Fuertes launched his career as a professional painter of birds at the American Ornithologists' Union conference in 1896. The president of the organization, a famed ornithologist of his day, Dr. Elliot Coues, described him as having received the mantle of John James Audubon. Coues became an early mentor and the key proponent of Fuertes¹ work as he began his career.

Coues, along with Abbot Thayer (himself a prominent artist and naturalist), cultivated Fuertes' talent, leading him along a path that would bring fame, wealth, and a successful independent career. Undertaking the Abyssinian Expedition in 1926, a trip sponsored by the Field Museum of Natural History and the Chicago Daily News, Fuertes set out to collect specimens and create of paintings of the strange and wonderful birds and animals of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

Fuertes' style, loose and free, along with his insistence upon working from natural, live subjects, set a new standard for wildlife painting in the twentieth century. His work from the Abyssinian Expedition characterizes his ability to capture an animal without belaboring his brush strokes, bring freshness and intensity to the work. Fuertes died two months after returning from the Expedition, but his work leaves a lasting legacy.

The Oppenheimer Field Museum Edition of Fuertes' Fifty Best represents an extraordinary opportunity to acquire these heretofore unattainable watercolors in a form that faithfully replicates the original in every way. Each print is on Somerset acid-free, cotton rag watercolor paper imported from England.