I'm channelling Edith Massey for this blog post today, but in this case I'm not talking about the eating of eggs...I'm talking about paintings of them. These beautiful images came from a blog called
The Graphics Fairy; from the name it sounds like something I wouldn't visit in a million years, but the lady who runs it works at an antiques store and collects vintage graphics (long past their copyright) which she scans and uploads for people to use as they please. As luck would have it, she seems to find quite a lot of natural history illustrations which are my newest obsession. These images of eggs are presumably from old books on ornithology, which will be the subject of my next post. I think they're exquisite.
John James Audubon was America's most prominent and celebrated ornithilogist, so much so that this portrait of him now hangs in the White House. His dedication to the thorough and accurate documentation of America's birds was (and still is) unsurpassed, and resulted in some truly beautiful images. Audubon was a talented painter and possessed a strong sense of aesthetics and composition, setting his images apart from previous works of a similar kind. He was also a hunter and taxidermist, skills which he used to create life-like images of the birds he painted, always incorporating elements of their habitat and lifestyle such as tree branches, nests, eggs, flowers and associated wildlife. For a lengthy and fascinating history of the man I recommend visiting his Wikipedia page, or one of the many websites dedictaed to his work. Otherwise, just enjoy these examples of his stunning bird paintings, the complete collection of which can be purchased in The Audubon Society baby elephant folio edition of his magnum opus, Audubon's Bird's of America.
Posts
