"Pheasant and Hens in Snow"

by Archibald Thorburn

Gouttelette Print

Paper Size: 16 x 36 ins / 40 x 90 cm

Image Size: 16 x 36 ins / 40 x 90 cm

Archibald Thorburn wrote that: "Looking at things with the eye of the ordinary lover of nature, one can only attempt to represent with brush and pencil the wonderful beauty of the living creatures around us. The chief essential is to acquire the faculty of observing and noting down the many subtle differences in pose and little tricks of habit in different species, and this knowledge can only be obtained by patient watching." When painting this subject, early in the twentieth century, Thorburn commented that there were already practically no purebred pheasants left in the United Kingdom. The original dark-breasted pheasant, showing no white on the neck, and introduced before the Norman Conquest, mingled first with the ring-necked pheasant from Southern China, imported around the end of the 18th century, and later with various other races since introduced. This picture thus depicts a pair of common pheasant

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