arthistoryanimalia

[arthistoryanimalia]

#SquirrelAppreciationDay 🐿️ + #TwoForTuesday :

E. Mervyn Taylor (New Zealand, 1906 - 1964)

Squirrels, n.d. (probably 1950s)

colour woodcut, signed ed. of 100

21 x 21 cm

[arthistoryanimalia]

#SquirrelAppreciationDay 🐿️:

Susan Catherine Moore Waters (USA, 1823–1900) Untitled (Squirrels in a Chestnut Tree), c.1875–80 Oil on canvas, 16 × 20 in (40.6 × 50.8 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2023.629

“Waters began her career in 1843 as an itinerant portrait painter, but abandoned the medium in the 1850s, turning instead to photography, including ambrotypes and daguerreotypes. She returned to painting in the late 1860s, focusing on still lifes, landscapes, and animal pictures. Waters’ career was revitalized in 1876, when she exhibited Still Life—Mallard Ducks (location unknown) in the Centennial International Exhibition, America’s first major world’s fair, held in Philadelphia. The fair was said to bring "her fame. . .far beyond expectation, causing a continuous receipt of orders impossible to fill." This dynamic animal painting, which features three American red squirrels set against the foliage of an American chestnut tree, was likely painted in the aftermath of the Centennial. The work reveals Waters’ mature, naturalistic style in its careful delineation of a variety of textures—from the spiky husks of the chestnut pods to the thick, multi-colored fur of the squirrels’ tails.”

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #SquirrelAppreciationDay 🐿️

For #WatercolorWednesday, here is a 1727 illustration of a Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans):

"This hand-colored drawing of 1727 depicts what is said to be a flying squirrel, which is perched on a branch eating a nut. The squirrel was brought to Paris from New Orleans by a Capuchin priest who, after three days, gave it to the queen. According to the note written in pencil at the top of the illustration, the small animal aroused much curiosity and amusement at the French court, where 'its favorite thing was to jump onto the ladies' necks and hide.' The note explains: 'He would fly from one end of the room to the other, and could not fly further than that. His tail was the most peculiar. I drew this picture of him in 1727.'"

[Library of Congress/World Digital Library]

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #SquirrelAppreciationDay 🐿️

For #SquirrelAppreciationDay:

12, 28, 35, 140 “Grey Squirrel”

From the ongoing search for all the animals from the 420 original 1906 Moravian tile mosaics by Henry Chapman Mercer on the Pennsylvania Capitol floor.

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #SquirrelAppreciationDay 🐿️

For #SquirrelAppreciationDay:

ArtNouveau squirrel designs by Maurice Pillard Verneuil (1869-1942) in L'Animal dans la décoration (Paris, 1897). Plates 19, 22, 52.

@nypl collection: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/lanimal-dans-la-dcoration

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #BlueMonday 💙

For #InternationalTigerDay 🐅 on #Caturday:

Charger with Tiger Japan. Edo period, 19th c. Arita ware, porcelain painted in underglaze blue Seen at The Life of Animals in Japanese Art exhibition at the National Gallery of Art DC in 2019.

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art exhibition catalog

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #BlueMonday 💙:

Covered Owl Jar Atterbury and Company (Pittsburgh, PA, USA), 1880–90 Pressed blue glass, H 6 3/4 in (17.1 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 46.140.298a,b

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧

Belated #BookRecommendation for #WorldPenguinDay 🐧:

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧

#WorldPenguinDay formal attire:

Sergey Sudeikin (Russian, 1882-1946)

Penguin chorus costume designs for the Broadway production of “New Faces" c. 1934

gouache, watercolor, ink, graphite on paper

1-3 Met collection

4 Private collection

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧

For #WorldPenguinDay 🐧:

Norbertine von Bresslern-Roth (Austrian, 1891-1978) Penguins, n.d. colored linocut, 23.4 x 17.5 cm

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧

For #WorldPenguinDay:

Eileen Mayo (1906-1994) Yellow-eyed Penguin, 1976 gouache on paper Museum of New Zealand / Te Papa Tongarewa

The Yellow-eyed Penguin (Megadyptes antipodes), known also as hoiho or tarakaka, is a species of penguin endemic to New Zealand.

