A Lyre Bird 1841 - 1851

Editor: So, this is Charles Meryon's "A Lyre Bird," probably done between 1841 and 1851. It's a pencil drawing and print housed here at the Met. It feels almost like a quick sketch, but there’s such delicate detail in the feathers. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: What grabs my attention is the gaze—the Lyre Bird depicted, native to Australia, embodies a colonial encounter. Nineteenth-century European artists were fascinated by exotic fauna. How do artistic depictions of animals affect the scientific understanding of nature, and further, affect public opinion around conservation? Editor: That’s fascinating, I hadn't considered the social impact of animal drawings. Does the sketch format play into that idea? Curator: Absolutely. Sketches often have a sense of immediacy and authenticity. They position the viewer as present during a supposedly unfiltered moment of observation. The Lyre Bird’s existence then becomes tied to a Eurocentric perspective. Who has access to images and to spaces like museums that show us such images? Editor: It sounds like this image is performing more than simply representing the bird itself. Curator: Precisely. Think about how images are powerful agents. This piece, along with others from its period, constructs and disseminates an image of both the animal and its place of origin to European audiences. Editor: So the museum display itself reinforces the power dynamic between the colonizer and the colonized. I'll definitely be thinking about that differently from now on. Thanks! Curator: It's all about understanding art’s role in broader power structures and seeing it beyond face value. Always consider how what you see, and where you see it, affects your perception.