Rex Brasher (1869-1960) was an American bird artist. Unlike Audubon, who painted from dead birds, Brasher sketched his birds from real life out in the field, on the sea, and in the waterways.
Brasher worked with the American Ornithologists Union (AOU) developing their checklist. The numbers on many of his paintings are the AOU numbers assigned to the birds.
The original edition of Birds And Trees Of North America, published in 1924, was printed in black & white by the publisher and then hand painted by Brasher and his assistant. It was a limited edition of 100 12-volume copies and included 875 watercolor paintings. This project took him four years to complete.
The entire original collection of paintings was purchased by the state of Connecticut, housed at University of Connecticut and could be seen by appointment only. In 1988 the collection was transferred to the Dodd Research Center to be stored in an archival environment.
Rex Brasher finally settled on his farm in Connecticut he called “Chickadee Valley”. He passed away at the age of 91.
In 1962 the publishing company of Rowman And Littlefield Inc., published the 12 volumes containing reproductions of Brasher’s works in full color using the offset lithograph method. These prints are from the 1962 publication.