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.