Winter, Ornithology, Timeless Art
By Zachary Vincent
Figure 1. Louis Agassiz Fuertez, Black-Capped Chickadee, 1897, watercolour, 10.5” x 8”, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
Winter offers unparalleled opportunities for contemplation. While sipping a cup of something warm in the morning and gazing out the window, the mind naturally falls on subjects like the past. Experiencing winter continues to unite our lives with those of people who lived in very different times and places. After all, so many aspects of wintertime remain unchanged from what they must have been like hundreds and thousands of years ago.
Like birds. As I write this advent thought, birds are visiting the feeder just outside my window, ferrying their newfound seeds into the snowy woods beyond a clearing to their homes. They have been visiting all day, pirouetting and diving about, motion incarnate. Beyond proving especially beguiling in the winter (and featuring heavily in the rather odd holiday carol The Twelve Days of Christmas), birds have also been an incredibly rich source of inspiration for artists.
One of the most democratic, un-elitist genres of art is found in field guides. Connecting people, regardless of their positions in life, with the natural world is their primary aim. Presenting beautiful (and anatomically-accurate!) works of art is perhaps their greatest legacy. The illustrators of these field guides would benefit from a great deal more attention, as they are a reminder of the artmaking going on quietly and tirelessly around us all the time.
The work of Louis Agassiz Fuertes is as timeless as any. The Cornell-trained Puerto Rican American artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries illustrated more than 35 books and contributed to even more scholarly publications with his ornithological illustrations. The marrying of Fuertes’ academic training with passion and immersion in the natural world (including global travel for the sake of making illustrative studies) lends his art something dynamic and exciting, while remaining grounded and accessible.
Figure 2. Louis Agassez Fuertes, Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), 1926, watercolour, 11” x 7.75”, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
Fuertes’ 1926 watercolour Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) exemplifies this iconic style. Besides capturing the colouration and recognisable features of a small woodpecker (one of which visited my window just yesterday), the painting does so much more. The downturned eyes of the bird and the vice-like grip of its feet on the side of a snow-dusted tree manage to convey the remarkable grit and constitution of the little fellow. The bleakness of winter is contrasted sharply with the living, breathing, fighting bird managing to survive it. Such emotionally-charged narrative skill is the hallmark of Fuertes’ art and a reason it has remained so popular to this day.
The best thing about art of the natural world is that it’s inspiration is all around, and you, dear reader, can participate in it as well! You do not have to be a world-travelling, Arctic-braving, degree-holding ornithologist and artist like Louis Agassiz Fuertes to take part in a time-honoured artistic tradition. Take a stroll near your home as the university break begins and look up into the boughs from which you hear chirps. Or, if you have a feeder (or are willing to put together some pinecones, peanut butter, seeds, and twine to make one), hole up inside and wait for winter’s most active creatures to come to you; then you can sketch! In the meantime, I’m going to put the kettle on and watch some Chickadees, whose wound-up energy and bright curiosity haven’t changed a bit since Fuertes put brush to paper in 1897.
Bibliography
Rushing, Erin. “The Art of Louis Agassiz Fuertes/El Arte de Louis Agassiz Fuertes.” Unbound: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. 25 September, 2017. The Art of Louis Agassiz Fuertes / El Arte de Louis Agassiz Fuertes – Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound.
“The L. A. Fuertes Image Database.” Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Last Updated 31st August, 2001. Louis Agassiz Fuertes.