ALBUM OF FIELD-SKETCHES OF INDIAN AND SRI LANKAN BIRDS

Samuel Daniell (British, 1775-1811)
Album of field-sketches of Indian and Sri Lankan birds
The oblong folio contains 19 watercolor drawings mounted on blue paper with contemporary
and later pencil annotations
ca. 1806

Samuel Daniell (1775–1811) was an English landscape painter and draftsman. Daniell began exhibiting at the Academy in 1792 and 1793, a likely student of painter Thomas Medland. His curiosity led him to South Africa in December 1799. Daniell was appointed secretary and artist for the expedition of 1801–2 from the Cape of Good Hope to Bechuanaland led by P.J. Truter and William Somerville. On his return to England, Daniell published, with his uncle's assistance, the painter Thomas Daniell, and his brother, the painter and engraver William Daniell, African Scenery and Animals (1804–5).

He later moved to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), where he made sketches of scenery and people and eventually died of tropical fever. Following his brother's death, William published Sketches Representing the Native Tribes, Animals, and Scenery of Southern Africa, a collection of 48 engravings based on drawings Samuel had made in Africa. The texts accompanying each illustration are by Somerville and Sir John Barrow, a British geographer and explorer who also participated in early British expeditions in southern Africa. Samuel Daniell sketched animals from life in their natural habitats, and his work praised for its accuracy and attention to detail.