Artwork for Sale
Verreaux Eagle Owl, 1997
50.8 x 40.6 cm
Inscriptions
signed, dated and inscribed, ‘Robert Bateman / 1997 ©’ (lower right); numbered, titled and inscribed, ‘97-07 VERREAUX EAGLE OWL 20X16 OIL’ (verso, upper centre); inscribed, ‘IC22227’ (verso, centre)Provenance
Halcyon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, 2000
Private collection, New Hampshire
Exhibitions
Johannesburg, Everard Read Gallery, Diversities, October-November 2000, no. 24.
Literature
Robert Bateman, Birds (New York / Toronto: Pantheon Books / Madison Press Book, 2002), 151 [reproduced].
p. 151: We are always intrigued by the number of Verreaux's eagle owls we see in the big-game country of East
Africa. On daytime safaris, we've often looked up into the trees and been rewarded by the sight of this bark-patterned bird looking back down at us and slowly blinking. The one I've painted here lived at Lake Nivasha in Kenya and belonged to Joy Adamson-the game warden's wife whose experiences in raising a lioness cub were dramatized in books and in the movie Born Free. This owl had also become somewhat tame under her care, but she was letting it live in the wild. In the evening, however, it always returned to be fed when she gave a particular call.
Robert Bateman, Birds of prey: an introduction (Toronto:Scholastic Canada / Madison Press Book, 2007), 33 [reproduced].
Verreaux Eagle Owl (1997), captures the majesty of an owl native to East Africa. According to Bateman, this particular owl was semi-domesticated and lived in the wild near Lake Naivasha, Kenya. The Verreaux Eagle Owl belonged to Joy Adamson, “celebrated author of Born Free, [who] dedicated her life to wildlife conservation, helping to rehabilitate lions, cheetahs, and leopards while raising awareness about the perils faced by African wildlife.”
The two paintings, Verreaux Eagle Owl and Pygmy Falcon, along with 10 other images, were made into prints for SAPPI [South Africa Pulp and Paper Industry] to help them raise money for conservation.
