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Louis Agassiz Fuertes (February 7, 1874
Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County, New York, Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca m ...
– August 22, 1927 Unadilla, New York) was an American ornithologist, illustrator and artist who set the rigorous and current-day standards for ornithological art and naturalist depiction and is considered one of the most prolific American bird artists, second only to his guiding professional predecessor John James Audubon.


Biography


Early life

Fuertes was born in Ithaca, New York, and was the son of Puerto Rican astronomer and civil engineer Estevan Fuertes and Mary Stone Perry Fuertes. His father was the founding professor of the School of Civil Engineering at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...
, and for many years served as the dean of the college. Estevan named his son after the Swiss-born American naturalist
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
, who had died the year before. Fuertes's mother, born in
Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...
, was of Dutch ancestry. Young Louis became interested in birds at a very early age, securing birds with a slingshot and examining them carefully. As a child, he had been influenced by John James Audubon's '' The Birds of America''. At the age of fourteen, he made his first painting of a bird, a male red crossbill, from life. He learned to keep careful records of the appearance, habits and voices of birds. In 1890, he sent a specimen that he collected to the Smithsonian and received stellar praise and glowing comments on its rarity and accuracy and in 1891, at the young age of 17, Louis became the youngest member ever named when he was inducted as Associate Member of the
American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...
. He was encouraged by his father's colleagues at Cornell including
Burt G. Wilder Burt Green Wilder (August 11, 1841 – January 21, 1925) was an American comparative anatomist. Biography Burton Green Wilder was born in Boston to David and Celia Colton Wilder. He graduated at Harvard Harvard University is a private Iv ...
and Liberty H. Bailey. In June 1892, he accompanied his parents to Europe and sketched birds and animals at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In September, he joined the Institute of Keller, a school in Zurich, staying on for a year.


Cornell University

Returning to America, he enrolled in Cornell in 1893, choosing to study
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
. His older brother James, however shared in a memoir that Louis lacked a passion for geometry and mathematics and would often fall asleep when James tried to coach him. During one college lecture, Louis climbed out a classroom window and sat completely still in a tree to investigate a strange bird call he had never heard before. His interest in singing led him to join the Cornell University Glee Club. In 1894, the Glee Club went on a tour to Washington, D.C., where another member of the club suggested that Louis meet his uncle
Elliott Coues Elliott Ladd Coues (; September 9, 1842 – December 25, 1899) was an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist, and author. He led surveys of the Arizona Territory, and later as secretary of the United States Geological and Geograph ...
, who was also keenly interested in birds. This meeting was a turning point, as Coues recognized Fuertes' talent and spread the word about his already distinguished work. In 1895 Coues exhibited fifty of the works of Fuertes at the Congress of the
American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...
at Washington, a meeting that Louis was unable to attend. He received the first of his many commissions for illustrating birds while still an undergraduate. At Cornell, he was elected to the Sphinx Head Society, the oldest senior honor society at the University. He was also a member of Alpha Delta Phi which he joined having been lifelong friends with famed horticulturalist and naturalist Theodore Luqueer Mead, one of his father's former students and member of the fraternity. In 1896, Coues invited Fuertes to attend the Ornithological Congress at
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
in England.


Career and personal life

After graduating from Cornell in 1897 he became an apprentice to the painter
Abbott H. Thayer Abbott Handerson Thayer (August 12, 1849May 29, 1921) was an American artist, naturalist and teacher. As a painter of portraits, figures, animals and landscapes, he enjoyed a certain prominence during his lifetime, and his paintings are represent ...
. In 1898, he made his first expedition, with Thayer and his son Gerald, to Florida. In 1899, Fuertes accompanied E. H. Harriman on his famous exploration of the
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...
coastline, the Harriman Alaska Expedition. Fuertes later traveled across much of the United States and to many countries in pursuit of birds, including the Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Ethiopia. Fuertes collaborated with Frank Chapman, curator of the American Museum of Natural History, on many assignments including field research, background dioramas at the museum, and book illustrations. While on a collecting expedition with Chapman in Mexico, Fuertes discovered a species of oriole. Chapman named it ''Icterus fuertesi'', commonly called Fuertes's oriole after his friend. In 1904 Fuertes married Margaret F. Sumner and they had a son, Louis Sumner, and a daughter, Mary. Fuertes regularly lectured on ornithology at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...
beginning in 1923. Fuertes was an able imitator of bird song and even made a trial recording for a Victor record in 1913. In 1926–27 he participated in the
Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
's Abyssinian Expedition led by Wilfred Hudson Osgood. He produced some of his most exquisite bird and mammal watercolors as a result of this trip.


