ARCHIBALD THORBURN (SCOTTISH 1860 - 1935),
CURLEW SANDPIPER
watercolour and bodycolour on paper, signed
16cm x 20cm
Mounted, framed and under glass.
Label verso: Spink, King Street, St James's, London. No. K3 9714.
Provenance: Property of Lady Goodwin.
Note: Archibald Thorburn was born in 1860, near Edinburgh, the fifth son of the miniaturist Robert Thorburn ARA. He has long been acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of birdlife of all time. It was perhaps from his father that Archibald Thorburn acquired the ability to create his minutely detailed paintings and he sketched from a very early age. He painted birds, animals and flowers and had a tremendous knowledge of ornithology. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of 20, and was a regular figure there throughout the 1880s and 1890s. At the end of the 1890s he became disillusioned with the Academy and exhibited instead at A Baird Carter, in Jermyn Street. Thorburn was also sufficiently highly-regarded by his contemporaries to have been asked to paint Queen Victoria on three separate occasions. Generally preferring to work in watercolour, Thorburn’s skill, artistic talent and scientific observation ensured that he was recognised as one of the leading artists of his time.