This study features three flycatchers (Muscicapidae) and two wagtails (Motacillidae). Since only a few of the wagtails depicted here appear in western Alaska and there are no flycatchers at all in America, these studies, like that of the barn owl (inv. no. 38521, cat. no. 36), must not have been made on any of José Atanasio Echeverría's botany expeditions. Instead, they must be from one of his sojourns in Spain. Since the illustrations are sequentially numbered (228–32), and moreover alphabetically arranged, one assumes that this sheet was, or was intended to be, part of an encyclopedic work. In Echeverría's inventory it appears, possibly together with the owl, under no. 26: "Idem. [i.e., Echeverría] Sketches from life.”

Jens Hoffmann-Samland

Details about this work

• Label

  In Bleistift nummeriert von 228 bis 232; unter den Vögeln bezeichnet: "Muscicapa / olivacea.", "Motacilla variegata.", "Muscicapa tuxtlensis.", "Muscicapa acayucensis.", "Motacilla rufiventris." (Feder in Braun)

• Provenance

  [José Atanasio Echeverría]; Julian Benjamin Williams, Seville (d. 1866); John Wetherell (?) (d. 1865); Horatio/Nathan Wetherell (?) (until 1874); Frederick William Cosens, London (from 1874 to 1890); Sotheby's, London, auction of the property of Frederick William Cosens (from November 11 to 21, 1890); Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London (from November 1890 to July 1891); acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (July 14, 1891).

• Bibliography

  The Spanish Gesture. Drawings from Murillo to Goya in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Jens Hoffmann-Samland, with contributions by María Cruz de Carlos Varona, Gabriele Finaldi, José Manuel Matilla u. a., 2014, P. 178-179, Abb., 197, Cat. No. 35