Jay, Green Woodpecker, Pigeons, and Redstart
Francis Barlow
ca. 1658
In 1656, the courtier John Evelyn referred to Francis Barlow as “the famous Paynter of fowle Beastes & Birds.” This is one of the artist’s earliest paintings, made at a time when wildlife paintings excluding the human figure were a novel concept. Here, a green woodpecker is viewed in profile, a Eurasian jay is captured in flight, a redstart perches on a branch, and two wood pigeons forage for food on the ground, where closer inspection reveals a lizard and a pair of frogs. This picture is signed playfully, as if the artist’s name and date had been carved into the trunk of the tree.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven · Image: Yale Center for British Art, Public domain · Text: Yale Center for British Art, CC0