British Birds. Plate #55: Red Grouse (male & female), Black Grouse (male & female).

London:: Longmans, Green and Co.,, 1918.. Third edition. Fine. A Fine Original Chromolithograph from Thorburn's British Birds, one of 500 sets produced. Quarto (10 x 12.25 inches, 254 x 311 mm.) Elegantly French-matted in custom made Ecru archival rag board with gold line decoration, sized to 16 x 19 inches, 406 x 482 mm, suitable for framing. Sizable in format, a finely detailed and richly colored chromolithograph, printed on a heavy coated stock, from one of Britain's finest and most influential ornithological painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Archibald Thorburn, (1860-1935). His unique style of portraying related species, actively engaged in their native habitat, became the desired format for generations of ornithological field guide artists to follow. Scottish-born, Thorburn was an astute naturalist with a keen sense of observation and a refined watercolor technique which he learned from his father, Robert Thorburn, ARA, miniaturist to Queen Victoria. As a young naturalist painter, Thorburn produced illustrations for several 19th century British ornithological writers such as Walter Swaysland and Thomas L. Lilford. However, the paintings for his own British Birds, (London c. 1913-1918), ultimately became his hallmark work. Here he displays his mature artistic and technical prowess of high realism and elegance to portray a multitude of birds in their natural settings, albeit the seashore, marsh, woodland or field. Thorburn used chromolithography, (the color-printed lithograph), exclusively, as a means of presenting his natural compositions, and the plates from his British Birds are the finest examples of chromolithography to be found in the early 20th century. The richness of the chromolithographic medium perfectly captures both the subtleties of light and tonality, and Thorburn's splendidly detailed plumage of a wide array of birds. The compositions from the British Birds have been highly reproduced over the years. Consequently, the fine original chromolithographs, of which this is one, are exceedingly rare, and an important addition to any natural history collection. The original text accompanies the plate. (Wood, 597, Fine Bird Books, 146, Dance, 135-146.)