BIRDS!
A
NATIONAL
LIBRARY
OF A U S T R A L I A
EXHIBITION
Some content in this online publication may be in copyright. You
may only use in copyright material for permitted uses, please see
http://www.nla.gov.au/copiesdirect/help/copyright.html for further
information. If in doubt about whether your use is permitted, seek
permission from the copyright holder. In addition, please follow the
links or otherwise contact the relevant institutional owners of
images to seek permission if you wish to use their material.
The web site for this exhibition is located at
http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/birds/
© National Library of Australia 1999
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Birds!
Bibliography.
ISBN 0 642 10706 8.
1. Birds in art—Exhibitions.
2. Ornithological illustration—Exhibitions.
I. National Library of Australia.
704.943280749471
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The National Library of Australia acknowledges the generous support
for and interest in the exhibition by the Canberra Ornithologists' Group,
Nigel Lendon of Canberra, Graeme Chapman of Vincentia, and
John Hawkins of Moss Vale.
The Library also acknowledges the support of the following institutions:
the State Library of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia,
the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery and Museum of
the Northern Territory, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum
of Victoria.
Guest Curator: Elizabeth Lawson
Curatorial Assistant: Irene Turpie
Designer: Kathy Jakupec
Printed by Goanna Print, Canberra
BIRDS!
'So that the air ... should be populous
natural
with vocal and musical creatures.'
endurance also m a k e them symbols
passing
of the h u m a n
'scientific'
Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)
From James Thomson (trans.) and
world,
their
flight
and
spirit. Their lives
of seeing
and
a
which
but they are dangerously threatened
with Aboriginal bird drawings. Even
by our activities.
today, a 'bird in the h a n d ' is often
fly
Routledge, [18—].
values
way
contrasts strikingly, for instance,
This exhibition is about birds that
of Giacomo Leopardi. London: George
artistic
seem to us numinous a n d eternal,
Bertram Dobell (ed.), Essays, Dialogues and
Thoughts (Operette Morali and Pensieri)
birds we recognise, it equally reveals
and
sing
in
the
Australian
held to be 'worth two in the bush',
but the 'hand' of this exhibition is
imagination. Its images m a y vividly
more that of the artist t h a n of the
of our
remind us of the birds that live in
shooter,
earth with the gifts of both flight
the world around us, but they also
more recent bird bander.
a n d song—were flying a n d singing
trace our changing attitudes to birds
across the great southern continent
and
(only recently called Australia) for
artistic
millions of years before
ornithological illustration
Birds—the only creatures
humans
heard them. Potent symbols of the
our practical, scientific a n d
uses
of
birds.
Even
The
collector, taxidermist
colonisation
of
or
Australia
coincided with the development of
the
new
European
bird
science,
is only
ornithology, a n d of a wide popular
illustration. While it reminds us of
interest in birds. It also coincided
unknown artist
The Emu Hunter c.13 000 BC
Dangurrung, Mt Brockman, Northern Territory rock painting; height of emu 93 cm
reproduced from transparency, original photography by George Chaloupka
Courtesy of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
with the flowering of print culture:
illustrative engraving, lithographic
a n d other colour-print technologies,
fine book-making and photography.
Today, just as these arts face the
radical challenge of new electronic
technologies, this exhibition presents
a retrospective of images of birds
produced
by
that
period
of
spectacular art a n d paper work.
Most of the birds of this story
c o m e from the diverse E u r o p e a n Australian
collections
in
the
National Library of Australia; from
European
scientific
and
traditions
recreated
progressively
within
our
artistic
colonial and
recent
pasts. Generous loans of modern
Aboriginal
bird
sculptures
paintings
show
that
and
ancient
indigenous a n d younger European
forms have existed side by side in
Australia, but h a v e only recently
begun to learn from one another.
The i m a g e of the rock painting
The Emu Hunter of 15 000 years ago,
photographed by the Museum a n d
Art
Gallery
of
the
Northern
Territory, attests to the breathtaking
antiquity of Australian culture. In
the light of this painting, the birds
of
a medieval
manuscript
from
Lilian Marguerite Medland (1880-1955)
fifteenth-century Europe spring into
Syma torotoro and Other Birds c. 1930s
recent time. Following these historic
watercolour; 27.8 x 19 cm R6616 Plate G
images from the two great streams
of our tradition—indigenous
European—the
and
collections of the
lands 'where bright blossoms are
scentless, / And
This
songless
bright
m u t t o n bird
like the
on
abundant
Norfolk
Island,
birds'.
story of birds and modern Australia.
prejudice could not long defy what
admired birds were destroyed
people actually heard in the bush.
their admirers' m a n i a for imported
predatory
colonial
birds,
National Library go on to tell their
Yet the
common
many
activities of
were
simply
field-sports
eaten
and
out.
Many
by
competitive,
Songless Bright Birds
visitors a n d settlers quickly created
lucrative collection. The Kangaroo
an
the
Island a n d Macquarie Island emus
In
Gordon
spreading, colonised lands. In the
were extinct before John Gould's
of Australian
first starvation years of invasion,
Birds of Australia
1870, Adam
(1833-1870)
Lindsay
wrote
actual
'songlessness' in
2
(1841-1848).
with work by James Sowerby, John
William Lewin, Ferdinand Bauer
and Charles Lesueur, displayed in
the form of original
paintings,
hand-coloured engravings in rare
books,
and,
in
the
case
of
Ferdinand Bauer, in the form of
recent hand-printed
lithographs.
They culminate in examples of the
famous
lithographic
work
of
Elizabeth Gould.
