Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.517
Gallery Label:
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)