20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States
Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more
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Jul 12, 2024
Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996)
Wood Storks, 1938
signed "R.T. Peterson" lower left
oil on canvas, 28 1/4 by 19 1/4 in.
Peterson created this painting while he was staff artist for the National Association of Audubon Societies. It was published in 1938 as part of a conservation pamphlet with the caption: "Seven of the color plates are the work of Roger T. Peterson, whose paintings are so admired and exhibit such beautiful delineation and character."
The pamphlet called for "a system which keeps an eye upon the common species as well as the rare, and which makes the field of its responsibility as broad and as consistent as possible, that we may hope for gains which will ultimately restore some semblance of the richness described in early accounts of the American countryside."
The Wood Stork, Mycteria americana, breeds in Florida, South Carolina, and along the Gulf Coast. It was previously known as the Wood Ibis. "They are partial to dead trees as perching places, and it must be admitted that a bleached cypress, decked with the great white birds, against a background of palmettos, the whole reflected with faithful detail in a still lagoon, is a sight to be remembered," Alexander Sprunt writes. "They roost together, nest together and feed together...The nests are large and bulky, made of sticks...The young present a comical appearance during the down stage, staring at one with owlish solemnity, but executing ludicrous movements, which are as awkward as they are ridiculous. They give the photographer excellent 'sittings' and the poses are attractive pictures."
Provenance: Literature: Alexander Sprunt, "South Carolina Bird Life," 1949, p. 98. Alexander Sprunt, "Beautiful Birds of Southern Audubon Societies," 1938, pp. 8-10, illustrated on p. 9.
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