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We have an abundance of talented bird artists in our collection. They are all mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. I guess it’s true what they say – birds of a feather flock together!
Betty Temple Watts
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View Betty’s original watercolours for the illustrations in Birds in the Australian high country edited by H.J. Frith.
Neville Cayley
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These images are by watercolour artist, ornithologist and writer Neville W. Cayley. He released a number of publications including Australian Birds and Flowers and What bird is that? : a guide to the birds of Australia.
Neville was President of the Royal Australasian Ornithologist Union and a member of the New South Wales Gould League of Bird Lovers. The Yamba-born artist was also a founding member of the Cronulla Lifesaving Club.
His father (also named Neville Cayley) loved painting birds, although the senior Neville Cayley preferred painting dead birds.
Birds of a feather
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John and Elizabeth Gould were married naturalists and artists. John often did the preliminary sketches of birds while Elizabeth and artist Henry Constantine Richter created the vibrant illustrations. The couple’s most famous work is seen in The Birds of Australia which has 681 illustrations, mostly created by Elizabeth. Read about how National Library conservators worked on pattern plates for the supplement to The Birds of Australia.
William T. Cooper
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A favourite amongst bird lovers, William T. Cooper, started out as a landscape and seascape painter. But his sketches and illustrations of birds in nature also earned him a loyal fanbase. His work resonated with the audience because there was so much life in his work. He managed to capture birds in their natural state in his artwork.
His work can be seen in books including A Portfolio of Australian Birds; Parrots of the World; The Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds; Australian Parrots; Kingfishers and Related Birds; Turacos: A Portfolio of All Species; Cockatoos: A Portfolio of All Species and Pigeons and Doves in Australia.
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In 2023, the NLA Publishing team worked with William’s wife and talented botanist Wendy to produce a book called The Bird Art of William T. Cooper. Together they also wrote Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest and Australian Rainforest Fruits: A Field Guide.
Lieutenant George Raper
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George Raper was a midshipman on the flag ship 'Sirius' in the 18th century. He created beautiful watercolour illustrations of the fauna and flora he saw through his travels. We hold 53 illustrations of his trip through the Port Jackson area as well as an additional three from his visits to South Africa.
View the Ducie collection of First Fleet art.
Ellis Rowan
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Ellis Rowan was an artist, naturalist, writer and explorer in the late 19th and early 20th century. She has an important place in our collection and in 2002 we even held an exhibition of her work titled The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan. We hold 919 of her watercolours, her childhood journal and her personal papers in our collection.
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In 2024 NLA Publishing released a book with a selection of Ellis’ life and work. She found inspiration through her travels including during her time in New Guinea. Read more about Ellis’ work as an artist and naturalist.
Lilian Marguerite Medland
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Lilian was a talented bird illustrator in the 19th and 20th century. She married ornithologist Tom Iredale who she did a number of illustrations for over her career. She also did illustrations for other ornithologists including Charles Stonham and Gregory Mathews. You can explore the watercolours for plates she completed for an unpublished book by Gregory Mathews.
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She initially trained as a nurse in England and kept this occupation throughout her life. View Lilian’s collection of sketchbook and photograph albums from 1907-1915.
Roland Green
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Roland Green was the son of taxidermist with his father teaching about the process and the anatomy of birds. With those skills a part of his early life, it’s no wonder he became a sought-after bird illustrator.
Sarah Stone
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Sarah Stone was an English bird artist who was a key illustrator in John White’s Esqre Journal of a voyage to New South Wales. View the album in our collection of Sarah’s watercolours from the book.
Harold John Graham
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Captain John Hunter
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Captain, artist and naturalist John Hunter has many illustrations of nature in our collection. In 1795 he was made the Governor of New South Wales and later in his life he became an admiral.
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He kept many journals during his time as Captain of the Sirius, they contain bird illustrations, cartography and musings about nature. It’s believed he was heavily inspired by George Raper; can you see the similarities?
Edward Lear
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Bird artist, landscape painter and poet Edward Lear was a multitalented individual. He became known for his humorous works including The Jumblies and Nonsense Botany and Nonsense Alphabets. But he was also a talented illustrator who made a living from his art from his late teens. He travelled around the world, producing many books filled with landscape illustrations. Track his travels by exploring his work in our collection.
Flying the coop
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A great way to keep exploring is with Flight of the Budgerigar: An Illustrated History by Penny Olsen and NLA Publishing.
Sir Lionel Lindsay
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Talent seems to be genetic in the Lindsay family. You would have likely heard of author and illustrator Norman Lindsay and his most famous work The Magic Pudding. But his brother Lionel Lindsay is a talented artist in his own right.
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He was etcher, painter, illustrator, wood engraver and photographer.He created wood cuttings of birds, buildings and objects. View his collection of prints and woodcuts.
If you’re sad to see this list come to end the good news is this isn’t a complete list. We have so many bird artists in our collection that we couldn’t fit them all in one list!
Explore the catalogue to see the other artists you can find. If you’re wondering what to search in the catalogue, bird is the word.
