Original Ornithological Watercolors
By Wahast, French: c. 1838

This item is sold.  It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

Full sheet showing margins

All paintings have wide margins like the one shown above.

 Detail of the woodpecker

Detail
Frame front

Detail of frame corner

 Frame back, showing label

Frame back
Wahast (French, act. 2nd quarter 19th C.)
Ornithological Watercolors
France: c. 1838
Watercolor on card
Pallid Harrier and Andean Condor signed lower right and dated 1838
9.50 x 7.25 inches, image, average approximate
15.5 x 11.75 inches, overall
19 x 15.5 inches, frame
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Five watercolors of birds, four of which are birds of prey, in frames from the same period.  Each shows a male and female pair in a natural setting, most amidst foliage, though the pallid harriers are shown battling a snake in a grassland landscape.  The paintings are skillfully executed in layers of thin wash, expertly capturing the appearance and texture of the birds wings and other body parts.  None are titled, but the birds have been identified by comparing with contemporary bird guides.

Wahast was a French landscape and ornithological painter, who worked primarily in watercolor and gouache.  Little is known about his life except that he was born in Le Havre, exhibited at the Salon of 1834, and did a substantial number of paintings of birds.  The French National Museum of Natural History in Paris has a collection of 11 watercolors of birds by Wahast, many of them birds of prey.  Those examples demonstrate his precise skill in capturing a lifelike appearance of birds; they are highly finished with fully realized background settings.

Two are dated 1838, and the rest are apparently contemporaneous based on the style of painting and type of paper.  Bird identification titles above are based on comparison with photographs and drawings in recent field guides.  As framed, they each retain their original blue cardboard backings of the period with the label of the French store that sold them: Marcadier-Guépain in Tours, France.  According to each labels (in French) this company was a store for fancy goods and art objects, as well as custom gilding and picture framing. 

References:

Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs.  France: Librairie Gründ, 1966. Vol. 7, p. 647.

“Exposition Virtuelle: 1990-2000, dix années d’enrichissement du patrimoine.”  10 October 2000.  Bibliothèque Centrale du Museum National D’Histoire Naturelle. http://www.mnhn.fr/expo/expo10ans/siecle19_001.htm (10 August 2007).