A Guinea Fowl and Cuban Red Macaw

ART > Paintings Dealer: Artware Fineart Contact: Greg Page-Turner - Email Dealer
Price: $6,000.00 USD  - Currency Converter Shipping inside United Kingdom: Quoted at time of purchase Shipping outside United Kingdom: Quoted at time of purchase

Description: Marmaduke Craddock was born at Somerton, near Ilchester, and until fairly recently had wrongly been called Luke Craddock. He started his career as an apprentice at the home of an artisan painter in London, but due to his great energy and driving ambition, soon became an individual artist working in his own style. He was a close follower of the important English bird and animal painter, Francis Barlow, but mainly in subject matter rather than style. The English school of animal painting really started with these two artists in the closing stages of the Seventeenth century. Craddock may be distinguished from Barlow by a bolder and more strongly coloured technique. The landscapes, in which he sets his lively fowl- often pursued by a hawk, are delicately painted and accurately depict the aspect of the fens and farmland of Carolean England. He died in London in 1717. Examples of the artist's work can be found in the Painter's Hall, London and the British Museum. The Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) is the best known of the guineafowl bird family, Numididae, and the only member of the genus Numida. It breeds in Africa, mainly south of the Sahara, and has been widely introduced into the West Indies and southern France. It breeds in warm, fairly dry and open habitats with scattered shrubs and trees such as savanna or farmland. It lays its large clutch of 20-30 eggs in a well-hidden lined scrape, and the females incubate the eggs for 26-28 days. These guineafowl live as long as 12 years in the wild. The Helmeted Guineafowl is a large (53-58 cm) bird with a round body and small head. They weigh about 1.3 kg. The body plumage is gray-black spangled with white. Like other guineafowl, this species has an unfeat d head, in this case decorated with a dull yellow or reddish bony knob, and red and blue patches of skin. The wings are short and rounded, and the tail is also short. This is a gregarious species, forming flocks outside the breeding season typically of about 25 birds. Its diet consists of seeds and small invertebrates. GuineaFowl are particularly well suited to consuming massive quantities of lyme disease carrying ticks. This guineafowl is terrestrial, and are more prone to run rather than fly when alarmed. They are, however, very agile and powerful flyers. Helmeted Guineafowl are great runners, and can run 5 km in a day. It makes loud harsh calls when disturbed. Their diet consists of a variety of animal and plant food; seeds, berries, greens, small snails, spiders, and insects. In the early days of the European colonisation of North America, the native Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was confused with this species. This led to the English name of the American bird, since Turkey and Guinea were equally far-off and exotic places. The word meleagris, Greek for guineafowl, is also shared in the scientific names of the two species, although for the guineafowl it is the species name, w as for the turkey, it is the name of the genus and (in an altered state) the family. The Cuban Red Macaw, Ara tricolor, is an extinct parrot that formerly occurred on Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud. It was a rather small species of Ara macaw, measuring 45 - 50 cm. A pair was kept in the royal menagerie of Schönbrunn Castle, Vienna, from 1760.The Cuban Red Macaw was reasonably common around 1800. During the early 19th century, the human population in its home range increased dramatically, leading to widespread deforestation. The bird was also hunted for food, and nests were plundered or disturbed to acquire young birds to keep as pets. Until 1849, the species seems to have been able to hold its own at least in remote areas, but subsequently, the population crashed never to recover. At least 19 specimens are known to exist, the last one being shot in 1864 at La Vega in the vicinity of the Ciénaga de Zapata swamp, which seems to have been the last stronghold of the species. Unconfirmed records suggest that birds persisted t until 1885.

Status: For Sale	Reference#: 2956
Condition: Good	Year: 17th Century
Country: UK	Maker: Attributed to Marmaduke Craddock 1660-1717
Height: 24.80 in. (62.99 cm)
Width: 24.02 in. (61.01 cm)
Title: A Guinea Fowl and Cuban Red Macaw in a Landscape	Style: Traditional
Materials: oil on canvas	Type: oil on canvas

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