1860 Pheasants, Fitzinger, colour lithograph with hand finish, ornithology

EXTREMELY RARE hand finished lithograph from Fitzinger’s „Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte“.

ORIGINAL and extremely rare

28.8 x 21 cm ; 11.3 x 8.3 inches

Leopold Joseph Franz Johann Fitzinger (13 April 1802 – 20 September 1884) was an Austrian zoologist.

Fitzinger was born in Vienna and studied botany at the University of Vienna under Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. He worked at the Vienna Naturhistorisches Museum between 1817, when he joined as a volunteer assistant, and 1821, when he left to become secretary to the provincial legislature of Lower Austria; after a hiatus he was appointed assistant curator in 1844 and remained at the Naturhistorisches Museum until 1861. Later he became director of the zoos of Munich and Budapest.

In 1826 he published Neue Classification der Reptilien, based partly on the work of his friends Friedrich Wilhelm Hemprich and Heinrich Boie. In 1843 he published Systema Reptilium, covering geckos, chameleons and iguanas.

The oustanding early color lithographs for his EXTREMELY RARE BILDER ATLAS are among the best of the period.