.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present lot and lot 75 were executed for Jardine's Naturalist's Library, vol. XVIII, Ornithology Parrots, by P.J. Selby.
Lear served an informal apprenticeship with Prideaux Selby (1788-1867) and executed some of the drawings later published in Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology, published in 19 parts between 1821 and 1834. Selby influenced Lear with his lively approach to ornithological work which he was to develop in his own publication, Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, which he published between 1830 and 1832. the project was innovatory in that it was the first work devoted to a single family of birds and in that he worked from living birds rather than from stuffed ones. This work gave Lear a high standing as an ornithological draughtsman and at the tender age of eighteen he was nominated an Associate of the Linnean Society.
Illustrations of British Ornithology had been a joint project between Selby and Sir William Jardine, who previously owned this and the following lot and who edited The Naturalists library in which both drawings were published as engravings by Selby.
Sir Steven Runciman recalls in the exhibition of his works by Lear in Edinburgh 'I was first conscious of Lear as an artist when in my teens I saw some of his drawings of the parrot family.'
Lear served an informal apprenticeship with Prideaux Selby (1788-1867) and executed some of the drawings later published in Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology, published in 19 parts between 1821 and 1834. Selby influenced Lear with his lively approach to ornithological work which he was to develop in his own publication, Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, which he published between 1830 and 1832. the project was innovatory in that it was the first work devoted to a single family of birds and in that he worked from living birds rather than from stuffed ones. This work gave Lear a high standing as an ornithological draughtsman and at the tender age of eighteen he was nominated an Associate of the Linnean Society.
Illustrations of British Ornithology had been a joint project between Selby and Sir William Jardine, who previously owned this and the following lot and who edited The Naturalists library in which both drawings were published as engravings by Selby.
Sir Steven Runciman recalls in the exhibition of his works by Lear in Edinburgh 'I was first conscious of Lear as an artist when in my teens I saw some of his drawings of the parrot family.'