[NATURAL HISTORY] Josef Wolf, animal painter : autograph letter signed, discussing the overpainting of an ornithological photograph. London, June 1870.

A$600 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

Manuscript in ink, 4 pp., octavo bifolium (175 x 110 mm); headed 59 Berners Street, London, 17 June 1870 , and signed J. Wolf , the letter is addressed to an anonymous recipient ( Dear Sir ), informing him that The Photograph of the Great Bustard is in the hands of Mr. Smit , and promising to let him know when the colouring of the Bustard will be ready , wishing Smit had been able to sight the skin of the bird, discussing the different markings and the difficulty of getting the correct colouring; he adds in his postscript: I had just finished this when Mr Smit called with the photo the coloured Pattern of the bustard, which I think is a great improvement as compared with the one he did first both (the Photo the coloured proof) I send herewith per Book-Post. ; in fine condition. Josef Wolf (1820-1899) was described by Sir Edwin Landseer as without exception, the best all-round animal painter that ever lived. He was born in Mörz, Germany, and trained as a lithographer in Münster. Wolf arrived in London in 1848 where he worked as zoological illustrator in the natural history department at the British Museum. He contributed illustrations to John Gould s Birds of Asia and Birds of Great Britain as well as illustrating important travel books by David Livingstone, Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace. His Zoological sketches , commissioned by the Council of the Zoological Society in 1852 to depict the exotic animals in the Society s Vivarium in Regent s Park, is one of the h

• Binding: Hardcover

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