About Levaillant

François Le Vaillant (1753 - November 22, 1824) One interesting individual of the late-18th century was the French ornithologist François Le Vaillant (1753 - November 22, 1824) an explorer, collector and ornithologist.

Le Vaillant was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Dutch Guiana (Surinam), the son of the French consul. When his father returned to Europe, in 1763, he studied natural history at Metz. He was sent by the Dutch East India Company to the Cape Province of South Africa in 1781, and collected specimens there until 1784. He made two journeys, one eastwards from the Cape and one north of the Orange River and into Great Namaqualand.

On his return he published Voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique (1790, 2 vols.), and Second voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique (1796, 3 vols.), both of which were translated into several languages. He also published Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique (1796-1808, 6 vols.) with drawings by Jacques Barraband,
Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis (1801-06),
Histoire naturelle des cotingas et des todiers (1804)
and
Histoire naturelle des calaos (1804).
Over 2,000 bird skins were sent to Jacob Temminck, who had financed the expedition, and these were later studied by his son Coenraad Jacob Temminck and included in the collection of the museum at Leiden.
levaillant_francois_1753-1824

Le Vaillant died in poverty in La Noue, near Sézanne.

Le Vaillant was opposed to the systematic nomenclature introduced by Carolus Linnaeus and only gave the new species he discovered French names. Some of these are still in use as common names, such as Bateleur Terathopius ecaudatus. Other naturalists were left to assign binomial names to his new discoveries. Some of these honoured Le Vaillant,including Levaillant's Cuckoo. Levaillant's Woodpecker was also named after him.

Le Vaillant's six-volume Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique (1796-1808) is noted for its excellent style of writing and attractive colored plates. He discovered some fifty new species of African birds and wrote, in a detailed and lively manner, the only substantial account of African birds of the period. The Hill Collection includes a beautiful copy of this valuable work, one that is particularly notable because it once was part of the personal collection of John James Audubon.

Although he lacked formal training, Le Vaillant was an enthusiastic field ornithologist and a skillful and prolific hunter. Many pages of his travel accounts describe the appearance and behaviour of birds in the wild and his adventurous efforts to acquire new specimens such as the 'Touraco' from his first expedition, which he then skinned and preserved himself. He was a dealer of mounted specimens and amassed a notable personal collection which was sold and dispersed after his death, and it is likely that some of his specimens survive to this day in European natural history museums.

The bird books
Le Vaillant's fame as an ornithologist rests principally on the monumental six-volume Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d''Afrique,issued in 51 parts between 1799 and 1808 (Paris: J.J. Fuchs; later Delachaussée). Each issue included six plates engraved from artwork by the artist Jn. Lebrecht Reinold, working from mounted specimens or Le Vaillant's original sketches. The engravings were available in different formats, black and white or colour, using the new technique of stipple engraving which allowed great subtlety of watercolour-like hues.

After the success of the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d''Afrique, Le Vaillant began working on a number of other books of ornithology in collaboration with several other artists including the well-known flower and bird painter Jacques Barraband. The finest of these are the Histoire naturelle des perroquets (Paris: Levrault, 1801-1805) in two volumes with 145 plates, and the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers, suivie de celle des toucans et des barbus (Paris: Denné & Perlet, 1801-1806) in two volumes with 114 plates. These spectacular works feature colourful and exotic species drawn from Le Vaillant's own collections and those of others.

Reputation
Later naturalists attacked Le Vaillant as a small number of the species included in the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d''Afrique were identified as fakes, and other descriptions were found to be flawed or doubtful. In Le Vaillant's day ornitholological classification was still in flux, but in the 19th century many naturalists built their reputations on their ability to unmask frauds. As an outsider without academic status, Le Vaillant (like John James Audubon) became a target of criticism for these inaccuracies and for the lively, unscientific style of his text.

More recent reassessments of his work suggest that Le Vaillant was more a dupe of his own enthusiasm and vain gloriousness than an intentional fraudster. He was a pioneering field naturalist with valuable insights on matters such as the existence of ecological counterparts between Europe and Africa, reverse sexual dimorphism in birds of prey and the importance of simple field experiments. As Rookmaker et al (2004) state, François Le Vaillant can deservedly be regarded as the founder of African ornithology.

The Histoire naturelle des perroquets is one of the finest works of its kind ever published. The original artwork for the 145 stipple-engraved plates was done by Jacques Barraband, a well-known bird and flower painter. Barraband's bird paintings are very lifelike, suggesting that he may have worked from living specimens as well as mounted ones.

On the history of ornithology books. According to Sebastiaan Hesselink, the Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801-1805) and Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de Paradis et des rolliers suivie de celle des toucans et des barbus (1801-1806) by François Levaillant and Jacques Barraband are the most beautiful books ever published on the subject.