작품 상세

KEULEMANS, Johannes Gerardus (Dutch, 1842-1912). BANDED KAKA, AND VARIETY. watercolor on paper, heightened with white and gum arabic signed lower left in monorgram and dated “JGK 1904” . For Walter Lawry Buller, Supplement to The birds of New Zealand, London (1905), vol 2, pl. VIII. 20 1/2 x 16 5/8 inches visible, 28 1/2 x 24 5/8 inches framed The New Zealand kaka (N. meridionalis, Gmelin, 1788) is a parrot species that is closely related to the kea. The first and most striking feature is the difference in plumage color of the two birds. As opposed to depicting the wild-type, Buller choose illustrate a kaka variety, one with a yellow belly and a very light colored one, a lutino. It is not surprising that John Gould described these uniquely colored birds as separate species, as being Nestor esslingi in his to his superb folio work on The Birds of Australia. In his third edition, for which Keulemans in 1904 made this superb watercolor, Buller treats it correctly as a mutation of the highly variable Nestor meridionalis, even though he describes these birds in a separate chapter, as the ‘yellow-belted kaka’. Back in the day kaka with exceptional plumage were scarce, and due to the high price that could be fetched with these birds, they are nowadays nowhere to be found. Like the kea, Keulemans knows how to position the birds in order to gain an interaction with the viewer. One of the most challenging artistic choices is the posture of the second bird’s head; not one, but both eyes stare at you. Here as well, Keulemans shows his masterful skills in his illustration of birds.