John
Gould
produced
his
r e m a r k a b l e volumes of Birds
Australia
(1841-1848)
from
of
his
publishing house in Golden Square,
London. He used the lithographic
work of his wife, Elizabeth Gould,
and,
Geraldine Rede (1874-1943)
after her sudden death
The White Feather c.1900 [Portrait of Miles Franklin]
1841, that of Henry Constantine
pencil and crayon; 23.5 x 30 cm R681
Richter, William Hart and others.
With John Lewin's Birds
Holland
Early
colonial
bird
sketches
distinguish
between h u m a n
and
record the naturalists' fascination
animal
with the marvellous southern birds,
country seemed one vast repository
and show that Australian animals,
of specimens.
along
with
the
land
and
sovereign people, were
and
shipped
domains.
The
whole
Brilliant Curiosities
Ships returning to England and its
the images of colonial bird art were
insatiable collection trades carried,
drawn (as m a n y still are) from
even into our own century, countless
skins,
cargoes of songless bright birds.
London.
often
by
Londoners
T h e skins
hold
in
form,
colour and texture motionless for
copying, but,
bushland,
remote from
their
produce sketches t h a t
seem naive and awkward. Often it
Every 'bird in the h a n d ' mirrored
is the radiant hand-colouring that
the enduring attempt to silence the
makes these birds live.
The exhibition's early documentary
oldest h u m a n culture. 'Enlightened'
drawings begin with the jewel-like
European greed for a n exploitable
paintings of the Hunter sketchbook,
new world did not, as several works
and with watercolours from
in
Sarah Stone album. They continue
make
clear,
great
books
John
Gould
3
and
Gregory
the
watercolours,
and
with fascinating related documents
from
the
Library's
Manuscript
Collection. Also featured is a rare
Victorian
cabinet
of
stuffed
Australian fauna which was made
by
Henry E. Ward, the
famous
London taxidermist and friend of
John
Gould.
exhibited
at
Almost
the
certainly
London
International Exhibition of 1 8 6 2 ,
this
world's
exhibition
only
inaugurated a remarkable tradition
sketches a n d
Art enlivens dead things. M a n y of
the
these
their
Macalister Mathews with original
specimens of science by the invaders.
historic songlines of the
(1813)
predecessors,
by
as
And Human Bones
... (1808) and Birds of New
Wales
The exhibition complements books
invaded.
home
South
of New
of fine Australian bird book-making.
its
Birds were shot, collected, sketched,
stuffed
in
large
cabinet
filled
with
hundreds of specimens illustrates
the grandeur and ambition of high
Victorian versions of eighteenthcentury 'cabinets of curiosities'.
fan
of
Nicholas
entrancing
Costume
Chevalier's
watercolour
Emblematic
Fancy
of
Australia
(c.1860) pointed the sorry way to
Australian
involvement
devastating
worldwide
industry which
lasted
in
the
plumage
into
the
1920s. The arts of taxidermy were
now
drawn
boldly
into
the
adornment and decorative crafts,
as Eliza Catherine Wintle's splendid
Kookaburra
Handscreen
(c.1892)
shows. Dazzling Australian
birds
like the white egret and heron were
transformed to spectacular featherwork,
and
brought
close
to
extinction.
John Heaviside Clark (c.1770-1863) engraver
Expressive bird art, unconcerned
after John William Lewin (1770-1819)
with identification, addresses
Throwing the Spear
in Field Sports &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales 1813
emotional and symbolic value of
Supplement to Foreign Field Sports, Fisheries, Sporting Anecdotes &c. &c.
birds.
Over
a
century
before
Australian colonial work, Simon
London: Edward Orme, 1814 F577
Verelst's portrait Lady Anne
This
the
scientific
strand
in
an
evolution
from
awkwardly
(c.1670s)
used
in
a
Russell
an
imported
flashy
imperial
bright
cockatoo
home
variation on the use of birds in
Australian bird portraiture is seen
posed
throughout the exhibition in bird
recognisable
paintings
foliage and habitat. The changing
European
Neville William Cayley, Ebenezer
illustrative styles also mirror
cryptic Boy with a
E. Gostelow, Betty Temple Watts and
history of attitudes toward birds,
Cockatoo
Lilian Medland; then in spectacular
from the time when fading, insect-
John William Lewin, presents its
paintings by William T. Cooper
infested skins were more valuable
bird and child as wistful images in
a n d in a selection of the work of
t h a n living birds, to our own time,
a colonial setting. These cockatoos,
photographers
National
when protection attitudes still fail
accurate enough to the eye, exist to
Australian
to stop the devastation of habitats
express h u m a n values and emotions.
twentieth-century
that threatens all Australian birds.
by
Photographic
Birds.
Louisa
for the
Index
The late
paintings
Atkinson,
in
of
books
by
curiosities
friends
to
in
a
child portraiture.
The
Sulphur-crested
(c.1815?), attributed
Colonial
works
also
to
soon
Frank
The birds our aggressive suburbs
appeared which remind us of more
Thomson Morris register both the
a n d industries drive away do not
practical reasons for bird killing
continuing life of traditional bird
fly elsewhere; they die.
t h a n studying natural history. J o h n
art a n d the life of birds in the
natural
world,
though
work is represented by one pencil
drawing only—in his book
Drawings
Heaviside Clark's Throwing the Spear
Morris's
Pencil
1969-78.
(1813), S.T. Gill's Sportsmen
Came
Birds for Art's Sake
From
early
on,
expressive
by Coast
chromolithograph
art
Animals
with
the
of
Australia ... (1880s?) all feature bird
Across its 2 0 0 years, Australian
recorded elements of the s a m e story
hunting,
naturalistic bird illustration traces
of exploitation. The centred lyrebird
imported
4
(c.1856) and
and
all
arts a n d
incorporate
styles which
change, as they record, a n invaded
world.
Only
at
nineteenth
the
close
of
the
century, however,
do
birds seem generally to fly free
from
the
cage
of
specimens.
