Pheasant-Tailed Jacana and Amaranthus tricolor
Draughtsman: Canton workshop
This illustration depicts a pheasant-tailed jacana and Amaranthus tricolour. The most distinctive feature of the bird is its elongated central tail feathers. It has a white head and the back of the crown is black with white stripes running down the sides of the neck, separating the white of the front of neck and the silky golden yellow of the nape. Its body is dark brown and the wings are white. As depicted, the bird prefers to stay at waterside. The elongated toes and nails enable it to walk on floating vegetation in the water. In the image, the bird is standing on a rock with Amaranthus tricolour, which shows vibrant colours of red, yellow and green. The late 18th century saw the rise of natural history painting and patronage in China and the East Indies. When Europeans arrived in Canton and Macao, they were keen to collect exotic specimens and wanted to commission drawings to send back home. This enthusiasm for natural history came from both professional and amateur botanists, many of whom were employees of the East India Company, who proved to be avid collectors. Stock sets of pictures were soon produced for the European market depicting fruit, flowers, birds and insects. Previously described as "study of a waterbird and flowers".
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1973) by Fairhaven, Henry Rogers Broughton
19th Century
Production date:
circa
AD 1805
Support
composed of
paper
Paper
Height 289 mm
Width 420 mm
Watercolour : Watercolour and bodycolour on paper
Accession number: PD.258-1973
Primary reference Number: 23100
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Pheasant-Tailed Jacana and Amaranthus tricolor" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23100 Accessed: 2025-04-11 07:15:00
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23100
|title=Pheasant-Tailed Jacana and Amaranthus tricolor
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-04-11 07:15:00|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-23100
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