Object Description
Watercolour of flowers and birds by Simon Birch
British, 1951
Frame: Height 50cm, width 42cm, depth 3cm
Sheet: Height 41cm, width 34cm
This watercolour, signed lower right ‘Simon Birch 1951’, is an unusual example of trompe l’oeil in art. The picture depicts a coastal landscape, distorted in scale and size, from which grows a shoot of corn. Several birds flutter about the corn, and various absurd elements are scattered about the landscape, such as a crab, a diminutive man with a spear, and a small tribal village. The entire scene is painted on a fictive sheet of paper, which lifts from a backboard. The work is contained within a (real) hardwood frame.