Black Stork in a Landscape
The distinctive white neck feathers, purple-streaked wings, and red-tinged beak of this bird identify it as a Woolly-Necked Stork (Ciconia episcopus). The meandering watercourse on the right could be a reference to the riverine areas where such birds are typically found, but the particular fashion in which the landscape is depicted seems to be a distinguishing characteristic of the larger set of bird paintings to which this work belonged. This set may have once comprised over 600 paintings, the patronage of which has been attributed to Claude Martin, who served as superintendent of the arsenal for Nawab Asaf ud-Daula of Lucknow between 1775 and 1800.
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