Larousse Animal Portraits

Larousse Animal Portraits comprises over eighty, exquisitely executed plates of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects and other invertebrates, many of which have rarely, if ever, been reproduced before. A large proportion of the plates were selected from an extensive collection in the Natural History Museum in Paris.This collection of miniatures, started by a brother of Louis XIII, Gaston of Orléans, a keen naturalist and patron of the arts, spans the work of two centuries. Many of the miniaturists worked in close collaboration with the zoologists of the Menagerie at Versailles and so were able to combine their artistic skill with accuracy and sympathy for their animal subjects. Examples of the illustrations used in some of the most beautiful eighteenth- and nineteenth-Century natural history books are also included.No volume of this kind would be complete without examples of the work of John Gould and John James Audubon. Plates from Gould's Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains are included and Audubon's work is represented here by lithographs from the comparatively neglected Quadrupeds of North America.The paintings and engravings included in this volume were chosen for their realism as well as their obvious beauty and so will be appreciated by every naturalist and animal lover. This collection represents a unique opportunity to enjoy the works of artists, from different centuries, who shared a love of the natural world.