Friday 5 November 2010

Dorothy Burroughes at the zoo

I am grateful to Mike and Alison for exposing both my ignorance and poor memory (see the October post on Burroughes). As a result of a hint from them via Robin Garton, I can now offer all these delightful images by Dorothy Burroughes (c 1895 - 1963) - not to mention the scandalous titles. 'Queer birds at the zoo' dates from the early twenties. The lemur poster for Regent's Park is 1922.
No doubt the books were a success as I see Gladys Davidson wrote two. Here we have an ant-eater in profile. And below him or her, a splendid portrait of the artist herself in 1923.
She trained at the Slade and Heatherley's in London and also in Germany, not only doing fab linocuts but also making illustrations for The Bystander and the Illustrated London News. There are plenty of books illustrated by her out there as well.
Last but least this coolly fashionable creature, staring right back at us, poised, pristine, chic, perceptive. I am merely shameless.

1 comment:

  1. I've just bought a copy of "Queer Birds at the Zoo" and googled to find out more about Dorothy Burroughes (and Gladys Davidson). Apart from the front cover, the book has colour pictures of king penguins, pelicans, and flamingoes - as well as full-page black-and-white pictures of an ostrich, a secretary-bird and an owl,(all bearing her signature) and about a dozen smaller illustrations. It was published in 1927 by Allen and Unwin, and is No. 2 in "The Queer Series of Little Zoo Books".

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