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A monumental, watercolour with gouache, of Spectacled Eider alongside a single male drake Common Eider, swimming in the ice floes of the Northern Bering Sea. A brilliant, atmospheric work: Rickman at his best. Image 560 x 800 mm, signed & dated 1965 lower right, framed & glazed (1080 x 880mm), acid-free double mount with hand-drawn wash lines. Excellent condition, no signs of fading. [Biography. Philip Rickman (1891 - 1982) was known affectionately as The Grand Old Man of British Bird Painting, and make no mistake, he was one of the greatest ornithological artists of the twentieth century. However Rickman is somewhat out of fashion today and his work does not always garner the attention it should. Christine Jackson writes "At his best he could match Thorburn...but he was inconsistent."* and herein lies the problem: when at his best he was outstanding, the best of the best, but he was prolific and not infrequently produced indifferent work. It is this that has sullied his reputation, but at Loe Art we strive to stock only the best examples of an artist's work and we carry a very large stock of Rickman paintings, from large monumental watercolours to small pencil sketches full of life and vitality. To quote Christine Jackson again "[he] learnt to sketch in the field and base his work on accurate observation noting the landscape in which birds lived and how the changing weather affected the landscape. Rickman became a very skilful watercolour artist able to recreate atmosphere." This is perhaps no better displayed than when he painted birds around water, especially when raining or at the dawn, where he was able to capture evocative and ethereal scenes, utterly convincing to those observers of nature familiar with such landscapes at such times. "He was precisely accurate to a minute degree but his birds looked natural.That Rickman was a naturalist who had a deep respect for his subjects shows in the manner in which he paints them in the middle of characteristic movements and traits that make them look true to life." He was friends with both George Edward Lodge and Archibald Thorburn, where he spent time with the former at his studio and "learnt from Thorburn how to use colour to place birds in the fore-, middle and backgrounds", of whom he was a great admirer. On one occasion he commissioned Thorburn to paint a watercolour of grouse, but when it was completed, despite being delighted with it, requested Thorburn to undertake a few revisions as he felt the anatomy of the birds portrayed was incorrect. This perhaps sums up Rickman: a lover of art, but above all a man with a deep-seated respect for the birds he portrayed. He should be represented in every collection of ornithological art. Rickman illustrated numerous books, which are listed in the publication highlighted below.] * Jackson, Christine. Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World. Antique Collectors' Club. Woodbridge, Suffolk. 1999. [All quotes from this work.]

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