Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874-1927), was born and worked most of his life in Ithaca, NY. He was deeply interested in observing and drawing birds. The work of John James Audubon's Birds of America inspired him even as he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Architecture. Audubon influenced every bird painter since the early 1800s by drawing from life, Fuertes added to this legacy by depicting birds with real accuracy and capturing their natural and behavioral characteristics, imbuing the reality of his experience via artistic skills to the forms of living nature. Many bird artists have been influenced by the bird portraits of Fuertes and his skill at rendering birds as life and art. The images of works presented here are a small part of the culmination of his last work in the field as part of the Chicago Daily News and Field Museum Expedition to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1926-1927. Soon after, traveling with his wife, his car was hit by a train, his wife was seriously injured but his injuries proved fatal. The paintings he carried were undamaged and this collection was later purchased from Mrs. Fuertes by C. Suydam Cutting, a fellow Abyssinia expedition member, finding their way to the Field Museum soon after.
Fuertes Gallery
