Louis Alphonse GUÉRY
 (Nancy, 1828 – Paris, 1893)

 Red-bellied Toucan

 Oil on paper mounted on canvas
 Signed lower right
 31 x 38.5 cm

 Louis Alphonse Guéry was born in Nancy on February 8, 1828. On October 15, 1861, he married Marie Eugénie Chaperon, daughter of a Parisian earthenware merchant. At the time employed at the welfare office of the third arrondissement of Paris, then treasurer of the office of the twentieth in 1862, he entered Huet's studio at the Beaux-Arts in Paris a few years later. He then exhibited at the Salon between 1865 and 1870. He practiced both gouache and oil, with mainly landscape works. He also devoted himself to the representation of various war scenes, in particular by illustrating the Napoleonic epic and the conquests of North Africa.
 The artist died on October 17, 1893 in Paris in the 17th arrondissement.

 The red-bellied toucan is a species of bird living in South America; its habitat is shared between southeastern Brazil and northeastern Argentina. It is one of the smallest species of toucans, measuring between 40 and 50 cm approximately. Our table therefore represents a specimen on a living scale. The red-bellied toucan of course takes its name from the large area of red feathers located on its abdomen.