Collared Purple Creeper 1799

William Hayes made this watercolor of a Collared Purple Creeper in the late 18th century. It’s a delicate image that represents a bird perched on a branch, an insect hovers nearby. Hayes was an English artist who made a name for himself specializing in ornithological illustration. In this period, scientific illustration was a valued practice, documenting and classifying the natural world. Think of it as part of the Enlightenment project. But it also served colonial expansion. Detailed images of exotic birds, like this one, fuelled the European fascination with the natural resources found in faraway lands. They were a means of possessing knowledge about nature. To understand this image fully, we might turn to archives documenting the history of science or colonial administration. What role did images like this play in shaping attitudes toward the natural world and Britain’s imperial ambitions? The answers always lie in the intersection of art and its broader context.