1737
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
The Hawks-bill Turtle (Testudo caretta) is a 1737 ink by Mark Catesby, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This drawing shows a turtle with a brown shell and yellowish flippers, crawling on a sandy beach. Near its front legs, there’s a nest of round eggs in the sand. The background is a simple, textured surface that looks like water or wet ground. The artist used a mix of etching and hand coloring to make the turtle’s shell look detailed and the sand grainy. This style was common in scientific illustrations from the 1700s. Next, look up etching to see how artists carve images into metal plates.
Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World.
See the richer artist page
