Beschreibung:

Mythical bird amongst vegetation, pen, ink, and watercolour, showing a fantastical crested bird with exotic plumage, perched on a branch over a river, surrounded by flowers and foliage, within a decorative border, 35.5 x 26cm (14 x 10.25ins), mounted, framed and glazed, monogrammed in ink on backing paper (chipped with slight loss), with additional note in the artist's hand 'Exhibited at Royal Academy, 1926. (Also at Brighton -By Invitation- Same Year' Provenance: The current owner is the great grandson of the artist. Vincent Cartwright Vickers, author and illustrator of 'The Google Book' first published in 1913, was a member of the well-known family of military armaments manufacturers of the same name, a deputy lieutenant of the City of London and director of the Bank of England between 1910 and 1919. He had a passion for animals and birds, and was a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. He had no formal training in art, but was an accomplished artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Arlington Gallery between 1926 and 1931. He particularly liked to draw birds at every opportunity, even painting an exotic bird onto the back of his Humber Snipe car. Vickers used the word 'Google' - long before it took on other connotations - as the name of the monster living in a garden which sleeps in a pool by day, and preys on the various birds of Google land by night. The paintings offered here are apparently unpublished, but are in a similar vein to those in 'The Google Book'. (1)