The Bird: The Great Age of Avian Illustration

Description

The Bird explores the fascinating world of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ornithological illustration. This was a period of scientific, artistic and geographic discovery, when people began to fully appreciate the immense variety of form and colour within the natural world. This book celebrates this beauty through the lavish illustrations produced at that time. Each chapter focuses on a category of birds, from shorebirds to birds of prey. Feature sections on key ornithological artists such as John James Audubon, Elizabeth Gould and Edward Lear demonstrated how technology, travel and ambition shaped these amazing images, and how their work transformed our understanding of the wonderful world of birds.

Philip Kennedy is a writer, illustrator and educator. He holds degrees in History of Art and Fine Art, as well as an MA in Illustration. He currently teaches at Ireland's National College of Art and Design and is the founder of Illustration Chronicles,a website exploring the history of illustration.

"A must have for anyone with an interest in bird art!" -Bird Keeper Report, "It's a book equally fascinating to read as it is to gaze upon, thanks to Kennedy's biographies of the illustrators, which put these images into historical context. The reader will discover the stories of those who made these pictures, while also looking at the leaps and bounds in scientific work which took place alongside them." - The Kansas City Pitch, "This is a wonderful book for the bird or art or history or science lover in your life. I can't recommend it highly enough." - Doreen Sheridan for The Frumious Consortium,