Goldfinches among thistles

As John Southern points out, Thorburn loved goldfinches and a pair regularly nested just outside his studio window at Hascombe, causing him to frequently break off work on a watercolour and make innumerable pencil skeches of them. These would then be used at a later date, enabling him to paint many charming studies of these delightful birds on thistledown or amid blossom (see lot 103). At other times he would depict them accompanying partridge (see lot 92).