The Bird
The Great Age of Avian Illustration
Laurence King Publishing, 2021
Hardback, 352 pages
Size: 315 x 220 mm
English Edition / Edición en español
The Bird is a celebration of ornithological illustration, featuring remarkable images of all kinds of birds, from the smallest hummingbirds to the largest birds of prey.
The Bird explores the fascinating world of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ornithological illustration. This was a period of scientific, artistic and geographic discovery, when people began to fully appreciate the immense variety of form and colour within the natural world. This book celebrates this beauty through the lavish illustrations produced at that time.
Each chapter focuses on a category of bird — including shorebirds, birds of prey and plenty more. The book also features sections on key ornithological artists such as John James Audubon, Elizabeth Gould and Edward Lear. These serve to demonstrate how technology, travel and ambition shaped these amazing images, and how this work transformed our understanding of the wonderful world of birds.
PRESS
“A monumental achievement” — Darrell Ashworth, Journal of Field Ornithology
“It's a book equally fascinating to read as it is to gaze upon, thanks to Kennedy's biographies of the illustrators, which put these images into historical context. The reader will discover the stories of those who made these pictures, while also looking at the leaps and bounds in scientific work which took place alongside them” — The Kansas City Pitch
“This book is great” — Nick Lund, The Birdist
“This is a wonderful book for the bird or art or history or science lover in your life. I can't recommend it highly enough” — Doreen Sheridan, The Frumious Consortium
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