• Title
  Collection 29: King Parrot, attributed to the Sydney Bird Painter
• Creator
  Sydney Bird Painter
• Call number
  SAFE/P2/594
  
• Level of description
  sub-fonds
• Date
  
  1790s
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Drawings
• Reference code
  9675533
• Physical Description
  1 watercolour - mount, 38.7 x 28.4 cm - on paper, mount
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Attributed to the Sydney Bird Painter, an unidentified artist thought to be working either in India as an India Office Company artist, or at Sydney Cove in the colony of NSW in the 1790s.
  
  The majority of known works attributed to the Sydney Bird Painter are represented in a bound volume of 100 unsigned watercolours held by the State Library of NSW and catalogued as ‘Drawings of birds, chiefly from Australia 1791-1792’ (SAFE/PXD 226)
  
  Another 10 loose watercolour works by the Sydney Bird Painter are held in various public and private collections including three at SLNSW (SLNSW SAFE/PXD 680).
  
  The watercolour by the Sydney Bird Painter appears to be the original depiction of the King Parrot, which may have then been copied by the artist in the Ducie Collection of First Fleet Art, National Library of Australia, King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis), PIC/9838/16; by John Hunter in the Hunter sketchbook, National Library of Australia, (Bib Id 2619811); and by the artist in Robert Seton Anderson' sketchbook, State Library of NSW (PXA 914 f6)
  
  References:
  Anemaat, Louise. Natural Curiosity : Unseen Art of the First Fleet. Sydney, N.S.W.: NewSouth Publishing, 2014.
  Neville, Richard Anthony John. A rage for curiosity : visualising Australia 1788-1830. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales Press, 1997.
• Collection history
  Albany Gallery, London. Trevanion Gallery, Shropshire, Lot 481, 21 May 2021
• Scope and Content
  Watercolour depiction of a male Australian King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis) attributed to the Sydney Bird Painter
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright:
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Unsigned and undated
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Inscribed 'Natural Size', lower centre
  Numbered 'No. 5', in pencil upper right
  Inscribed in ink over pencil in another hand 'Go,mar Murray / or large’, upper right; further inscribed in modern hand 'English School late 18th century. A parrot ...'
  Dealer’s stock numbers (?) pencilled on the reverse and the mount
• Subject
  Australian king parrot.
  Birds in art.
  Birds--Australia--Pictorial works.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE20830725

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