Margaret Fleming's The
Cockatoo
(1895), though boldly centring a
dead bird, wholly transcends a n y
reference
to
natural
history.
Beautiful even in death, Fleming's
cockatoo
appears
as
a
lost
c o m p a n i o n whose limp death-fall
is
light
years
away
from
the
attitudes of gun-happy naturalists.
If
exploited,
this
cockatoo
is
exploited by art.
Harping on Lyrebirds
and Investing in Emus
M a n y works from the
collections
suggest
a
Library's
changing
popular focus on different birds. An
early settler fascination with the
elusive lyrebird grew from scientific
excitement about
birds.
The
many
Lyrebird
lyrebird
works,
William
mound-building
appears
including
in
John
Lewin's
watercolour
of Australia
(c.1810). First
Lewin
(1770-1819)
known
by
settlers
as
'colonial
Lyrebird of Australia c. 1810
pheasant' (as in Pheasant's Creek
watercolour; 38.2 x 27 cm T3234 NK3820
near Bargo, NSW), even this shy
creature
did
not
escape
the
colonist's Sunday oven—nor avoid
were clearly wise as owls,
lyrebirds,
silly
and
proud
As early as 1 8 5 3 , the decorative
but
as
frame of S.T Gill's Tattersall's
Horse
sacrificing its tail-feathers for fans
peacocks, were self-declared liars.
Bazaar,
and drawing-room display cabinets.
Emus by contrast, tall and stern,
invented Australia's national coat
Late
nineteenth-century
bird
Melbourne
might come to represent a nation's
of
stories for children—one eye on
authority.
kangaroo
and
English morals, one on dawning
flightless parade on sculpted silver-
anticipate
and
Federation—include many Australian
ware, the decorative carving of its
Federation heraldry.
birds, but argue the rise of the emu.
eggs, and the development of its
Fun and games with birds—as
image on the national coat of arms.
well as ceremony a n d ritual—had
Kookaburras, heads to one side,
So b e g a n
5
the
emu's
arms.
Here
had as good as
a
jumped-up
startled
already
emu
parody
begun long before in Aboriginal
its own fascination with birds and
lore. White Australians, such as
produced the flattened, haunting
K. Langloh Parker in her Australian
grace of Sydney Long's Music Lesson
Legendary Tales (1896), soon made
(1904).
English versions of Aboriginal
The strong lines and elegant
creation stories. Along with these,
composition of such work also fed
there emerged a children's story
the fashion for bookplates and
land of birds, and an exciting new
decorated books. Later it influenced
era of book-making. Storytellers
the graphic work of bird print-
and artists such as Ida Rentoul
makers and screen-makers Ethleen
Outhwaite, J.J. Hall, Dorothy Wall
Palmer, Lesbia Thorpe and Irena
and
Sibley.
May
Gibbs
cockatoos and
made
emus,
honeyeaters
engravings
as
Australians as they had always
And the day of the kookaburra
bird iconography.
In 1920, May Gibbs produced
Australia's most successful ever
poster of social instruction,
cunning
kookaburra
teaching
wise
century,
the
kookaburra, no longer the settlers'
weird bush clock but a familiar
friend in an urban setting, easily
stole popular attention from the
not-so-bright
emu
and
elusive
lyrebird. Wise bush mother of
children's literature, the kookaburra
twined herself into wrought-iron
balcony lace, and laughed from
the faces of the first Australian
postage stamps, the first kitchen
than
a
cartoon
maternity
serving womanhood.
twentieth
Lindsay
restrictions of nineteenth-century
Art in Australia, May 1923, no. 4
was near.
the
Lionel
wood
of birds flown free of the sentimental
Margaret Preston (1875-1963)
Emus
been to indigenous people.
In
of
bird
reflected the moods and characters
familiar to generations of white
Laugh, Kookaburra,
Laugh
The superb
and
No fewer
a million copies of this
image—as both a poster and cover
of a New South Wales Department
of
Public
Health
handbook—
cajoled Australian morals between
1931 and 1959.
For white Australia, strange birds
of the colonies were strangers no
more, but true native companions
and the winged carriers of social
Though highly stylised, this new
art
freed
the
engagement
imagination's
with
the
natural
world. It later made possible the
radical line-drawing of artists such as
John Olsen and Francis Lymburner
and
the generous,
interpretive
drawing of the mid-century, seen in
Charles Bush's Golden Bird (1940).
It also opened bird studies to a
comic anthropomorphism,
attentively observed birds comment
on mid-century issues and speak of
the vagaries and possibilities of
Australian social identity.
Like
Margaret
Fleming's
virtues and a changing Australian
The Cockatoo,
culture.
surreal oil Archaeopteryx
Kookas, the signatures of Radio
where
Eric Thake's early
(1941)
punctures the natural history story
Australia and Movietone News.
of the exhibition. Working with the
During the World Wars, happy
visual
transvestite, she assumed digger
uniform
on postcards to carry
Bird Watching
pungency
Archaeopteryx
of
cartoons,
wittily compounds
The beginnings of this flexible
two great experiments: the ancient
the
universalising of bird motifs lay in
pre-history of the bird and the
trenches of Europe and the Pacific
late nineteenth-century story art
modern evolution of the aeroplane.
war
for children and in movements
The huge broken egg and flying
such as Art Nouveau, which showed
feather
cheering
messages
zones.
'She'
ubiquitous icon.
into
became
a
6
mock
a
fledgling
mechanical attempt to get off the
these native companions are as
Fabulous Birds
much fabulous as friendly birds.
ground while an ancient (r)evolving
land rolls over.
