Senegal Courier, Plate 24 from Birds of Western Africa
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Hamill and Barker
Accession Number
1961-105-182
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
William Home Lizars’s “Senegal Courier, Plate 24 from Birds of Western Africa” captures the nineteenth-century fascination with documenting the natural world through finely detailed illustration. Created in 1837 by the Scottish engraver and publisher, the belongs to a larger ornithological volume that introduced European audiences to the birds of West Africa. Lizars, trained in the precise techniques of copperplate engraving, brought scientific observation and artistic skill together, producing images that served both as reference material for naturalists and as objects of aesthetic appreciati...