THE



239



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. VII.—No. 9. —All rights reserved. JULY, 1916-



LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES—PAINTER

OF BIRD PORTRAITS.*


By Frank M. Chapman,


Love of birds as “ the most eloquent expression of nature’s

beauty, joy, and freedom” is the rightful heritage of everyone who

in one way or another hears the call of the outdoor world. But

that inexplicable fascination for birds which awakens an instinctive,

uncontrollable response to the sight of their forms or the sound of

their voices, which arouses a passionate desire to become familiar

with them in their haunts and obtain an intimate insight into their

ways, and which overcomes every obstacle until, at least in a

measure, this desire is gratified, is the gift of the gods which marks

the true ornithologist. In him the universal, if not always de¬

veloped, love of birds is supplemented by the naturalist’s longing

to discover the secrets of nature. Your true bird student, there¬

fore, is a curious, and sometimes contradictory, combination of

poet and scientist.


Men in whom this taste and ambition combine to make birds

the most significant forms of the animal world, are not numerous ;

but a great painter of birds must be primarily a man of this type.

When therefore one considers how small is the chance that the

essential attributes which make on the one hand an ornithologist,

on the other an artist, will be found in one individual, it is small

wonder that the world has known so few real bird-portrait painters.



* Mr. Chapman most kindly gave permission for this article to be published,

which appeared in ‘ Bird-Lore,’ at the same time sending photographs of

Mr. Fuertes’ beautiful pictures.—ED.



