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Creator:
Ramsay Richard Reinagle, 1775–1862
Title:
An Ornithologist, Possibly John Latham [2020, YCBA]
Former Title(s):

An Ornithologist, Probably Mr. Thomson, Animal and Bird Preserver to the Leverian and British Museums (Previously Identified as Dr. John Latham), 1802

? Dr. John Latham [1978, Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings, catalogue]

Portrait of Mr. Thomson, animal and bird preserver to the Leverian and British Museums [1802, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]
Date:
1802
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
58 x 58 inches (147.3 x 147.3 cm), Frame: 67 × 66 inches (170.2 × 167.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.517
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1981.25.517FR
Subject Terms:
Andean Cock-of-the-rock | birds | Black-necked Red Cotinga | books | brown | coat | drawer (furniture component) | feathers | Great Argus | Greater Bird-of-paradise | Highland Motmot | man | ornithologist | painting (visual work) | pheasant | portrait | Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise | Red-legged Honeycreeper | Superb Lyrebird | table (support furniture) | waistcoat | work
Associated People:
Latham, John (1740–1837), naturalist
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1001
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
JSON

The sitter in this unusual portrait has not been identified with any certainty. He might be the ornithologist John Latham (1740–1837), a leading figure in the formation of the Linnean Society in 1788. His two-volume Index Ornithologicus (1790), which contained descriptions of all known birds and their habitats, made him famous in scientific circles. Whoever this sitter is, he evidently studies bird specimens, here holding a rare bird of paradise (Apoda species) from Papua New Guinea, while an Argus pheasant lies on the table. This ornithologist scrutinizes the wings of the bird of paradise—a bird that uses its plumage in elaborate mating dances, and whose feathers were sought after by fashionable Europeans to beautify their own hats and costumes.

Gallery label for Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-11-01 – 2021-02-28)

Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-10-01 - 2021-02-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

David Attenborough, Drawn from paradise, the discovery, art and natural history of the birds of paradise , Collins, London, 2012, frontpiece, pp. 54-55, QL696.P26 A77 2012 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 182-183, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, p. 229, no. 249, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Exhibition Catalogue. 1802. 34th., Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 34, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1802, p. 19, no. 394, N5054 A53 no. 34 [ORBIS]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 149 (v.1), no. 284, pl. 155, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 50, 107, no. 92, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The First hundred years of the Royal Academy, 1769-1868 : Winter exhibition, 1951-52, , Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1951, p. 109, no. 254, N5054 .A545 1951/52 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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