Nothing of the many things we
Here are fantastic birds
have made of birds—ornament,
Donald Friend's manuscript book
trophy,
specimen,
exhibition—finally
Watching Birds
from
art
work,
Birds from the Magic Mountain. Here
holds
them.
stand
Lesbia
Thorpe's
1994
Their alien natures, enviable wings
imported Guinea Fowl, stylised, but
The three black birds in the top
and song remind us again and
naturalised, in a swirl of black hills
band of David Malangi's painting
again that we are earthbound. The
and spiralling dots. And stepping
The Snake
ever-naming of our science and art
clean
does not dispel their mystery.
Aboriginal
That Bit Gurrmirringu
(1992) watch over the rest of
the
story
which
the
The exhibition's final selection
Manyarrngu Mourning Rites. The
brings together a variety of images
swan of Eric Thake's linocut Bird
which illustrate the multiple facets
Watching
(1965)
tells
of
mocks
from
air
wood
story with mythic statement.
our
of the cultural vision that has
become ours. A diverse use of
Elizabeth Lawson
challenges our intrusions on her
natural images itself suggests the
Curator
world and identity.
mystery of the natural world, so
January 1999
Donald Friend (1915-1989)
ink, watercolour and crayon
manuscript book MS5959
7
space,
sculptures
challenge the European naming
presumptuous bird watching. She
Ayam-Ayam Kesayangan vol. iii 1980
and
Northern
Rosella
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF WORKS
Armstrong, E., The Life and Lore of the Bird in
Nature, Art, Myth and Literature. New York:
All works listed belong to the National
London: Alecto Historical Editions in association
Library of Australia unless otherwise noted.
with Natural History Museum, 1 9 9 7 S 1 1 0 7 7
stochastic lithographic print; 28 x 38 cm
Crown Publishers, 1 9 7 5 .
Chaloupka, G., Journey in Time: The World's
Longest Continuing Art Tradition: The 50,000-
Walter E. Boles
The Robins and Flycatchers of
Edward Abbott ( 1 7 6 6 - 1 8 3 2 )
The English and Australian
Australia
Cookery Book:
North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson and
Cookery for the Many, as well as for the
the National Photographic Index of Australian
Year Story of the Australian Aboriginal Rock Art
'Upper Ten Thousand'
Wildlife, 1 9 8 8
of Arnhem Land. Chatswood, NSW: Reed, 1993.
London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, 1864
Clark, K., Animals and Men: Their Relationship
R. Abdy et ses Kakatoes
Go/den Bird 1 9 4 0
broadside, coloured lithograph; 81 x 61 cm
watercolour and gouache; 20 x 28 cm
Paris: F. Appel, [1890] Broadside 275
National Gallery of Australia
as Reflected in Western Art from Prehistory to
Charles Bush (b.1920)
the Present Day. London: Thames and
Hudson, c.1977.
Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line
Menu for TSS Esperance Bay (7 November
Datta, A., John Gould in Australia: Letters and
1934)
Douglas Annand ( 1 9 0 3 - 1 9 7 6 )
[Lady with Feather in Hat]
Birds and Mammals of Australia Held in the
Cover design for The Home, vol. 16 no. 4,
Natural History Museum, London. Carlton,
April 1 9 3 5
Vic: Miegunyah Press, 1 9 9 7 .
collage of steel, feathers and black paper on
Fox, P., Drawing on Nature: Images and
Neville Henry Penniston Cayley ( 1 8 5 3 - 1 9 0 3 )
Australian
Snipe c.1896
watercolour; 50.8 x 63.5 cm R1724
attributed to Neville Henry Penniston Cayley
fabric mounted on card; 34.3 x 32.4 cm
Specimens of Natural History from the
300 x 143 x 49.5 cm
Private collection
Drawings with a Catalogue of Manuscripts,
Correspondence and Drawings Relating to the
Cabinet of Stuffed Fauna
National Gallery of Australia
(1853-1903)
[Bar-tailed Godwit] 1897
watercolour; 60.5 x 46 cm R230
Edward Allworthy Armstrong
Neville William Cayley ( 1 8 8 6 - 1 9 5 0 )
The Life and Lore of the Bird in Nature, Art,
Red-cheeked Parrot c.1930s
Essays on Nature. Geelong, Vic.: Geelong Art
Myth and
watercolour; 55.2 x 38 cm R10105
Gallery, 1 9 9 2 .
New York: Crown, 1975
Collection of the Museum of Victoria, with Four
Literature
Turquoise Parrakeet;
Private collection
Parrakeet
Jackson, C.E., Great Bird Paintings of the
World. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique
Rosalind Atkins
Scarlet-chested
c.1930s
watercolour; 56 x 37.5 cm R10101
Recollections
Collectors' Club, c . 1 9 9 3 - 1 9 9 4 .
Melbourne: Lyre Bird Press, c.1987
What Bird Is That?
revised by Terence R. Lindsay
Lysaght, A.M., The Book of Birds: Five
Louisa Atkinson ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 7 2 )
Centuries of Bird Illustration. London:
Merops ornatus
Phaidon, 1 9 7 5 .
pen and ink, watercolour; 23 x 22 cm
Mitchell Library, State Library of
Mathews, G.M., Birds and Books: The Story of
the Mathews Ornithological Library. Canberra:
Verity Hewitt Bookshop, 1942.
Pearce, B., Australian Artists, Australian Birds.
North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1989.
Pteloris victoria gould (Paradise Riflebird)
c. 1860s
Mitchell Library, State Library of
New South Wales
Charles Barrett ( 1 8 7 9 - 1 9 5 9 )
Lansdowne Editions, 1982.
Melbourne: T.C. Lothian, 1 9 0 7
Ferdinand Bauer ( 1 7 6 0 - 1 8 2 6 )
Ringneck
Australian Ornithology. Perth: Paterson
Brokensha, 1 9 5 4 .
