Artist Information
Artist
James Fenwick Lansdowne, RCA, OC, OBC (1937-2008)Role
ArtistDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Hong Kong, James Fenwick Lansdowne was a self-taught Canadian wildlife artist, internationally recognized and often described as the successor to J. J. Audubon, North America's best-known wildlife artist. Lansdowne was taught to paint by his mother, an accomplished artist trained in traditional Chinese watercolour techniques. Lansdowne grew up in Victoria, B.C., his family having moved to Canada at the end of World War II.
In high school, he studied the anatomy of birds at the Royal British Columbia Provincial Museum where, in 1952, he held his first exhibition at age fourteen. His second show of watercolours followed in 1956 at the Royal Ontario Museum where his work first attracted national attention. His first international exhibition followed in 1958 at the National Audubon Society in New York. This was followed in the 1960s and beyond by exhibitions in centres world-wide such as the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; the Tryon Gallery in London, England; the Natural History Museum, Beijing; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. His work is held in private, corporate and public collections around the world, including that of the British Royal Family.
Lansdowne’s technical and artistic ability to portray a bird in paint was extraordinary, and his subjects are thought by many to display a greater life-like quality and more natural posture than Audubon's. In Canada, he is perhaps best known for his five-volume large format series of books covering many of the country's birds "'Birds of the West Coast", "Birds of the Northern Forest", and "Birds of the Eastern Forest") or his "Rare Birds of China" ten-year project commissioned as a unique record of China's rare and endangered birds. In 1974, he was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1976, Lansdowne was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1995, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia. He died in Victoria, B.C. at age 71.
For further information see -
J. Fenwick Lansdowne, “Birds of the Eastern Forest: Vol. 1” (1968), “Birds of the Eastern Forest: Vol. 2” (1970) and “Birds of the West Coast, Vol. I” (1980), available in the UCBC Library.
