Philip Kennedy’s The Bird explores the fascinating world of eighteenth and nineteenth-century ornithological illustration. This was a period of scientific, artistic and geographic discovery, when people began to fully appreciate the immense variety of form and colour within the natural world. The Dublin-based illustrators’ work celebrates this beauty through the lavish illustrations produced at that time.
Each chapter focuses on a category of birds, from shorebirds to birds of prey. Feature sections on key ornithological artists such as John James Audubon, Elizabeth Gould and Edward Lear demonstrate how technology, travel and ambition shaped these amazing images, and how their work transformed our understanding of the wonderful world of birds.
Kennedy is also behind the fantastic Illustration Chronicles which has started documenting 175 stories about illustration from 1841 to 2015.
You can discover the impact of Punch Magazine (1841), the world’s first record cover (1939), Quentin Blake’s work with Roald Dahl (1978) and many other insightful takes on its evolution.
£40, Laurence King Publishing.
Read our interview with Philip Kennedy on Illustration Chronicles: 175 Years, 175 Stories here.
