Spoonbill; verso: Two Birds in Shallow Water c. 18th century

Editor: Here we have Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s "Spoonbill," a delicate drawing of a bird. It’s so simply rendered, almost scientific. What do you make of this piece? Curator: Consider the paper itself. Its manufacture, its cost - signifying access to materials and perhaps a patron. Oudry's skillful use of line and wash elevates the humble materials of paper and ink, transforming them into something valued and collected. What labor was involved in bringing the paper and ink together, and whose stories do these materials tell? Editor: That’s fascinating! It makes you think about the bird as a commodity too. Curator: Precisely. It hints at the consumption of images and the natural world itself.