Original pencil drawing by listed artist Archibald Thorburn FZS (1860 - 1935), drawn circa 1920.
A study of a cock pheasant.

Pencil on lined wove paper. In a later 'ebonised' effect wood frame with inscribed, wash line mount.

The paper cut from a note book, one of several small sketches on the same sheet, this one inscribed "F)" lower right.

Unsigned, but certainly the hand of Thorburn. Provenance; from the estate of John Leslie Ramsden (1906 - 1967) of Oakdene, Pudsey, Yorkshire. Ramsden was a keen game shooter and son of John Ramsden owner of Brick Mill in Pudsey, a significant cloth manufacturer.

Drawing in excellent original condition, some very light age toning within the mount line (see photos).

Image size; 8.2cm x 8.2cm, frame size 26cm x 26cm

Comes with our Certificate of Authenticity - guaranteed authentic and original.

Delivered ready to hang.

This is one of two pheasant studies by Thorburn, cut from the same sheet, that I have listed. They are framed and mounted the same.

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Archibald Thorburn FZS 1860 – 1935

Scottish wildlife and sporting artist, mainly in watercolours and the best-known ornithological artist of his time.

Archibald Thorburn was born on 31st May 1860 at Viewfield House, Lasswade, Midlothian, the fifth son of Robert Thorburn (1818–1885), portrait miniaturist to Queen Victoria. His early education was at Dalkeith and in Edinburgh, after which he was sent to the newly founded St John's Wood School of Art in London. His stay there was only brief, since on the death of his father he sought the guidance of Joseph Wolf. It was his commission in 1887 to illustrate Lord Lilford's ‘Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Isles’, for which he painted some 268 watercolours, that established his reputation.

He illustrated numerous sporting and natural history books, including his own. His paintings were regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy and he designed the first Christmas card for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1899, a practice that he continued until 1935. He was Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. In the 1890s Thorburn became disheartened by the British Institution and had his work shown at A. Baird Carter of 70 Jermyn Street.

On his marriage to Constance Mudie, Thorburn moved to High Leybourne in Hascombe in 1902, where he was to spend the rest of his life. In the 1930s he refused to make use of electric lighting, preferring natural light for his painting, and making use of lamps and candles. His grave is at St John the Baptist church in Busbridge, Godalming.