We just acquired an original pencil sketch by the artist-naturalist Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874-1927), which came in last week. It is of a Cooper’s Hawk, and on the back is a certification of authenticity signed by Margaret S. Fuertes (nee Sumner), dated 1927. Cornell, where Fuertes was educated and later taught, holds his personal papers and the majority of his artwork–at least half a dozen other sketches of a Cooper’s Hawk can be found there: http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/Fuertes2000/fuertes.asp
Arthur A. Allen, in the Dictionary of American Biography, wrote of Fuertes:
“When examining a bird, his concentration was supreme; he was oblivious to everything about him; and during these moments, apparently, details of pose and expression were so fixed in his mind that years afterwards he could reproduce them with his pencil and brush without the slightest hesitation. “
Tags: New Acquisition