Set of eight portraits of pigeons, very fine hand-coloured lithographed plates after and by P. O. Oudart, F. Willy, and E. Blanchard, printed by Lemercier, Paris, P. Bertrand, 1857-1858
Charles Lucien Bonaparte 1803-1857 was the biologist and ornithologist son of Lucien Bonaparte the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and his second wife Alexandrine de Bleschamp, and therefore a nephew of Napoleon I. He married his cousin Zénaïde Bonaparte in 1822 and the couple settled in the USA where Charles published a revised edition of Wilson's American Ornithology in 1825-33. In 1826 the couple returned to Europe settling in Italy where he continued to publish works on ornithology. He was elected to the Roman Assembly in 1849, however they had to flee Italy following the defeat of the Republican army at the hands of French troops sent by his cousin Louis Napoléon (the future Napoleon III). They returned to France in 1850 and he became director of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in 1854. He died in Paris in 1857.
Measurements to outside of frame
HEIGHT: 64cm (25½")
WIDTH: 44.5cm (17½")
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