Death

Upon his return from Ethiopia, Fuertes visited Frank Chapman at Tannersville, New York. Returning from the meeting, his car was hit by a train at a railroad crossing near Unadilla, New York, and he was killed. A load of hay had concealed the oncoming train. His wife was seriously injured but survived. By a twist of fate, the paintings he carried all survived undamaged. This extraordinary and rare collection was later purchased from Mrs. Fuertes by C. Suydam Cutting. Fuertes is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca, New York.


Memorials and legacy

Fuertes is commemorated by two species. One is a species named by his colleague Frank Chapman as ''Icterus fuertesi'', although it is now considered a subspecies of the orchard oriole. The other,
Fuertes's parrot Fuertes's parrot (''Hapalopsittaca fuertesi''), also known as the indigo-winged parrot, is a parrot which has a highly restricted range on the west slope of the Central Andes of Colombia. It is classified by the IUCN as being critically endangere ...
, or ''Hapalopsittaca fuertesi'', was rediscovered in 2002 after 91 years of presumed extinction. In 1927, the
Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth partici ...
made Fuertes an ''Honorary Scout'', a new category of Scout created that same year. This distinction was given to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys...". The other eighteen who were awarded this distinction were:
Roy Chapman Andrews Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884 – March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He led a series of expeditions through the politically disturbed ...
; Robert Bartlett; Frederick Russell Burnham; Richard E. Byrd; George Kruck Cherrie; James L. Clark; Merian C. Cooper; Lincoln Ellsworth;
George Bird Grinnell George Bird Grinnell (September 20, 1849 – April 11, 1938) was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880 ...
;
Charles A. Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
;
Donald Baxter MacMillan Donald Baxter MacMillan (November 10, 1874 – September 7, 1970) was an American explorer, sailor, researcher and lecturer who made over 30 expeditions to the Arctic during his 46-year career. He pioneered the use of radios, airplanes, ...
; Clifford H. Pope; George Palmer Putnam; Kermit Roosevelt; Carl Rungius; Stewart Edward White; Orville Wright. Apart from mentoring George Miksch Sutton, Fuertes influenced many later wildlife artists including Roger Tory Peterson,
Jörg Kühn Jörg Kühn (1940–1964) was a Swiss artist, naturalist and scientific illustrator who specialized in bird paintings and drawings. He was also a children's book illustrator. He is noted for illustrations that are of a particularly scientific an ...
and Conrad Roland. The Wilson Ornithological Society established the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Award in 1947. Fuertes also painted dozens of mammal portraits for ''
The National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
'' in 1916 and 1918, and inspired the Society to hire an artist of their own, Walter A. Weber. Many of Fuertes' paintings still remain popular and in very high demand today. In particular, a 1924 oil painting, ''Wild Turkey'', sold for $86,250 at a January 2012 auction in New York and his other works command even higher prices to private collectors around the world. Fuertes' love of animals and landscapes comes through in his paintings; there is a notable vivacity and excitement present in his work that has created long-term value.


Selected works

Fuertes' earliest commissions included 25 large decorative panels for F. F. Brewster of
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...
. This was followed by some murals at the Flamingo Hotel, of Miami, Florida and some paintings for the New York Zoological Society. He was much sought after later, illustrating books, plates for journals and magazine. Working with impressions from the field and from freshly collected specimens, Fuertes' works are considered some of the most accurate and natural depictions of birds. He had an ability to capture the bird in action and reproduce illustrations from a mental image. Apart from illustrations, he wrote some full length articles including one on falconry in the National Geographic and another on dogs. The cover of the journal ''Auk'' published by the American Ornithologists' Union was designed by Fuertes. Some of the books that he illustrated include: * ''A-Birding on a Bronco'', by Florence A. Merriam, 1896
scanned
* ''Citizen Bird'' by Mabel Osgood Wright and
Elliott Coues Elliott Ladd Coues (; September 9, 1842 – December 25, 1899) was an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist, and author. He led surveys of the Arizona Territory, and later as secretary of the United States Geological and Geograph ...
. Macmillan Company, 1896
1923 reprint
* ''Song Birds and Water Fowl'', by
H E Parkhurst H, or h, is the eighth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''aitch'' (pronounced , plural ''aitches''), or region ...
, 1897
scanned
* ''Bird Craft'', by M. Osgood Wright, 1897
1900 reprint
* ''The Woodpeckers'', by F H Eckstorm, 1901
scanned
* ''Second Book of Birds'', by Olive Thorne Miller (pseudonym of Mrs. Harriet Mann Miller), 1901
scanned
* ''Birds of the Rockies'', by Leander S. Keyser 1902
scanned
* ''Handbook of Birds of Western North America'', by Frank Chapman, 1902
1904 reprint
* ''Upland Game Birds'', by Edwyn Sandys and
T S van Dyke T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
, 1902
scanned
* ''Key to North American Birds'' by
Elliott Coues Elliott Ladd Coues (; September 9, 1842 – December 25, 1899) was an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist, and author. He led surveys of the Arizona Territory, and later as secretary of the United States Geological and Geograph ...
, 1903
scanned
* ''Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America'', by
Frank M. Chapman Frank Michler Chapman (June 12, 1864 – November 15, 1945) was an American ornithologist and pioneering writer of field guides. Biography Chapman was born in West Englewood, New Jersey and attended Englewood Academy. He joined the staff of ...
, 1904
scanned
* ''Birds of New York'' by Elon Howard Eaton, 1910
scanned
* ''Wild Animals of North America'' by Edward W. Nelson, 1918
scanned
* ''The Burgess Bird Book for Children'', by Thornton W. Burgess, 1919 The Burgess Bird Book For Children * ''Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States'' by Edward Howe Forbush, 1925
1927 edition
* ''Artist and Naturalist in Ethiopia'' by Wilfred Hudson Osgood. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1936 * ''The Bird Life of Texas'' by Harry Church Oberholser. University of Texas Press, 1974


