From the tapestry works to the Salon
Jacques Barraband was born in 1767 in Aubusson, the tapestry town of central France, where his father worked at the factory and where he worked for a while himself. He trained as a draughtsman at the Gobelins in Paris, the royal tapestry manufactory, and then drew for the porcelain works at Sèvres. The birds came later in life.
In Paris he worked for tapestry and carpet workshops and studied at the Académie royale de peinture. In 1798 his work was shown at an exhibition of the Gobelins, together with pieces he had made for a porcelain manufacturer. He drew insects for the naturalist Sonnini and plates for a book on Egypt, and between 1801 and 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned watercolours of birds and flowers from him.
The birds of Levaillant
Barraband's fame rests on the plates he painted for François Levaillant: the parrots of the Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801-1805), the birds of paradise, rollers, toucans and barbets of the book that followed (1801-1806), and the bee-eaters, trogons, turacos and sugarbirds of Levaillant's later volumes. He worked from mounted skins, but his birds are so lifelike that he is thought to have drawn from living ones as well.
How the plates were made
Barraband's watercolours were engraved in stipple, by Bouquet and Langlois among others, a technique that builds tone from fine dots rather than lines. The plates were inked à la poupée, with several colours applied to the one plate, pulled from the press and finished by hand. Each feather is described by dozens of fine parallel lines, and the modulation of tone and colour has seldom been matched since. On some plates the cheeks and shoulders of the birds were heightened with touches of gold to give the sheen of the plumage.
Apart from their beauty, the plates have a scientific accuracy that few bird artists have equalled. Barraband died in 1809, aged 42, in Lyon, where he had been teaching at the school of fine arts. A parrot carries his name: Barraband's parrot, Pyrilia barrabandi.
Barraband at Heritage Prints
Barraband has no page of his own on this site: his plates are listed under the author, François Levaillant. Our collection holds 45 of the parrots, 12 toucans and one bird of paradise, all after Barraband. The parrots are photographed from the copy in the library of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem by Re-Art Special Art Productions in Almere and printed at the size of the original sheets, 33.5 by 51.5 cm, in an edition of 250 per plate, numbered in pencil, blind embossed and with a certificate of authenticity.
See the Histoire naturelle des perroquets, also as a complete set, and the Histoire naturelle des toucans. More about the author: Who was François Levaillant?.
Four plates by Barraband
Questions
What did Jacques Barraband paint?
The parrots, birds of paradise, rollers, toucans and barbets of François Levaillant's books (1801-1806), and later bee-eaters, trogons, turacos and sugarbirds. Before that he drew for the Gobelins tapestry works and the Sèvres porcelain factory, and Napoleon commissioned watercolours of birds and flowers from him.
Are Barraband's plates engravings or paintings?
Both, in a way. Barraband painted the watercolours; engravers such as Bouquet and Langlois cut them in stipple, the plates were printed in colour and each impression was finished by hand.
Is there a Barraband page on this site?
No. His plates are under the author, François Levaillant: 45 parrots, 12 toucans and one bird of paradise, all painted by Barraband.