National Photographic Index of Australian
Parakeet
Port Lincoln Parrot
photographic print; 19.5 x 27.5cm
National Photographic Index of Australian
Birds, no. 4653
Red-eared Firetail
stochastic lithographic print; 38 x 31 cm
photographic print; 19.5 x 27.5 cm
London: Alecto Historical Editions in association
National Photographic Index of Australian
with Natural History Museum, 1 9 9 7 S 1 1 0 7 9
Birds, no. 4 6 9 5
Noisy Friar-Bird
Shining
stochastic lithographic print; 38 x 31 cm
photographic print; 27.5 x 1 9 . 5 cm
London: Alecto Historical Editions in association
National Photographic Index of Australian
with Natural History Museum, 1 9 9 7 S 1 1 0 8 3
Birds, no. 4006
Whittell, H.M., The Literature of Australian
Birds: A History and a Bibliography of
Wattlebird
photographic print; 27.5 x 19.5 cm
Birds, no. 4 6 9 2
From Range to Sea: A Bird Lover's Ways
and Ideas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1 9 6 0 .
Birds, no. 1575
Little
pen and ink, watercolour; 25.2 x 17.6 cm
Australian
Comb-crested J a c a n a
National Photographic Index of Australian
Sauer, G.C., John Gould, the Bird Man:
Pacific 1768-1850: A Study in the History of Art
Graeme Victor Chapman
photographic print; 27.5 x 19.5 cm
New South Wales
A Chronology and Bibliography. Melbourne:
Smith, B., European Vision and the South
Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1984
(Rainbow Bee-eater) c.l850s
8
Bronze-Cuckoo
Spotted Pardalote
photographic print; 19.5 x 27.5 cm
National Photographic Index of Australian
Birds, no. 3322
Flower and Fern Decoration] c.1900
emu egg, silver plate, wood; 34 x 30 cm
A40004651 NK6769
Adrian Feint (1894-1971)
Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902)
Bookplate for Barbara Rixson
Fancy Costume Emblematic of Australia 11.5 x 9 cm S10407 no. 100
c.1860
Bookplate forJ.Harvey Bryant
watercolour; 36.7 x 25.8 cm T11 NK559
9 x 7.5 cm S10393 no. 121
Alec Hugh Chisholm (1890-1977)
Margaret Fleming (fl.1890s)
Mateship with Birds
The Cockatoo 1895
Melbourne: Whitcombe & Tombs, [1922]
oil on canvas; 79 x 95 cm
John Heaviside Clark (c.1770-1863) engraver Art Gallery of New South Wales
after John William Lewin (1770-1819)
Donald Friend (1915-1989)
Throwing the Spear
Ayam-Ayam Kesayangan, vol. iii 1980
in Field Sports &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants
of New South Wales 1813
ink, watercolour and crayon MS5959
Supplement to Foreign Field Sports, Fisheries,
Birds from the Magic Mountain
Sporting Anecdotes &c. &c.
London: Edward Orme, 1814 F577
June Collins
Aussie Emu Cookbook
Corrigin, WA: June Collins, [1994]
William T. Cooper (b.1934)
Blue-bonnet; Naretha Blue-bonnet 1970
watercolour; 51 x 38 cm R6743
Red-tailed Cockatoo 1970
watercolour; 49.2 x 33.2 cm R6702
John Cotton (1801-1849)
Birds Eggs 1840s
watercolour; 17.5 x 12 cm MS1840/9/5
The Brown Owl 1840s
watercolour; 16.5 x 24.5 cm MS1840/9/5
Crested Scrub Bird 1840s
watercolour; 17.5 x 29 cm MS1840/9/5
unknown artist
Portrait ofJohnCotton c.1840s
pen and ink; 25 x 18 cm MS1840/9/5
Sonia Davis
Homeland: Hermannsburg
handcrafted painted ceramic pot 1996
lid with night parrots; height 24 cm
Private collection
[Carved Emu Egg on Silver Plate and
Wood Stand with Fern Decoration] c.1900
emu egg, silver plate, wood; height 27 cm
A40009637 NK6769/3
[Carved Emu Egg on Silver Plate Stand
with Fern, Kangaroo, Emu and Aboriginal
Decoration] c.1900
emu egg, silver plate, wood; height 25 cm
A4OO09629 NK10854
[Two Carved Emu Eggs on Silver Plate and
Wood Stand with Clock, Emu, Kangaroo,
manuscript book
ink, watercolour and crayon MS5959
May Gibbs (1877-1969)
I Hardly Like Delivering the Goods
Mrs Kookaburra ...
coloured lithographic poster; 74.3 x 49 cm
Sydney: Government Printer, 1920 S11104
Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841)
Chlamydera maculata (Bowerbird)
hand-coloured lithograph; 52.5 x 68 cm
in John Gould's Birds of Australia, Part iv,
1 September 1841
Lopholaimus antarcticus (Topknot Pigeon)
hand-coloured lithograph; 55.3 x 38.1 cm
U7297A NK7038/A
Podargus humeralis (Tawny Frogmouth)
hand-coloured lithograph; 55.4 x 37.2 cm
U7308 NK10635/5
Portrait of Elizabeth Gould
photograph of uncredited image used as
frontispiece to Alec Chisholm's The Story of
Elizabeth Gould
Melbourne: Hawthorn Press, 1944
John Gould (1804-1881)
£20 Reward—Stolen, Sometime Since the
8th Instant, a Number of Skins of Valuable
Birds... 1845
broadsheet; 28 x 21.5 cm MS587
Collectors list sent to Gould's secretary,
Edwin Charles Prince, by Mr Shepherd
MS587
Mrs Kookaburra and the Nuts to Greet You
(One is Shy) 1940
Draft letter to unknown recipient at
Hobarton, 4 January 1841 MS587
hand-coloured photomechanical print;
17.9 x 9.4 cm R11222
Grus Australasianus (Australian Crane)
Your Old Aunts Are Very Anxious ... [1916?]
