Numbered
12 upper right
Gouache
with pen and ink border
203
x 163 mm., 8 x 6 ¼ in.
Provenance
Bought
from Christopher Powney, 1968
Private
Collection, UK
Exhibited
London,
Christopher Powney, William Lewin –
Exhibition of British Birds drawn in Gouache, 10th to 20th
December 1968
Private
Collection, UK
Engraved
For
The Birds of Great Britain, with Their Eggs, Accurately Figured, first edition, 1789-1794, pl.12
Lewin
grew up in Stepney, east London, the son of a mariner. In 1773 he was working
as a pattern drawer but by 1783 he is recorded as an artist specialising in
natural history subjects. He is best known for The Birds of Great Britain, with Their Eggs, Accurately Figured, published between 1789 and 1794. It included 323 watercolour
sketches of birds.
His son John William Lewin (1770-1819)
helped his father on The Birds of Great Britain and in 1800 travelled to
Australia and became one of the first professional artists working there, producing
topographical and ornithological watercolours.