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Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935)
Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) Archibald Thorburn was born on 31 May 1860 at Lasswade near Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Robert Thorburn, was a miniaturist artist who taught him to paint. Archibald attended art school in St John's Wood, London, and in 1885 he moved to reside in London. An important commission came in 1887 when he painted 268 plates for Lord Lilford's Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands (1885-1897[1898]). Later Thorburn illustrated numerous books and painted gallery pieces as well as private commissions. In 1896, he married Constance Mudie, and they moved to Hascombe in Surrey, England, where Archibald lived until his death in 1935.
Thorburn used superb watercolour technique to produce sympathetic images of birds, mammals and landscapes of haunting beauty. This lively drawing depicts three species of dolphin, the White-beaked dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin and Common dolphin leaping and swimming through the waves.
The Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is found in British waters throughout the year. However, during winter months its numbers increase dramatically as the animals migrate from the Mid-Atlantic into waters around South West England to feed on mackerel and sea bass. It is during this period that a fatal interaction often occurs between the dolphins and commercial pair trawlers fishing primarily for sea bass. The White-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) is most frequently recorded around the coast of Scotland and North East England, and its distribution is thought to have remained relatively unchanged since the 1920s. Two resident populations of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) are known to exist in British waters: one in Cardigan Bay, Wales, the other in the Moray Firth, Scotland. The number of sightings and strandings of these animals along the Channel and south coast of England have declined over the past 30 years. This is thought to be partly due to an increase in commercial shipping and overall noise pollution. The Natural History Museum has been monitoring cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) strandings in the UK since 1913.
The Archibald Thorburn Drawings Collection This drawing is one of a collection of 18 watercolour drawings of bats and marine mammals by Archibald Thorburn which were first published in his two volume work British Mammals (1920-21). The Natural History Museum holds a small selection of the original watercolours.
Exhibition and publication details Thorburn, A. (1920-1921) British Mammals. 2 volumes. Longmans, Green & Co.: London Thorburn, A. (1974) Thorburn's Mammals: With an Introduction
by David Attenborough & Notes by Iain Bishop. Ebury
Press; Michael Joseph, cop.: London. 128pp. Thorburn, A. (1997) The Complete Illustrated Thorburn's Mammals. Wordsworth Editions.: Ware, Hertfordshire. 80pp.
References and further reading Flower, W. H. (1880) On the external characters of two species
of British dolphins &c. Transactions of the Zoological
Society of London, vol. XI, (I), pp.1-5, 1 plate with
two figures. Hammond, N. [1998] Modern Wildlife Painting. Pica Press: [Robertsbridge, East Sussex]. 240pp. Lilford, T. L. P. (1885-1897[1898]) Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands. 7 volumes. R. H. Porter: London. National Whale Stranding Recording Scheme Sotheby's (1993) Works by Archibald Thorburn from the Thorburn Museum: [sale catalogue, 31 March, Sotheby's, London]. Sotheby's: London. 126pp. Southern, J. (1986) Thorburn's Birds and Mammals. David & Charles: Newton Abbot. 96pp. Thorburn, A. (1977) Thorburn's Naturalist's Sketchbook. [New edition] Joseph: London. 134pp. Thorburn, A. & Southern, J. (1981) Thorburn's Landscape: The Major Natural History Paintings. Elm Tree Books: London. 120pp. Whale and
Dolphin Conservation Society
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