plate 48 of Birds of Australia, vol. vi
one of eight World War 1914-1918 postcards
London: J. Gould, 1848
offset photomechanical print; 15.2 x 14.4 cm
Portrait of John Gould 1849
S10602
photograph of an original lithograph by
John Gilbert (c.1810-1845)
Maguire published in an 1852 issue of the
Letter to John Gould from Wongan Hills,
Illustrated London News NK1982
28 September 1842
in John Gould's Birds of Australia, vol. i
Ronald Campbell Gunn (1808-1881)
London: J. Gould, 1848
Circular Head Scientific Journal 21 June 1836
manuscript magazine MS2036/2
Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880)
[Sportsmen with Game by Coast] c.1856
Circular Head Scientific Journal
No. 36, Australian Bushmen, Kangaroo and December 1838 supplement
Wild Duck Hunting in Gippsland with One
of
manuscript
magazine MS2036/4/3
the Glennie Islands in the Distance
Reginald Haines
Portrait of Tom Iredale and Gregory Mathews
Tattersalls Horse Bazaar, Melbourne 1853 1923
hand-coloured lithograph; 31.2 x 41.7 cm
gelatin silver photograph; 16 x 21 cm
U2277 NK429
watercolour; 31 x 47.6 cm T1299 NK285
James John Hall
The Crystal Bowl: Australian Nature Stories
illustrated by Dorothy Wall
Melbourne: Whitcombe & Tombs, [1921]
The Little Egret; The Plumed Egret 1938
attributed to William Hodges (1744-1797)
watercolour; 50.6 x 63.5 cm R2805
Dodo and Red Parakeet c.1773
oil on academy board; 23 x 27.5 cm
White-tailed Black Cockatoo 1929
T384 NK5827
watercolour; 50.7 x 60.2 cm R2740
Ebenezer Edward Gostelow (1867-1944)
Black-ringed Finch 1931
watercolour; 50 x 21.2 cm R2820
9
L. Howes
attributed to John William Lewin (1770-1819)
Allan McEvey
Bell Miner
Boy with a Sulphur-crested
John Cotton's Birds of the Port Phillip
photographic print; 27.5 x 1 9 . 5 cm
transparency
District of New South Wales,
National Photographic Index of Australian
original is oil on canvas; 90.3 x 69 cm
Sydney: William Collins, 1974 NK11936
Birds, no. 1 9 2 4
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Cockatoo c.1815?
M.J.M. Carter Collection
Noreen Hudson
1843-1849
Frank P. Mahony ( 1 8 6 2 - 1 9 1 6 )
'Dot Dances with the Native Companions'
Homeland: Hermannsburg
Lionel Lindsay ( 1 8 7 4 - 1 9 6 1 )
in Ethel Pedley ( 1 8 5 9 - 9 8 ) Dot and the
handcrafted painted ceramic pot 1995
Bookplate and Electrotype for Donald
Kangaroo
Sheumack
Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1 9 3 4
lid with two black cockatoos; height 27 cm
Private collection
9.5 x 6 cm S6418 no. 60
David Malangi (b.1927)
J o h n Hunter ( 1 7 3 7 - 1 8 2 1 )
Birds and Flowers of New South Wales
Drawn on the Spot in 1788, '89 and '90
1788-1790
Bookplate for Henry White
Manyarrngu-Djinang people
15 x 1 1 . 3 cm S6365 no. 7
Dhamala
Chatterers
1992
painted wooden sculpture; height 48 cm
1923
Private collection
sketchbook containing 1 0 0 watercolours
NK2039
wood engraving; 7.3 x 5.5 cm S6070
Jennifer Isaacs
The Dancer 1924
The Snake That Bit Gurrmirringu
Australia's
Living Heritage: Arts of the
wood engraving; 15.5 x 1 1 . 5 cm S6216
Dreaming
Sydney: Lansdowne Press, 1 9 8 4
1992
natural pigment on eucalyptus bark;
112.5 x 66.3 cm
Private collection
Ibis 1933
Gregory Macalister Mathews ( 1 8 7 6 - 1 9 4 9 )
Lambert brothers (fl.1807-30) engravers
after Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Roland Green ( 1 8 9 6 - 1 9 7 2 )
Alcyone azurea alisteri (Azure Kingfisher)
(1778-1846)
Nouvelle-Hollande,
wood engraving; 7.5 x 9.9 cm S6108
Night Heron 1935
watercolour over a pencil sketch;
He Decres, Casoar de la
wood engraving; 13.4 x 13.4 cm S 6 1 1 1
Nelle. Hollande
hand-coloured engraving; plate mark
Owlet Nightjar 1 9 1 6
Owls 1 9 3 1
24.4 x 32 cm
in Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes
[Paris]: de l'lmprimerie de Langlois, [1807]
S2157
watercolour over a pencil sketch;
wood engraving; 15.6 x 12.7 cm S6154
Pelicans
James Lee (fl.l830s)
Letter to R.C. Gunn, 2 8 November 1 8 3 8
MS2036/5
23.5 x 19 cm MS1465/44ii7
24 x 17.5 cm MS1465/44ii7
Uralcyon sylvia (Buff-breasted Paradise
1938
wood engraving; 17.6 x 22.3 cm S6132
Kingfisher) 1 9 1 5
Woodblock and Bookplate for Peter Lindsay
watercolour over a pencil sketch; 30 x 2 0 cm
plate 5.9 x 5 cm; block 7.2 x 5.7 cm
MS1465/44ii7
S6359 no. 1 (plate) R9553 (block)
Norman Lindsay ( 1 8 7 9 - 1 9 6 9 )
Michael Leunig (b.1945)
Gregory Macalister Mathews ( 1 8 7 6 - 1 9 4 9 )
[Coffee Mug]
The Magic Pudding: The Adventures of
Tyto novae-hollandiae
porcelain
Bunyip Bluegum
plate 269 of his Birds of Australia, vol. v
Australia: Dynamo House, 1990s?
Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1 9 9 0
London: Witherby, 1 9 1 0 - 1 9 2 7
Private collection
Sydney Long ( 1 8 7 1 - 1 9 5 5 )
The Music Lesson 1904
(Masked Owl)
Gregory Macalister Mathews ( 1 8 7 6 - 1 9 4 9 )
Anna Maria Lewin (died c.1846)
oil on canvas; 83.5 x 63 cm
and Tom Iredale ( 1 8 8 0 - 1 9 7 2 )
High Flyer of New Holland, a Fine New Pigeon
Art Gallery of New South Wales
A Manual of the Birds of Australia
1826
Evan Antoni Johann Lumme ( 1 8 6 5 - 1 9 3 5 )
illustrated by Lilian Medland
pencil; 31 x 26.2 cm T3321 NK7059
[Caged Cockatoo]
London: Witherby, 1 9 2 1
printed in 1 9 9 9 from glass-plate negative;
John William Lewin ( 1 7 7 0 - 1 8 1 9 )
12.3 x 16.2 cm M 3 1 1 4
Lilian Medland ( 1 8 8 0 - 1 9 5 5 )
[Man with Cockatoo]
watercolour; 27.5 x 19.6 cm R6622 plate M
Casmerodius albus and Other Birds c.1930
Birds of New Holland, with Their Natural
History, Collected, Engraved and
Faithfully
Painted after Nature
printed in 1 9 9 9 from glass-plate negative;
London: J. White and S. Bagster, 1 8 0 8 F465
16.5 x 1 2 cm M2504
Dacelo leachii and Other Birds c.1930
watercolour; 27.7 x 19 cm R6617 plate H
Birds of New South Wales, with Their
Joseph Lycett (c.1775-1828)
Natural History
Drawings of the Natives ... 1 8 3 0
Dromiceius novaehollandiae
Sydney: G. Howe, 1 8 1 3
album containing 20 watercolours
c.1930
Lyrebird of Australia
Tommy McCrae (c.1836-1901)
and Other Birds
watercolour; 27.5 x 19.1 cm R6640 plate P1
c.1810
watercolour; 38.2 x 27 cm T3234 NK3820
Aborigines Chasing Chinese; Hunting Scene
Falco longipennis and Other Birds c.1930
c.1880
watercolour; 27.5 x 19.7 cm R6620 plate K
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater; Red-browed Finch
reproduced from transparency
c.1800
original is pen and ink; 21 x 3 1 . 8 cm
Geophaps scripta and Other Birds c.1930
watercolour; 36.2 x 28.2 cm R9634
Courtesy of the Museums Board of Victoria
watercolour; 27.6 x 19.3 cm R6635 plate Kl
10
Hamirostra melanosterna and Other BirdsMonica Oppen (b.1964)
c.1930
Wah-Hah and the Lemon-yellow Crest
watercolour; 27.7 x 19.7 cm R6619 plate J
Redfern, NSW: Ant Press, c.1988
Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1889-1960)
Heteroscenes pallidus and Other Birds c.1930
Fairyland of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
watercolour; 27.5 x 19 cm R6615 plate F
Melbourne: Ramsay Publishing Pty Ltd, 1926
Hirundapus caudacutus and Other Birds
Ethleen Palmer (1908-1965)
c.1930
Cormorants c.1948
watercolour; 27.5 x 19 cm R6641 plate Q
serigraph; 18.9 x 22.8 cm
Ixobrychus minutus and Other Birds c.1930 Private collection
watercolour; 27.7 x 19.7 cm R6621 plate L
Otto Pareroultja (1914-1973)
Lord Howe Island Petrels 1930
Homeland: Hermannsburg; Clan: Arrente
watercolour; 29.1 x 23.2 cm R11300
[Landscape with Two Red-tailed BlackCockatoos] c.1952
Malurus pulcherrimus and Other Birds c.1930
watercolour; 32.5 x 52.5 cm
watercolour; 27.5 x 19 cm R6645 plate U
Private collection
Phalacrocorax carbo and Other Birds c.1930
George David Perrottet (1890-C.1956)
watercolour; 27.6 x 19 cm R6631 plate Gl
Bookplate for Kathleen Higgins
10 x 7.5 cm S10763
Sternula albifrons and Other Birds c.1930
watercolour; 27.5 x 19.5 cm R6629 plate E1
Graham Pizzey (b.1930)
Irena Sibley (b.1944)
The Bird Woman
Camberwell, Vic.: Silver Gum Press, 1995
Rainbow
South Melbourne: Gryphon Books, 1980
Peter Slater (b.1932)
Australian Waterbirds
Frenchs Forest, NSW: Reed, 1987
Peter Slater (b.1932) and Raoul Slater (b.1966)
Photographing Australia's Birds
Fortitude Valley, Qld: Steve Parish, 1995
Arthur Bowes Smythe (1750-1790)
Journal, 22 March 1787-8 August 1789 MS4568
James Sowerby (1757-1822) artist and engraver
The Nonpareil Parrot c.1794
plate iv of George Shaw's Zoology of New
Holland, vol. i
London: J. Sowerby, 1794 NK891
Sarah Stone (1761/62-1844)
Crested Cockatoo c.1790
The Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight Field
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
Syma torotoro and Other Birds c.1930
Guide to the Birds of Australia
plate 7 of Natural History Specimens of
watercolour; 27.8 x 19 cm R6616 plate G
Pymble, NSW: Angus & Robertson/
New South Wales 1790 R11202
Tyto troughtoni and Other Birds c.1930 HarperCollins, 1997
Crested Goatsucker c.1790
watercolour; 27.7 x 19 cm R6618 plate I
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
Margaret Preston (1875-1963)
plate 5 of Natural History Specimens of
Emus
Portrait of Lilian Medland 1923
New South Wales 1790 R11200
