Hyacinthine Macaw

This scarce and splendid gouache watercolor illustration is from Theophilus Johnson’s Illustrations of Typical Birds. Each gouache watercolor illustration is heightened with gum arabic and mounted to a larger board. The work was published by Dartford Heath in 1900. This is a first series and one of the few works Johnson printed in folio. There appears to be very few of this work that has ever come to market.

“Theophilus Johnson (1836-1919) was an amateur naturalist and artist, who produced a considerable number of natural history books during the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These are remarkable in being entirely illustrated with original watercolours and drawings by Johnson himself, as well as having text either printed or written in excellent longhand by him. I t is not known how many such books he completed. The Natural History Museum, London, holds 29 (all but five relating to entomology) and the Zoological Society holds four more.” (Howard Radclyffe)

Provenance: Sotheby’s 1993; Bradley Martin Sotheby’s New York sale, 1989