THE OSPREY. 



91 



Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the Painter of Birds. 



Few ornitholog-ists there are. who have not before heard of Louis Aj^a-ssiz Fuertes and his 

 work. We take occasion in this number of Thk Ospkky to introduce him further to our readers, 

 and have endeavored to fjfive as o-ood reproductions of several of his best painting-s possible bv 

 our halftone process of making- printing- plates. Dr. Elliott Coues has g-iven his opinion of Mr. 

 Fuertes" work, with which he is, undoubtedly, the best acquainted of competent critics — En. 



To THE Editor of The Osprev : 



I am happy to respond to the request for 

 an expression of my opinion reg-arding- Mr. 

 Fuertes' ability to draw and paint birds. 

 It is always a pleasure to me to g'ive 

 praise where it is 

 deserv^ed, and it 

 should be no less 

 a duty than a 

 pleasure to every- 

 one to recog-nize 

 g"enius, because 

 that is a rare and 

 precious g"ift, 

 something- over 

 and above mere 

 talent. 



I have not seen 

 those drawing's or 

 painting-s of Mr. 

 Fuertes' which I 

 understand will be 

 printed in this 

 number of The 

 Osprev, and so 

 cannot say wheth- 

 er or not they will 

 serve to bear out 

 m y estimate o f 

 that young- a r- 

 tist's work. I pre- 

 sume your orig-inals are in flat washes or 

 photog-raphs, without colors, of less than 

 life size, and that they will suffer some- 

 what in the process of mechanical repro- 

 duction, in spite of your best efforts. 

 Very likely, also, Mr. Fuertes has not 

 full scope in any piece of work desig^ned 

 for publication in the pag-es of a periodi- 

 cal, even of one so well printed as The 

 OsPREY. But my examination of a great 

 many of his desig^ns, both in black-and- 

 white and in natural colors, makes me 



LOULS AGASSIZ FI-EHTES. 



think Mr. Fuertes the most promising- 

 young- artist of birds now living-, and 

 one whose work already places him in 

 the very first rank. He is rapidly master- 

 ing- the technique of his art, — in other 



words, his talent 

 is overtaking- his 

 g-enius,— and has 

 already overcome 

 certain crudities 

 which were obvi- 

 ous in his earliest 

 efforts. I say de- 

 liberately, with a 

 full sense of the 

 weig-ht of my 

 words, that there 

 is now no one who 

 can draw and 

 paint birds so well 

 as Mr. Fuertes ; 

 and I do not forg-et 

 Audubon himself 

 when I add, that 

 America has not 

 before produced an 

 ornitholog-ical art- 

 ist of equal possi- 

 bilities. 



Mr. Fuertes is at present eng-ag-ed upon 

 a series of one hundred plates of birds, to 

 be drawn under my direction and pub- 

 lished by the Macmillan Company of New 

 York as illustrations for a "Child's Book 

 of Birds," of which I am one of the 

 authors, in collaboration with Mrs. Mabel 

 Osg-ood Wrig-ht. I full}' believe that this 

 series will prove to be the finest that have 

 ever appeared this country. 

 Very truly yours, 



Elliott Coues. 



