(H/B) DICTIONARY OF BIRD ARTISTS OF THE WORLD - E. CHRISTINE JACKSON

This "Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World" includes over 4,000 entries for artists (excluding contemporary artists) who created two-dimensional portraits of birds. It is the first dictionary of bird artists to cover the whole world. The author has provided dates and biographical information from a wide field of sources, bringing together the painters in different media. She has included the illustrators and the craftsmen who created pictures for decorative purposes, such as prints in books and designs for postage stamps, tiles and ceramics. The sources for the examples of their work cited come from hundreds of books, museums, galleries and country houses open to the public. In addition, the world-wide sales in auction houses over a ten year period have been itemised. The appendix provides a survey of each country's major bird artists and illustrators, as well as a list of artists, arranged by country to give a quick and useful reference to the names (including dates) of each nation's bird artists. There is much variety. Some artists painted large canvases filled with birds as part of an imaginary earthly paradise while others made detailed studies of a single bird. Specialist bird artists not only had the skill to depict the feathers of birds in a convincing fashion, but also had an understanding of their underlying anatomical structure, and were consequently given commissions to record newly-discovered species. Many of the great masters painted birds. Birds are seen from every human viewpoint: as food to be hunted and trapped, as pets, as symbols of human qualities, as objects of humour when placed in anthropomorphic situations, as examples of God's creation, as scientific studies and finally, from an ecological stance, as an integral part of the landscape. An introduction surveys these varying aspects of bird portraiture. 200 paintings and illustrations are reproduced in colour and, with the numerous black and white prints, have been chosen to demonstrate the great diversity of approaches to birds in art. (From the publisher)