Staande maraboe 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this print of a marabou stork. The image of the bird, set against a dark background, immediately brings to mind the natural world, and the relationship between art and nature. In Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, there was growing concern for wildlife conservation and the need to record the natural world through art and science. De Vries, who was Dutch, likely would have been aware of his country's colonial enterprises and the need to document nature in far flung places. Institutions such as museums and botanical gardens fueled the collection and categorisation of the natural world, something which artists then represented in new ways for public audiences. To understand the art of this period, we have to consider the network of scientific and educational institutions, and their complex relationship to the natural world.