Red-Crested Cardinal - Antique Hand-Colored Print with William Hayes Sign, 1780

Red-crested cardinal, an original hand-colored copper engraving by William Hayes, signed "W. Hayes 1780" at the lower right and inscribed "Cardinal" at the lower left in the artist's own hand. The bird is identified as Paroaria coronata.

The cardinal perches on a lichen-covered branch, drawn at close to life size on an open sheet with no background. Its head and bib are vermilion, the back and wings slate gray with pale pearly edging on the shoulder feathers, the breast pale gray and the bill short and dark. The fine hatching on the wing feathers and tail gives the plumage its texture, and the transparent watercolor is laid thinly over it.

William Hayes (1735 to 1802) was a self-taught English bird painter who drew from live or freshly preserved birds in private collections, including the menagerie of the Duchess of Portland and later that of the Child family at Osterley Park. The bird is not the Northern Cardinal of North America but a South American species imported to Europe as an aviary bird in the late eighteenth century.