Untitled
1836
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
About the artist
Artist
William Swainson
William Swainson FLS, FRS, was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist.
See the richer artist page1836
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Untitled is a 1836 by William Swainson, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This drawing shows a bright green bird with a red face and beak, tilted slightly as if caught mid-flight. Its feathers are detailed in soft strokes, and the eye looks sharp and alert. The background is plain white, keeping all focus on the bird. The artist focused on the bird’s textures—notice how the feathers look almost three-dimensional. This kind of careful observation was common in scientific drawings of the time. If you like this style, check out cross-hatching next to see how artists build detail with lines.
A drawing by William Swainson from 1836 depicts the head of a Sierra Leone Touraco, a bird species previously referred to as the Senegal Touraco. The work served as a study for an illustration published as Plate 21 in *Birds of Western Africa*, Volume 17 of *The Naturalist’s Library*, edited by Sir William Jardine and issued by W. H. Lizars in Edinburgh in 1837.
Read the full account in the museum source.
William Swainson FLS, FRS, was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist.
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