Chickadee and Long-tailed Chickadee

View Similar Items

Thomas Hart Benton - Nebraska Evening

Otto Nielsen - Original "Scandinavia by SAS, Scandiavian Airlines System vintage travel poster

James Henry Daugherty - Original "The Ships Are Coming" vintage American poster with an Eagle.

Charles Livingston Bull - Original 1918 "Join the Army Air Service, Be An American Eagle!" vintage poster

David Klein - Original Chicago Fly TWA vintage travel poster

David Klein - Original Holy Land Fly TWA Jets vintage travel poster 1960s Noah' Ark

Unknown - Original "London Jet BOAC - vintage travel poster. British Overseas Airways Co

Jean Carlu - Original "Fly to South America" Pan American - Panagra vintage travel poster

Robert Kinyon - Original San Diego (Home Federal) 1974 vintage poster

Millard Sheets - HORSE FRIGHTENED BY LIGHTNING - Proof imp - One of Sheet's Most Important Prints

Carol Wax - Fir Play

Maxwell Roath - Prehistoric Sighting Pacific Ocean (Goblin Sharks?)

Want more images or videos?

Request additional images or videos from the seller

1 of 3

Rex Brasher
Chickadee and Long-tailed Chickadee
1930

About the Item

Chickadee and long-tailed chickadee. 1930. Colored print. Image 9 3/4 x 13 3/4. Housed in a French mat and a 15 3/8 x 19 1/8-inch 2-toned brown and black wood frame (some scratches and wear). Signed in ink, lower right. BRASHER, Rex (1869-1960). Birds and Trees of North America. Chickadee Valley, Kent, Connecticut: Rex Brasher and Associates, 1932. "THE MOST AMBITIOUS PUBLICATION OF COLORED PLATES OF BIRDS EXECUTED IN THIS CENTURY" (Yale/Ripley). Brasher's magnum opus, first issued in a limited edition, between 1929 and 1932. Using the American Ornithologists Union Checklist of North American Birds as a guide Brasher depicted 1200 species or subspieces of birds: almost twice as many as Louis Aggasiz Fuertes or John James Audubon. Born in New York in 1869, "Brasher began painting seriously in his teens. Inspired by his father at an even earlier age, Brasher had set the goal of painting all the species and sub-species identified in the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Check-list of North American Birds. Brasher strove for perfection, attempting to make his paintings as lifelike as possible by portraying birds in their natural habitats, illustrating gender differences, and recording their everyday activities. Visiting every state, Brasher captured birds that are now extinct, including the heath hen, passenger pigeon, and Eskimo curlew. He often financed these trips by working at odd jobs, including stints on fishing boats (this allowed him to work while also studying seabirds). He also funded his work through more unusual means, such as betting on the horses. Often unsatisfied with his results, Brasher twice destroyed all his paintings, an estimated 700 canvases. In 1911, after having received a $700 commission for illustrating a book, Brasher purchased a 150-acre farm in Kent, Connecticut, calling it Chickadee Valley. By 1924 Brasher had completed his series of paintings and attempted to have his work published, but the cost of printing all the plates in color was prohibitive. The persistent Brasher came up with a less costly solution. He hired a professional printing company in to produce black-and-white reproductions and then hand-colored the prints himself using an airbrush and stencil technique that he’d developed. This labor intensive process took four years to complete. The final book, Birds & Trees of North America, was produced in a limited edition of 100 sets of 12 volumes Catalog number 134; Wood, p.254; Yale/Ripley 39

Creator:
Rex Brasher (1869 - 1960, American)
Creation Year:
1930
Movement & Style:
American Modern
Period:
20th Century
Condition:
Image is toned and has mat line. Frame shows some scratches and wear.
Gallery Location:
Storrs, CT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU33522853701