Natural History Museum

Edward BawdenWW-1925-118760

1925·Color lithograph on cream wove paper·76.1 × 50.7 cm (30 × 20 in.)

<p>Although he was a recent art school graduate, Edward Bawden had already developed a mature calligraphic style by the time he created this Underground poster. He wittily re-creates the excitement of the many monumental display cases in the ornithological (bird) galleries of the Natural History Museum. Specimens include a tall ostrich with its gigantic egg, a king penguin grasping a fish in its beak, and, at top, an extinct dodo bird. The diverse feathered creatures fascinate the small figures of an adult and child at the right of the image.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1925
Medium: Color lithograph on cream wove paper
Dimensions: 76.1 × 50.7 cm (30 × 20 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Edward Bawden

Artist

Edward Bawden

Printmaking

Edward Bawden was a British printmaker, illustrator, and painter whose work spanned graphic design, watercolor, and wood engraving across the twentieth century. His decorative approach combined precise line work with flattened color fields, drawing on both folk traditions and modernist reduction. Active from the 1920s onward, Bawden produced book illustrations, wallpaper designs, and architectural murals that established him as a central figure in British graphic culture. His postwar output maintained the clarity and wit of his earlier work while engaging with landscape and still life subjects.

Braintree, UK

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