Rex Brasher
{{Short description|American painter (1869–1960)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Rex Brasher
| birth_date = {{birth date|1869|07|31}}
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, US
| death_date = {{death date and age|1960|02|29|1869|07|31}}
| death_place = Gaylordsville, Connecticut, US
| notable_works = Birds & Trees of North America
| known_for = Watercolor paintings of birds
| caption = Self-portrait
| image = Rex Brasher self-portrait by artist.jpg
}}
Rex Brasher (July 31, 1869{{Cite journal|last=Evans|first=Clarence|date=December 1949|title=Rex Brasher, Painter of Birds|url=http://hdl.handle.net/11134/150002:7361|journal=The Lure of the Litchfield Hills|publisher=Litchfield Hills Federation|volume=10|issue=4|pages=9–10|hdl=11134/150002:7361|access-date=2021-02-06|via=Connecticut Digital Archive}} – February 29, 1960) was an American watercolor painter and ornithologist in the vein of John James Audubon and Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Brasher's 875 surviving paintings depicted 1,200 species and sub-species of North American birds in accurate detail, representing all the species and sub-species identified in the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Checklist of North American Birds.{{Cite web|date=2020-02-29|title=Rex Brasher Dies – Today in History: February 29|url=https://connecticuthistory.org/rex-brasher-dies-today-in-history/|access-date=2021-02-07|website=Connecticut History {{!}} a CTHumanities Project|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last=Salamanca|first=Lucy|date=1938|title=I'll Paint Them - Every One|url=|journal=Nature Magazine|volume=31|issue=4|pages=201–204, 247|via=HathiTrust}}
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, Brasher started to paint birds at the age of 16. He traveled throughout the United States, visiting every state in an effort to find birds to paint, betting on horse races and working odd jobs to support his travels. In 1911, he purchased a 150-acre farm, which he called Chickadee Valley, in Kent, Connecticut. In 1924, Brasher completed his magnum opus, Birds and Trees of North America, which was published in a limited run of 100 twelve-volume copies. In 1939, his paintings were exhibited at the Explorers Hall of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.{{Cite journal|last=Reagon|first=Janet|date=2018|title=Rediscovering Rex Brasher|url=https://whitememorialcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Winter-Newsletter-2018-pdf-1.pdf|journal=Sanctuary: Newsletter of the White Memorial Conservation Center|volume=36|issue=1|pages=1–2, 4}}{{Cite web|last=University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections|date=2004|title=Finding aid: Rex Brasher Collection|url=https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/270|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-07|website=archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu}}
Brasher died in 1960 at home in Gaylordsville, Connecticut, at the age of 90.
Artwork
The State of Connecticut purchased Brasher's collection of original paintings in 1941 for $74,000, intending to build a gallery to showcase the collection at Kent Falls State Park. Funding never materialized, so the paintings moved to Harkness Memorial State Park in southern Connecticut, where they were exhibited starting in 1953, following a decade in the basement of the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.{{Cite journal|last=Waters|first=John|date=1980|title=Brasher: Bookie Who Loved Birds - From 50 to 1 Win to a World Famous Art Collection|url=https://archive.org/details/citizensbulletin198007|journal=Citizens' Bulletin|volume=7|issue=11|pages=3–5|access-date=2021-02-06|via=Internet Archive}}
The collection was transferred to the University of Connecticut in 1988. It is held at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.{{Cite web|title=Rex Brasher Life|url=https://www.rexbrasher.org/life|access-date=2021-02-07|website=www.rexbrasher.org|language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.rexbrasher.org Rex Brasher Association]
- [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1004931743 Birds and Trees of North America] - WorldCat record
- [https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/270 Finding aid to the Rex Brasher Collection] – University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001498606 Rex Brasher: Painter of Birds - A Biography by Milton E. Brasher (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1962)] – HathiTrust
- {{Librivox author |id=16757}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brasher, Rex}}
Category:American ornithologists
Category:American ornithological writers
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Painters from Brooklyn
Category:People from Kent, Connecticut
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:Painters from Connecticut
Category:American watercolorists
Category:American male painters