Moluccan Cockatoo
Elizabeth Butterworth British
Printer The Print Centre, Ltd. British
Publisher Mezzanine Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Not on view
Butterworth is a contemporary British artist who works in the ornithological tradition of John Gould (1804-1881) and Edward Lear (1812-1888). She has focused on parrots and cockatoos-studying them in captivity and in the wild, examining their skins in museums, and keeping them as pets. This print depicts a salmon-crested cockatoo, a bird with pink-tinged feathers native to the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, of Indonesia. Here, it raises its dark pink crest, either for display or as a warning. Etching and aquatint were used to achieve the delicate tonal gradations, and the color was added by hand. An emphasis on flat pattern gives the image a slightly surreal quality.