Blue and yellow macaws, southern hawker, wasp, unidentified bird, caterpillar and chrysalis of swallowtail butterfly, crayfish, greyhounds, cyclamen leaf, and oak eggar caterpillar, Alexander Marshal, c. 1650-82

A page of watercolours of a piece of fennel with a caterpillar and its chrysalis, a sow-bread leaf with a caterpillar beside it, a cray-fish, a dragon-fly, a wasp, two parrots, two dogs and a hawk in miniature. Parrots had been brought to europe from the new world, and here marshal twice depicts a blue and yellow macaw. The southern hawker dragonfly, still common in southern england, was probably studied from a live insect, as the vivid eye colour quickly fades when the insect dies. The red colouring of the crayfish, however, points to marshal’s use of a cooked specimen. Provenance: presented to george iv. Date: c. 1650-82. Dimensions: 45.6 x 33.3 cm (sheet of paper). Medium: watercolour. Blue and yellow macaws, southern hawker, wasp, unidentified bird, caterpillar and chrysalis of swallowtail butterfly, crayfish, greyhounds, cyclamen leaf, and oak eggar caterpillar (RCIN 924408-2)