Hello, listed here is Basil Ede "White Breasted Nuthatches" Print

Condition is Used, the print does show signs of wear, please see all pictures.

Please note there is a small signs of markings it is hardly noticeable. We will highlight it in red. Once framed no one will even know it is there, it will be lovely. The poster measures approximately 18x23.

This piece of artwork is unframed. 

We offer free shipping using USPS Priority Service within the continental USA, expedited and international shipping using Ebay´s Global Shipping Program is extra$$$$.

We offer a 30 day return policy. If this great piece of art must be returned, it must be returned in the same condition as shipped. 20% restocking fee applies.

Thanks for taking a look at our listing.

Artist Bio

Early life

Basil Ede was born 12 February 1931 in Surrey. Ede's interest in drawing began early in life.As a schoolboy growing up during the Second World War, he filled his exercise books with sketches of military aircraft and caricatures of his school teachers. He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead. He later attended Kingston School of Art.However, in 1949, he was called up for military service in the British Army.

Initially he trained as a Gunner with The Royal Artillery but after being selected to attend Mons Officer Cadet School, he was awarded a commission in the RASC, serving as Second Lieutenant and then Lieutenant .On leaving the army at the end of 1951, Ede joined the Merchant Navy, and he set sail on his maiden voyage as a purser on board Orient Line's Empire Orwell in early 1952.The ship's established route was between Southampton and Japan, via Suez, Aden, Columbo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Pusan.In addition to these duties, the ship was at this time deployed to help transport British troops and equipment to and from the Korean War. Ede was to become fascinated by the Far East and in particular by its art. This was undoubtedly to have an influence on his later work.Coming ashore for good, Ede joined Cunard Line as a young executive in 1956. By now he spent most of his spare time painting and negotiating with galleries and publishers. His employers, far from being annoyed, actually commissioned him to design a series of covers for their first class menu cards on the RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Mary. In 1964 Ede left Cunard and became a full time artist.

Career[edit]

The first one-man exhibition of Basil Ede's work was held at the Rowland Ward Gallery in London in 1958.Further one man exhibitions followed at London's Tryon Gallery in 1960 and 1962

In 1964, Ede became the first living artist to be honoured with a one-man show at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington D.C. The event was sponsored by the British Embassy, the English Speaking Union and the National Audubon Society.

In 1965, Ede's first book, "Birds of Town and Village" was published by Country Life Books, featuring thirty six plates of his work in full colour.The publication features a foreword written by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and text by ornithologist W. D. Campbell, republished by Chartwell Books in 2004.

In 1966, 1971 and 1979 one man exhibitions of Ede's work were held at the Kennedy Galleries in New York.In 1971 Ede was commissioned by Walter Annenberg, then serving as United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James, to paint a series of eastern Pennsylvanian birds for his private collection.Also in 1971, a chance encounter with another American collector, Jack Warner, led to the commissioning of "The Wild Birds of America" series. Described as a "very ambitious project",the commission was to paint every species of wild bird in North America, 650 in all, in life size.Robert McCracken Peck, in his essay "Four Centuries of Avian Portraiture", says that the project "...has been compared in scope to John James Audubon's twenty eight year effort to document and celebrate the birds of North America", but adds, "so limited a comparison fails to put into proper perspective the much larger tradition of bird painting in America with which both Audubon and Ede are intimately interlinked."The project was cut short in 1989, after Ede suffered a serious illness.However, a total of ninety five life sized portraits of North American birds, in watercolour, were completed for the collection by Ede, between 1975 and 1989.Today they form part of the Warner Art Collection in the United States. In 1991, the book "Wild birds of America - the Art of Basil Ede" was published by Harry N. Abrams, featuring 103 colour reproductions from the Wild Birds of America series, as well as reproductions from Ede's field notes and sketches. In his foreword, Prince Philip, himself a collector of Ede's work, ranked the English painter among the world's great wildlife artists.