Watercolour Chirping Song Thrush Bird By Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe OBE RA

Dare to explore the vibrant beauty of nature with this stunning watercolour painting of a Chirping Song Thrush Bird by Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe OBE RA! Bring your walls alive and take flight with this remarkable work of art today!

Subject Ornithological study of a chirping Song Thrush bird on a flowering branch.

Signed monogrammed CT by the famous listed known artist Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe OBE, RA.

He was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his working life on the Isle of Anglesey. He is one of the greatest wildlife artists of the 20th Century. A Royal Academician, the RA recently had an exhibition of his work.

A friend and neighbour of fellow Royal Academician Kyffin Williams (1918-2006) Tunnicliffe’s influences were particularly broad and far-reaching, and ranged from Oriental art to Henri Matisse, from Joseph Crawhall to Paul Gauguin.

Another great influence on Tunnicliffe was the renowned Franco-American ornithological artist adventurer, John James Audubon (1785-1851), whose striking compositions provide an ancestral echo to the present work. Both artists were keen walkers, and shared an indefatigable fascination with nature, which is communicated in their output. The song thrush (Turdus philomelos) is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies. Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry. There is a strong connection between Kyffin Williams and C.F. Tunnicliffe indeed.

It was Williams that persuaded the highly modest Tunnicliffe to hold an exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy in 1974, which was a great success.

In 1991, Oriel Ynys Môn was built in Angelsey, to house a collection of works by Tunnicliffe, that had been acquired by Anglesey Borough Council from Christie’s, ten years earlier. Williams was a regular visitor to the museum, and donated over 400 works for which a new gallery was constructed within the building. In 2011 (to celebrate it’s 20th birthday) a joint exhibition of works by Tunnicliffe and Williams entitled Island Inspiration was curated, which explored the connection both artists had with Anglesey.

The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East; it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia. Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.

The song thrush builds a neat mud-lined cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blue eggs. It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an "anvil" on which to break open the shells of snails. Like other perching birds (passerines), it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey.

See wikipedia, thecharlestunnicliffesociety,thegreatcat, wikiart & Christies.

Circa mid 20th century 1950's.

Provenance from a private Lancashire art collection.

Ready for immediate home wall display with hanging thread verso.

Condition report.

Offered in fine used condition.

Neatly framed and glazed.

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Size of frame

46cm High
40cm Wide
1.5cm Depth