Now all but forgotten, yet Lincolnshire artist born 400 years ago was pioneer of detailed bird depiction

                                  

Barlow's best known bird painting - An Owl Being Mobbed by Other Birds. (Spot the Redstart!)

IT would be a shame for this year's 400th anniversary of the birth of bird artist Francis Barlow to go unnoticed.

Very little is known about Barlow except that he was born somewhere in Lincolnshire before spending most of his working life in London. 

He is best known for designing 110 woodcuts for John Ogilby's 1665 edition of Aesop's Fables.

However, influenced by Dutch artists such as Breughel and Snyders, Barlow also painted landscapes populated by birds of diverse species.

It is possible that some of  his works housed in his studio-shop (called The Golden Eagle)  may have been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

In his book, Birds - Ornithology and the Great Bird Artists, art historian Dr Roger Lederer is less than generous in his assessment.

"Barlow was highly regarded for his technical skill, but it would be a stretch to consider many of his works a close representation of reality,"he writes.

"Some of his birds are misshapen or posed awkwardly, and detail is often lacking.

"Some of of his paintings lack the depth and vivid colours of Dutch works.

"Even composition was not a strong point. Creatures in his works tend to be cluttered together."

This assessment seems unduly harsh. Some of Barlow's depictions are remarkably precise - and, to his credit,  he did not exclude birds  often overlooked by other landscapes - for instance, little known summer migrants such as Redstart and Wheatear. 

It is thought that Barlow died in 1704.

This dramatic painting demonstrates that Barlow was familiar with Wheatears (upper right)

                                                                           

Barlow's The Decoy - said by art historian's to be an allegory on the alleged threat posed to England by Roman Catholicism. Note the Red Kite and Bittern.