Aert Schouman, painter of birds

Aert Schouman

(1710-1792)

Dutch painter, art dealer and naturalist,
wallpaper artist.

Finding this reproduction of a watercolor of a barn owl and thistle finch (left) for my brother and trying to figure out who made it I stumbled over some great typical Dutch 18th century landscape water color paintings by this artist that weren't shown together before and learned and enjoyed along the way.

Aert Schouman is and was regarded one of the unrivalled watercolourists and animal and bird painters (exotic as well as indigenous species) of his time. His paintings are collected the Rijks-Museum in Amsterdam and in collections all over the world. 

In most of his animal paintings he included lovely Dutch 18th century unspoiled landscapes, secondary subjects to his naturalist animal observations. You can find many examples searching the internet. The many exotic birds he depicted were part of one of the earliest collections of exotic animals in the Netherlands: the private Zoo of reigning "Stadhouder" William V. Most imported animals  (many were gifts from visiting officials and friendly monarchs) had a short life because of poor knowledge how to feed them properly.

This posting a renewed Blogging effort after switching to a new computer with some "different" and new to me handling after my old and trusted Windows companion suffered and did not recover from a stroke last week. It's also a proof to sceptic friends I'm not too old or stubborn to change and adapt. 

So, after this intermezzo with an 18th century not very broadly known painter we shall continue with some serious printmaking posts soon.

All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly and educatiuonal use only.