Eleazar Albin (artist and engraver)
The Common Heron
The Flamengo [sic.] - Phaenicopterus
from A Natural History of Birds
Eleazar Albin, London: 1731-38
Hand-colored engravings
12 x 10 inches
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Heron and Flamingo Prints
from Albin's A Natural History of Birds
from Albin's A Natural History of Birds
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The Common Heron |
The Flamengo - Phaenicopterus |
Pair of Eastern Hemisphere wading birds: the common heron and the flamingo. Common herons are found in Europe over the large area from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Sakhalin island in the east. They winter in Africa and Southeast Asia. The flamingo could be either the Greater Flamingo, which nests in the West Indies, or the African and Southeast Asian variety. Both are from Eleazar Albin's series The Natural History of Birds, the first folio on the subject of British birds to be illustrated exclusively with hand-colored plates, hand-colored by Albin himself with the assistance of his daughter. In Albin's notes to the reader he states "As for the paintings, they are all done from the life, with all the Exactness I could either with my own hand, or my daughters, whom I have taught to draw and paint after the life." As was the custom with many other works of the day, it was sold by subscription. This was a popular series, attracting from the beginning almost 100 subscribers.
References:
Ezerina, Svetlana. "Herons." Leningradsky Zoopark. 2000. http://www.lenzoopark.spb.ru/english/s_ornit1_3.shtml (8 October 2002).
Mullens and Swan, p.8.
Nissen, Claus. Die Illustrierten Vogelbucher: ihre Geschichte und Bibliographie. Stuttgart: 1976. 14.
Wood, Casey A. (ed.) An Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology Based Chiefly on the Titles in the Blacker Library of Zoology, the Emma Shearer Wood Library of Ornithology, the Bibliotheca Osleriana, and Other Libraries of McGill University, Montreal. London: Humphry Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931. p.184.