Dead Moorhen (Dode waterhoen)

Charles Donker

1969 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

Charles Donker is one of the foremost contemporary Dutch printmakers. He was a member of a group called De Luis (The Louse), a group of graphic artists who in the 60s made works in a surrealist or heightened realist idiom. He has long been fascinated by the natural world. He is well-known for his muted etchings that depict nature and everyday objects. His direct and honest rendering of detail lends a surreal note to many of his works. Birds, both live and dead, are a subject to which Donker often returns in his work. He accompanied this image of a dead moorhen with quotes from the writings of the nineteenth-century German ornithologist Alfred Brehm and James Cook's description of his second voyage.

Artist

Charles Donker

Date

1969

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Ann and Byron Reimus, 2020