[arthistoryanimalia]

#PenguinAwarenessDay 🐧:

Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) on 17th c. Dutch maps of Strait of Magellan:

1602 Olivier Van Noort (I think this is the earliest depiction of one on a map?)

1635 Jodocus Hondius

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #BlueMonday 💙

#MetalMonday:

Check out this BIG blue gorilla sculpture by Don Kennell at Philadelphia Zoo made out of car hoods! Photographed this past weekend during a zoo visit.

“Our big blue gorilla sits 13-feet tall and 12-feet deep! It's constructed from around 55 salvaged car hoods. These car parts retain their original factory paint - only a UV resistant clear coat was added.

This commanding sculpture is part of a process of artistic transformation where something discarded is given new life. Artist Don Kennell from Santa Fe, New Mexico, uses junkyard cars to remind us about habitat loss to animals often impacted by the construction of highways, parking lots, and facilities for cars and other modern demands.”

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #BlueMonday 💙

More art for #LunarNewYear #YearOfTheRabbit: love the facial expression on this blue bunny, it just keeps getting funnier the longer you stare back at it 😂

China, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1654-1722), porcelain w/ blue glaze, Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields collection.

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧!

For your #WorldPenguinDay festivities:

A Pair of Italian Silver #Penguin-Form Magnum Wine Coolers

Mark of Mario Buccellati Sr., Milan, 1934-44

H 17 in. (42.5 cm); 290 oz. (9,023 g)

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧!

For #WorldPenguinDay check out this delightful Art Deco penguin cocktail shaker/jug!

Emile Arthur Schuelke (1901–86) for the Napier Company Cocktail shaker or jug special edition for the 1939 New York World's Fair (originally designed 1936) silver plate, 31.6 x 13.2 x 11.5cm Royal Collection Trust

"A silver plated cocktail shaker or jug in the shape of a penguin, with hinged beak as pourer, wings to side, S-shape handle and claw base. The base is stamped with the Napier patent mark D-101559.

Designed by Emile Arthur Schuelke (1901–86), an art deco penguin cocktail shaker was first produced for the Napier Company in September 1936. This special edition for the New York World’s Fair, complete with octagonal blue emblem on the penguin’s head, may have been produced to complement an exhibit called Admiral Byrd’s Penguin Island. Taking its name from the American explorer Rear Admiral Richard Byrd Jr (1888–1957), who had made several expeditions to Antarctica, Penguin Island featured fifty live penguins, the largest number ever shown. Alongside them was Admiral Byrd’s personal team of five Huskies, born and reared at Little America, Antarctica; and Advance Base, the hut in which Byrd had stayed during his most recent expedition to Antarctica in 1934–5.

Provenance: From the New York World's Fair, 1939. Probably acquired by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their visit to the Fair on 10 June 1939, as part of their tour of US and Canada. Later recorded in the collection of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at Clarence House."

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #PenguinAwarenessDay 2025 🐧!

PenguinAwarenessDay tea party, anyone? 🐧☕️

ArtDeco 3-piece tea service (teapot, creamer, sugar bowl), penguin-form Indian, c.1920–1930 silver w/ Bakelite handle Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2013.628.1,2,3

“This tea service, delightfully comprised of emperor penguins (endemic to Antarctica), bears the arms of Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner from 1888–1943, on the left wing of each piece. The royal arms includes the motto (in Hindi): ‘Victory to the King of the Desert.’ Ganga Singh was one of many Indian maharajas who developed a taste for Art Deco in the early 20th century. The modern lines of this tea service would not have been out of place in his palace, which also featured an Art Deco swimming pool.”