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The Property of a Cumbrian Family
Lots 101-111
The present collection is a splendid array of Thorburn's works, spanning over twenty-five years of his working life and display his remarkable ability and skill with the subject matter in hand, whether it is garden birds, wildfowl on the shore, gamebirds or his work for ornithological publications.
As well as portraying birds in their environment, Thorburn managed to capture precisely the moment when he came across his subject, the nip of a frosty morning or the dampness of an autumn afternoon. Whilst many artists have tried to emulate him, few have managed to depict the birds so realistically; the glint in the eye or the sheen of a feather.
Archibald Thorburn was born at Viewfield House, Lasswade, near Edinburgh, the fifth son of Robert Thorburn, a miniaturist who numbered Queen Victoria among his patrons. From an early age, he took a delight in drawing, filling sketchbooks with studies of flora and fauna. Such direct observation from nature was to form the foundation of his art, for although he briefly attended the St. John's Wood School of Art, Thorburn received little formal training. His career as a painter of birds began in 1883 when he completed 144 plates for W.F. Swaysland's Familiar Wild Birds, but his reputation was secured through his contribution to Lord Lilford's magisterial survey Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands published between 1885 and 1898.
Thorburn's work created such an impact as he was one of the first British Wildlife artists to go into the field and take sketches from life. Whilst his contemporaries were sketching birds from examples which had suffered at the hands of taxidermists, Thorburn, inspired by Joseph Wolf's ability to capture 'an indescribable feeling of life and movement' when depicting his subjects, keenly observed his specimens in their natural habitat. Thorburn was the first to combine scientific accuracy with the fresh softness of the living bird.
Although Thorburn moved to London in 1885 he made regular sketching tours of the British Isles, seeking inspiration for his work. Following his marriage in 1902, he moved to Hascombe in West Surrey. There he established a routine of sketching on his morning walk and then working these up into finished compositions in his studio. He exhibited at the Royal Academy throughout the 1880s and 1890s, but he became disillusioned with the institution and showed instead at A. Baird Carter in Jermyn Street, London (lots 98, 99 102 and 103) and with his agents in Blackburn and Newcastle.
Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935)
Partridge and a bullfinch in the snow
Details
Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935)
Partridge and a bullfinch in the snow
signed and dated 'Archibald Thorburn/1899' (lower left) and numbered 'No. 69' (on the reverse)
pencil, watercolour and bodycolour with gum arabic, on paper
21¾ x 30 1/8 in. (55.3 x 76.5 cm.)
Partridge and a bullfinch in the snow
signed and dated 'Archibald Thorburn/1899' (lower left) and numbered 'No. 69' (on the reverse)
pencil, watercolour and bodycolour with gum arabic, on paper
21¾ x 30 1/8 in. (55.3 x 76.5 cm.)
Provenance
with Aitken Dott, Edinburgh.
with The Tryon Gallery, London, where purchased by the present owner.
with The Tryon Gallery, London, where purchased by the present owner.
Brought to you by
Bernice Owusu
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