Purple Heron (with fish) art by Elizabeth Gwillim Postcard

Purple heron Ardea purpurea - with a fish) (c. 1801) by Elizabeth Gwillim - Watercolour Bird Painting Vintage Art Postcard. Species identified in 1920s as juvenile Eastern Purple Heron (Ardea manillensis). This image of the artwork has been carefully digitally enhanced to brighten and improve colors. Elizabeth Gwillim (1763 – 1807) was an English artist and naturalist. While living in Madras (now Chennai), India, from 1801 to 1807, she painted a series of about 200 watercolours of Indian birds. Produced about 20 years before John James Audubon published his famous The Birds of America (1827–1839), Gwillim's work has been acclaimed for its accuracy and natural postures, she made her watercolours by observing living birds, sometimes in their natural environments. (edited text from Wikipedia article on Elizabeth Gwillim)