Roger Reboussin (1881-1965) in Paris in 1935 to portray all the birds of France in their natural habitat. In 1942 Marcel Jeanson died, but Madame Jeanson allowed Reboussin to continue his work until his own death in 1965, by which time he had painted more than 400 species. The work was eventually published in 1991.