{"id":4290,"date":"2026-02-02T07:58:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=4290"},"modified":"2026-02-02T07:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:58:38","slug":"sarah-stones-unseen-world-highlights-avian-paintings-by-an-18th-century-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=4290","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sarah Stone\u2019s Unseen World\u2019 Highlights Avian Paintings by an 18th-Century Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u2018Sarah<\/p>\n

Decades before the advent of photography, when European scientists and explorers were undertaking global expeditions and collecting flora and fauna from around the world, art and science converged in fields of medicine, anthropology, and natural history. During the Enlightenment<\/a>, artists like Elizabeth Blackwell<\/a>, John Gould<\/a>, and Elizabeth Gould<\/a>\u2014among many, many others\u2014documented botanicals, avians, insects, marine species, and more, many of which were published in hefty volumes and archived in museum collections.<\/p>\n

Sarah Stone<\/a> (1759-1844) was a British illustrator and the daughter of a fan painter, whose rich depictions of birds and artifacts highlight a singular talent during an era when women weren\u2019t even permitted to be members of London\u2019s prestigious Royal Academy. Nevertheless, she was invited to exhibit four drawings as an \u201cHonorary Exhibitor<\/a>\u201d when she was 21.<\/p>\n

\"An
Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1770s, British businessman and collector Sir Ashton Lever commissioned Stone to paint items in his museum chock-full of natural and ethnographic objects<\/a> he called the Holophusikon, also known as the Lever Museum. Stone painted objects at Lever\u2019s Holophusikon well into the 1780s, creating a visual chronicle of objects and fauna acquired from all over the world.<\/p>\n

Aristocratic private museums were a phenomenon of the Enlightenment, when Britain enjoyed wealth, prestige, and influence, much of which was derived from other parts of the empire and the transatlantic slave trade. Many of today\u2019s institutions, such as the British Museum<\/a>, began with individuals\u2019 private collections.<\/p>\n

Nearly two dozen of the artist\u2019s paintings are currently on view in Sarah Stone\u2019s Unseen World: A Rare Collection of 18th Century Ornithological Watercolours<\/em> as part of the Master Drawings New York<\/a> art fair. Surveying a wide range of incredible birds, from the Bornean peacock pheasant to the distinctive orange-and-black rufous treepie.<\/p>\n

The exhibition shares its title with a book co-authored by Errol Fuller and art dealer Craig Finch of Finch & Co.<\/a>, which presents the paintings this month. \u201cLike many women painters of her time, Stone produced exquisite watercolour landscapes,\u201d says a statement. \u201cHowever, she was exceptional in her commercial success, with her paintings sought after by connoisseurs and collectors. In an era when women\u2019s contributions were often overlooked, Stone defied the norm and stood out as a prominent figure.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sarah Stone\u2019s Unseen World<\/em> continues at Peter Harrington Rare Books<\/a> in Manhattan through February 7.<\/p>\n

\"An
Barn Owl (Tyto alba)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Unidentified Pheasant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Bornean Peacock Pheasant (Polyplecton schleirmacheri)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Demoiselle Crane (Anthopoides virgo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Unidentified Parakeets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
Guianan Cock of the Rock (Rupicola rupicola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article \u2018Sarah Stone\u2019s Unseen World\u2019 Highlights Avian Paintings by an 18th-Century Talent<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decades before the advent of photography, when European scientists and explorers were undertaking global expeditions and collecting flora and fauna from around the world, art and science converged in fields…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}