As soon as our human ancestors picked up the paintbrush, they left exquisite animal portraits, including birds, on the rock walls of the caves, such as the murals of the Lascaux Caves in the Dordogne district of south-central France and the Altamira Caves south of Santander in northeastern Spain. They may be teaching guides to guide new hunters, but they can also have some kind of symbolism, symbolizing part of a prehistoric civilization in which animals had great spiritual significance.
From the 19th to the 20th century, talented artists built bridges for a growing public hungry for scientific knowledge, presenting them with ornithological discoveries while providing them with aesthetic pleasure. The following xiaobian will bring you ten of the most beautiful bird paintings, let's feel the agility of this life!
Black-crested parrot (Psephotus dissimilis)
Ferdinand. Lucas. Bauer
Circa 1801-1805, watercolor painting
335mm×505mm
Ferdinand. Bauer is better known as one of the world's finest plant painters, but he is also a brilliant animal painter. Pictured is a rare Australian parrot with meticulous precision that is typical of Bauer's style. Originally known as the black-hated parrot, the black-crowned parrot is extremely narrow and only found in the western part of Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory.
Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis)
John. James. Audubon
Circa 1827-1830, hand-colored
Gravure corroded prints
853mm×600mm
This brightly colored painting is one of Audubon's most splendid works, in a rejuvenating picture in which birds are eating the seeds of the thorny fruit of the ears. These beautiful little parrots are the only native parrots in the United States.
Oriolus oriolus
James. Hope. Stewart
Circa 1825-1835, watercolor painting
171mm×106mm
This beautiful picture depicts a beautiful bird, and its stunning feathers are also depicted very accurately for the hard-to-find male golden oriole. The painter set up a typical foothold for it - high in the canopy, and the dappled background of the sun's shadow was perfectly matched to make it appear vivid.
Bubo coromandus
Anonymous Lord Ashton Collection
Circa 1840, watercolor painting
560mm×433mm
This rare owl is found from Pakistan and eastern India to Thailand and even China. It prefers to live in waterfront forests, dense groves or woods along highways, where it preys on crows, waterfowl and other prey, including mammals, frogs and fish. It is often active day and night, and its call is very special, a series of whirrings that gradually accelerate but the scale decreases, like the sound of a bouncy ball.
Thick-billed cliff sea crow (Uria lomvia)
Cliff Crow (Uria aalge)
Archibald. Thornburn
Circa 1885-1897, watercolor painting
247mm×170mm
Thornburn's remarkable paintings of British birds are often recognized as some of the finest works of all time, successfully blending accuracy with appeal. This image shows two close relatives of seabirds wearing winter feathers, this is only a cliff crow in front, North America calls it a sea crow, and in the back it is only a thick-billed cliff crow from farther north.
Blue (Parus caeruleus)
Subspecies of the Canary Islands (from top to bottom) :d egener, teneriffae, palmensis, ambriosus
Henrik. Gyaldowald
Circa 1920, watercolor painting
260mm×185mm
Grünwald was always busy illustrating birds, and depicting such works required sharp eyes and attention to detail in order to clearly show the subtle differences between the birds.
Magpie (Pica pica)
John. Gerrard. Colemans
Circa 1896, watercolor gouache
635mm×523mm
Like many wildlife illustrations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the painting has been carefully observed and has a playful title, "Doubt", and the whole painting tells a story. It subtly emphasizes the magpie's agility, and in its search for food, it slightly tilts its head to listen to the bite of two hidden rats. It shows the typical style of Colemans oil paintings that are more free and more dynamic.
Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
charles. Frederick. Tennicliff
Circa 1973, watercolor painting
228mm×305mm
Like many modern bird illustrators, Tennicleef is a keen wild bird observer. One of Britain's most popular birds is depicted, and the willow buds in the background delicately balance the bird's body proportions.
Red-billed blue magpie (Urocissa erythrorhyncha)
Anonymous Reeves Collection
Circa 1822-1829, watercolor painting
380mm×492mm
Its natural habitats are evergreen forests, open areas and small plantations in China and other parts of South Asia. In this picture, it shows lovely colors and elegant forms, and the long tail echoes the curves of the branches, all of which are integrated into the entire composition in the typical delicate style of Chinese art.
Red-bellied horned pheasant (Tragopan temminckii)
Circa 1822-1829, watercolor painting and gouache
420mm×495mm
Known as the horned pheasant, the Asian alpine pheasant is one of the most beautiful birds in the world, and ornithologists are always looking for them with crazy enthusiasm. The red-bellied horned pheasant is found in eastern Himalayas and in the winter part of central China.
The above is excerpted from "Ornithology under the Brush"