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MARTINET, François-Nicolas (b.1731)
Petite Perruche à gorge jaune, d'Amérique [Small American Parakeet with a Yellow Throat]; Petite Perruche, du Pérou [Small Peruvian Parakeet] [Pl. 190]
[Pl. 190]. [Paris: circa 1770-1783]. Engraving, coloured by hand, by Martinet. Very good condition. Plate mark: 10 1/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Sheet size: 17 3/4 x 12 1/16 inches.
A charming print of two species of American Parrakeets, by 'one of France's foremost bird artists of the 18th century' (Christine Jackson), from Comte de Buffon's magisterial 'Histoire naturelle des oiseaux'
Martinet originally trained as an engineer but turned to ornithological painting and engraving. During the period when the Comte de Buffon was in charge of the French royal natural history collection, Martinet held what amounted to a virtual monopoly of ornithological illustration. His birds are remarkably accurate as far as the plummage is concerned, and when drawing them from life, they have a real-life quality that marks them out as portraits of individual birds.
The present beautifully-coloured image was produced to illustrate the Comte de Buffon's magisterial Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (Paris: 1770-1786): the most famous and comprehensive work on the subject to be issued during the 18th century. In 1765 Edmé-Louis Daubenton, at Buffon's instigation, began publication of a suite of plates (eventually totaling 1008) intended as illustrations to Buffon's Histoire naturelle générale et particulière. While all of the engraving for these plates was carried out by Martinet, Buffon issued a special folio edition of the ornithological volumes, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, in order to accommodate Martinet's beautiful plates. The plates were also issued separately between 1765 and 1783 by the Parisian publisher Panckoucke, without text, under the general title of Les planches enluminées.
Cf. Anker 76; cf. Balis 40; cf. Ellis 411; Christine Jackson Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World p.356; cf. Nissen IVB 158; cf. Ronsil 413.
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#5618 $600.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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