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A Citron-crested Cockatoo and a Snake

image © Guy Peppiatt Fine Art | All Rights Reserved

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Date

1820-1830

Artist

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Collection

Guy Peppiatt Fine Art

Description

Watercolour and pencil heightened with bodycolour. This picture is one of an important group of early works by Lear which have been recently rediscovered having been in a family collection for at least 50 years. It dates from the late 1820s when Lear was establishing himself as an ornithological artist and relates to a group of drawings of birds which Lear drew as a token of gratitude to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth (see Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear, exhibition catalogue 1985, no. 6a, ill.). She is thought to have introduced him to the naturalist Prideaux Selby (1788-1867) for whom Lear worked and probably trained in the early 1830s. In June 1830, Lear received permission to draw studies of parrots from the collection of the Zoological Society and began to visit their newly opened Gardens in Regents Park as well as their museum at 33 Bruton Street. This led to the publication of Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae between 1830 and 1832. A number of similar studies of birds and feathers are included in two albums of early drawings by Lear in the Houghton Library, Harvard University (Ms Type 55.4 and 55.27).

The Citron-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata) is a medium-sized cockatoo with an orange crest and dark grey beak. The underside of its larger wings and tail feathers have a pale yellow colour. The eye colour ranges from brown through very dark brown to black. The smallest of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo subspecies, it is endemic to Sumba in the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia, although it is now listed as critical endangered.

Image Licence

All Rights Reserved

Image Credit

image © Guy Peppiatt Fine Art

Location

33 Bruton Street, London, England

Country

Medium

Tags

Snakes
Birds
Reptiles

Category

Glossary
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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform