Artist

Joseph Wolf

Two Birds (Ptilonopus Auranthfrons)
Ptarmigan: Winter
Ptarmigan: Summer
The Island Sanctuary

Joseph Wolf is an Impressionism artist. 4 works are cataloged here, principally at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Joseph Wolf never met an animal he didn’t want to draw. Even on his honeymoon, he lugged a sketchbook up Swiss peaks to catch the snow ptarmigan molting from winter white to summer brown. That’s how he ended up illustrating Darwin’s “Expression of the Emotions,” turning fur and feathers into hard evidence.

His watercolors feel alive, you can almost feel the ptarmigan’s feathers ruffle. Slide next to The Island Sanctuary, a tiny Arctic world he built from bones and feathers to show how walruses and puffins share one scrap of land without fighting.

Works by Joseph Wolf

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.