EDOUARD TRAVIES (FRENCH, 1809 - 1870) Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Le Grand Dine) Original watercolor for Les Oiseaux Plus Remarquables Par Leurs Formes et Ieurs Couleurs Watercolor, pencil and gouache on paper

EDOUARD TRAVIES (FRENCH, 1809 - 1870) Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Le Grand Dine) Original watercolor for Les Oiseaux Plus Remarquables Par Leurs Formes et Ieurs Couleurs Watercolor, pencil and gouache on paper Signed lower left: Edouard Travis, peinture term., le 20 illars, 1884 Paper size: 20 x 16 in Frame size: 30 1/2 x 26 1/2 in 

The work of Edouard Traviès—the French “Audubon”—represents a pinnacle in French ornithological illustra- tion, and his Eurasian Eagle-Owl is a major work of nineteenth-century ornithological art. His images of birds are considered to be among the finest ever produced, and original works such as this one are exceedingly rare. Traviès’s work is so highly valued for the remarkable aesthetic sensibility, scientific accuracy, and attention to holistic detail (both compositionally and ecologically) he was able to attain while granting his subjects a striking sense of character and individual charm, a unique combination rarely achieved in the portrayal of natural his- tory as a pursuit bent on detail and scientific accuracy. This superb watercolor of the Eurasian eagle-owl—whose population numbers are now roughly half that of its American counterpart, the great horned owl—is a testament to Traviès’s incredible skill and artistry as he masterfully captures the magnificence of this fierce predator reign- ing supreme over the vastness of its domain. 

Traviès had visited this subject a decade earlier in his iconic Les Oiseaux Les Plus Remarquables Par Leurs Formes et Leurs Couleurs, published in Paris and London ca. 1857. This extremely rare and highly prized or- nithological text promised to represent the most remarkable birds in “varied scenes of their mores and habits” and contained 79 lithographed plates originally issued in serial form without title or text. Intent on creating complete representations, the artist had rendered the backgrounds fully, incorporating foliage, flowers, but- terflies, and architectural features, as well as incidental details such as dogs or figures hunting. However, the eagle-owl’s great size (it is one of the largest living species of owl) and preference for remote variegated habitats among rocky, mountainous regions, coniferous forests, or steppes, and ranging across essentially all climates and environments on the Eurasian continent, seems to have posed a particular problem for Traviès, who, in his earlier attempt, placed the owl in somewhat awkward isolation relative to its surroundings. The particular compositional problem of rightfully rendering the large predator seems to have remained with the artist for 12 years after Les Oiseaux’s publication, until the masterful solution articulated in the present work.