[Teal (Anas crecca)]

London: The Curwen Press for Arthur Ackermann, 1981. Coloured offset-lithograph by the Curwen Press, signed in pencil by the artist (lower right just beneath the image) In pristine condition. A very fine signed print from the one of the greatest bird artists of the 20th century.

An exquisite image of a flock of teal coming in to land in the wetlands on a mid-winter's afternoon. Sir Peter Scott was best known in later life for his work as a founding member and chairman of the World Wildlife Fund, but in "the period before and after the war, Peter Scott became undoubtedly the most popular artist in the United Kingdom" (J. Ford, Ackermann 1783-1983, 1983, p.202). The son of the Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Peter initially turned to wildlife art as an extension of his early love of wildfowling. He traveled the world, hunting and painting rare birds. He held his first one-man exhibition at Ackermann's in 1933, and from the late 1930s onwards became increasingly concerned with conserving wildfowl rather than hunting them. From 1946, in tandem with a series of highly successful shows at Ackermann's, Sir Peter founded and ran the Wildfowl Trust which has gone on to become a major force in the conservation of endangered duck and geese. From 1935 up until about 1983, Ackermann's published a limited number of colour prints of Sir Peter's work. Many of the original oils are in major private and public collections, and these prints, signed by the artist himself, offer a rare chance to own an image by one of the greatest bird artists of the 20th century.