Travies Animal Illustrations (delsc)

The October edition of delsc is focused on the works of Édouard Traviès (1809 Doullens - 1876 Paris).

The source of antique prints for the October edition is Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle: atlas (1861) by Charles Dessalines d’Orbigny.

Édouard Traviès de Villers was born in Doullens in 1809 and was also the brother of the famous caricaturist, Charles-Joseph (C.J.) Traviès de Villers, who created the character Mayeux. Édouard, by contrast, excelled at illustrating nature and, in particular, birds.

His images were so popular that businesses started to see the value of incorporating similar images into decorative objects. The publisher, Ledot aine, filed suit and the damages, according to the Gazette des beaux-arts, were found by the court to amount to 4,000 French francs. It is interesting to note that part of the defense’s argument was that the artist was simply imitating nature and nature is part of the public domain but the court recognized the artist and sided with Ledot.