Gallery

File:Cardinalis cardinalis (small illustration).jpg, Cardinal, from ''Citizen Bird'' (1897) File:Tyrannus tyrannusABP06CA.jpg, Eastern kingbird, from ''The Second Book of Birds'' (1901) File:Sphyrapicus thyroideusECP01CB.jpg, Williamson's sapsucker, from ''Birds of the Rockies'' (1902) File:Gelada baboon Fuertes.jpg, alt=Gelada baboon, Gelada baboon from ''Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals'' (1930) File:Parus rufescensDU1N028CA.JPG, Chestnut-backed chickadee, from ''Harriman Alaska Series'' (1904) File:Stercorarius pomarinusDUCA.jpg, Pomarine jaeger, from ''Harriman Alaska Series'' (1904) File:Dendroica dominicaEMP13CB.jpg, Yellow-throated warbler, from ''Warblers of North America'' (1907) File:Bubo virginianusDO1908P01CA.JPG, Great horned owl, from ''United States Department of Agriculture Yearbook'' (1908) File:Accipiter gentilisAAP045CA.jpg, Goshawk, from ''Birds of New York'' (1910–1914) File:Nightjar in flight - AAP065A.jpg, Nightjars, from ''Birds of New York'' (1910–1914) File:Dryocopus pileatusAAP063CA.jpg, Pileated woodpecker, from ''Birds of New York'' (1910–1914) File:Magnolia Warbler NGM-v31-p313-A.jpg, Magnolia warbler, from ''The Warblers of North America'' (''National Geographic'', 1917) File:Plegadis chihiGBP08CA.jpg, White-faced ibis, from ''Game Birds of California'' (1918) File:Ceratogymna brevisEYP24A.jpg, Silvery-cheeked hornbill, from ''Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals'' (1930) File:Eupodotis melanogasterEYP18A.jpg, Black-bellied bustard, from ''Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals'' (1930) File:Haliaeetus vociferEYP14A.jpg, African fish eagle, from ''Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals'' (1930) File:Fuertes Flamingo Mural.JPG,
Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean) ...
mural at the American Museum of Natural History File:Secretary bird Fuertes.jpg, alt=Secretary bird, Secretary bird, from ''Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals'' (1930)


References


Other sources

* Boynton, Mary Fuertes (Ed.) 1956. Louis Agassiz Fuertes: his life briefly told and his correspondence. Oxford University Press. * Norelli, Martina R. ''American Wildlife Painting'' (Fuertes, Audubon, Heade, Wilson, Thayer, Catesby) Watson-Guptill Publications, 1975.


External links


Cornell University online collectionimage database

Scans of some bird paintings, Cornell collection

Abyssinian Birds and Mammals: Painted from life by Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1930) scanned version
* * * *
Works by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
at
Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuertes, Louis Agassiz 1874 births 1927 deaths American bird artists American male painters American naturalists American ornithologists American people of Puerto Rican descent 20th-century American painters Cornell University alumni Cornell University faculty Hispanic and Latino American teachers Railway accident deaths in the United States Accidental deaths in New York (state) 20th-century American male artists