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Neville CAYLEY

Dover, England 1853 – Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 1903

  • Movements: Australia from c.1882


not titled
[Australian gamebirds] 1888
Australia
Drawing, Watercolour, Technique: watercolour
Primary Insc: Signed and dated lower right in watercolour 'Neville Cayley/1888'. Not titled.
sight 73.8 h x 128.2 w cm
Purchased 1973
Accession No: NGA 73.37

MORE DETAIL

Neville Cayley arrived in Australia from England in 1885 with a well-established reputation as a bird painter and is not to be confused with his son of the same name who wrote and illustrated What bird is that? Painted six years after his arrival in Australia Cayley’s large and beautifully rendered watercolour Australian gamebirds  was intended to demonstrate to an Australian audience his appreciation of native bird life, as well as his competence as a watercolourist. The exquisite detail of the rendering belies the fact that this carefully arranged pile of birds was slaughtered for the sake of art. Exotic specimens they are resplendent against an empty backdrop.


Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010