Kookaburras
gelatin silver photograph; 21 x 16 cm
Art in Australia, May 1923, no. 4
Great Brown Kingfisher c.1790
Louisa Anne Meredith (1812-1895)
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
Thea Proctor (1879-1966)
Grandmamma's Verse-book for Young
plate 2 of Natural History Specimens of
The Feather Fan
Australia [Orford], Tas: Printed for the
New South Wales 1790 R11197
Art in Australia, 15 May 1935
author by W. Fletcher, 1878
Pennantian Parrot c.1790
Geraldine Rede (1874?-1943)
Thomas Milton engraver
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
The White Feather c.1900
plate 6 of Natural History Specimens of
after Sarah Stone (1761/62-1844)
[Portrait of Miles Franklin]
New South Wales 1790 R11201
Great Brown Kingfisher
pencil and crayon; 23.5 x.30 cm R681
plate 7 of John White's Journal of a Voyage to
Red-shouldered Parroquet c.1790
New South Wales
Henry Constantine Richter (c.1821-1902)
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
London: J. Debrett, 1790 F2733
Procellaria hasitata Kuhl (Great Grey Tern) plate 9 of Natural History Specimens of
1848
New South Wales 1790 R11204
Miniyawany
watercolour; 35.8 x 50.5 cm T1313 NK5666/4
Homeland: Baniyala
Tabuan Parrot c.1790
Gany'tjarr ga Dharpa
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
Bluey Roberts
plate 3 of Natural History Specimens of
painted wooden sculpture; height 56.5 cm
Large River Spirit Dreaming
New South Wales 1790 R11198
Private collection
cover illustration for Lorraine Mafi-Williams,
Eric Thake (1904-1982)
Spirit Song: A Collection of Aboriginal Poetry
Frank Thomson Morris (b.1936)
Archaeopteryx
1941
Norwood,
SA:
Omnibus
Books,
1993
Peregrine Falcons
oil
on
canvas;
51.5
x 61 cm
(Marion)
Ellis
Rowan
(1848-1922)
in his Pencil Drawings, 1969-78
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Nutmeg Pigeon [1917]
Melbourne: Lansdowne, 1978
watercolour; 76 x 56 cm R2013
Bird Watching 1965
Jimmy Ngalakurn
linocut; 32.4 x 49.4 cm
William
Shaw
printer
[Bird Carving from Maningrida]
National Gallery of Australia
after John Cotton (1801-1849)
painted wood; height 144 cm
Birds Eggs, Parrot with Feather, Duck's Lesbia Thorpe (b.1919)
Head with Feather 1970
Kilmeny Niland
Guinea Fowl 1994
proof sheet for John Cotton's Birds of the Port
A Bellbird in a Flame Tree
coloured woodblock; 62 x 62 cm
North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1989
Phillip District; 24.5 x 48 cm MS2969
Private collection
11
Donald Trounson (b.1905) and Molly Clampett
(b.1928)
Gouldian Finches
photographic print; 27.5 x 19.5 cm
National Photographic Index of Australian
Birds, no. 1173
unknown artist
Animals of Australia c.1880s
chromolithograph; 19 x 23.5 cm
U4080 NK2137
unknown artist
The Emu Hunter c.13 000 BC
reproduced from transparency
height of emu 93 cm
transparency
original is oil on canvas; 124.5 x 99 cm
Woburn Abbey, Woburn, Bedfordshire, UK
Betty Temple Watts (1901-1992)
Diurnal Birds of Prey c.1960
monochrome wash drawing; 37.5 x 27.3 cm
R4825
Swifts, Swallows and Martins 1959
watercolour; 38 x 27.1 cm R4809
56.5 x 42 x 13 cm
Private collection
V. Woodthorpe (fl.1794-c.1802)
Emu
hand-coloured engraving; 20.5 x 12.5 cm
London: M. Jones, 1802 S8929
[Vignette of a Black Swan and Reeds]
hand-coloured engraving; 3.9 x 8.6 cm
on the title page of George Barrington's
History of New South Wales
Brett Whiteley (1939-1992)
London: M. [ones, 1802 U1458 NK894
Bookplate for Barbara Corrigan
Nawurapu Wunungmurra (b.1952)
Homeland: Gurrumuru; Clan: Dhalwangu
Wayin ga Mokuy
14.5 x 11 cm S8994
F. Erasmus Wilson
original photography by George Chaloupka
Courtesy of Museum and Art Gallery of the
Northern Territory
Facts about Egret Plumes
Melbourne: Bird Protection Court, c.1910
painted wooden sculpture; height 71 cm
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
Australia 1952 [Black Swan]
William Wyatt (1838-1872)
unknown artist
'Job on a Dunghill: Vigils of the Dead'
Book of Hours c. 1450 France
manuscript on vellum MS1097/5
Simon Verelst (1644-1710)
Lady Anne Russell c.1690
pencil and french crayon; 50.5 x 39.3 cm
R708
attributed to Eliza Catherine Wintle
(c.1848-1907)
Kookaburra Handscreen c.1892
Lionel Lindsay (1874-1961)
Pelicans 1938
wood engraving; 17.6 x 22.3 cm S6132
12
Private collection
The Duke of Edinburgh's Welcome by
the Natives 1868
lithograph; 23.9 x 32.1 cm S6869 NK7004
Sarah Stone (1761/62-1844)
Tabuan Parrot
c.1790
watercolour; 23 x 17.2 cm
plate 3 in Natural History Specimens of New South Wales 1790
R11198