12/30/2023 0 Comments Artist bird sketch![]() Left: Pieter Withoos (Dutch, 1654–93), A Great Titmouse (Parus major) Perched on a Branch, 1670–93. The addition of highlights in a bright white paint-a technique known as white heightening-was employed to indicate the sheen or iridescence of certain species. ![]() The translucence of watercolor allowed for the underdrawing to remain partially visible, which was often used to suggest the various textures of the feathers, while the relative opacity of gouache emphasized their bold coloration. Le Moyne’s A Kingfisher on a Branch(sixteenth century) beautifully illustrates how artists were able to closely reproduce the appearance of specific birds in watercolor and gouache. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, David T. Watercolor and gouache over traces of black chalk, 4 1/2 × 7 in. He was active in France and England in the third quarter of the century and visited North America in 1564 on an expedition to Florida, where he documented the local plants and animals they encountered. The French painter Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues was part of the vanguard. While individual artists had drawn animals and botanical subjects from close observation at least since the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, it was in the second half of the sixteenth century that the growing demand for empirical evidence and widespread collecting interests by scholars and wealthy patrons alike encouraged a greater number of artists to specialize in this practice. A small selection of my discoveries is currently on view in our rotating display. ![]() After my return from Vienna, I went “birding” in our storerooms to explore how artists engaged with these feathered subjects. As such, The Met’s collection of works on paper is rich in bird portraits. From the sixteenth century onward, concerted efforts were made to discover the wide variety of bird species from around the globe and to document them in drawings, prints, and paintings. In the days before nature photography and documentaries, however, artists played a significant role in allowing us to study the natural world. Nowadays, this is easily remedied by the thousands of images and videos available to us, from David Attenborough’s The Life of Birds (1998) to the bird cams at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Few of these sightings, however, offer an opportunity to appreciate avian beauties in detail. Of course, the pleasures of birdwatching have been around for centuries, motivated by the fleeting and exhilarating encounters with nature’s creatures. Pandemic restrictions on indoor activities and entertainment caused many to seek solace in nature and created a significant rise in the number of amateur birders. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917 () Etching second state of two, 5 1/8 × 7 4/8 in. Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, 1607–77) after Francis Barlow (British, ca. After returning home to New York, I found myself wondering about the baby swans, even checking social media channels to see if anyone had posted updates. My constancy and patience were eventually rewarded with a peek at nine beautiful ivory-green eggs, but my quarantine ended before they hatched. Others were equally transfixed a construction worker from a nearby site spent his lunch breaks on the walkway overlooking the nest. The safety of the swans and their nest soon became a preoccupation of mine. ![]() The nest was surrounded by city rubble and near a busy road. I soon noticed a nest built by a pair of swans on the stone bank of the Wiental Canal. To keep active during my quarantine, I took daily walks in the city. Earlier this year, a positive PCR test extended my stay in Vienna.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |