The most honest art gallery in the world.

Allan Brooks (Canadian, 1869 - 1945) Deer in Landscape

Watercolor, 8.25 x 13 inches / signed lower left

Interested in this painting? Call 724-459-0612

Click image to zoom

Click image to zoom

  • Available for purchase
  • Professionally conserved and framed
  • Competitively Priced $2,800

Click the button above, then 3 easy steps:

1
Upload a photo of your room.
2
Define an area in the photo.
3
Choose the HEIGHT OF THE AREA.

Full Instructions »

Video thumbnail

Jerry & Joan - Thanks for your hospitality and helping us find this beautiful new piece for our home. Until next time...

Adrienne & Jon W.
  • Available for purchase
  • Professionally conserved and framed
  • Competitively Priced $2,800

Brooks was born in Etawah, India, the son of a civil engineer who was working on construction of the East India Railway. He spent the years 1873 -1881 in England where he was sent as a means to “escape the unaccustomed diseases of a deadly climate”. During his stay in England his father, himself a noted ornithologist and specimen collector and who encouraged young Brooks in his own budding interest in birds, arranged for his introduction three noted British ornithologists, Canon Tristam, Henry Seebohm and John Hancock.

His father moved the family to Ontario, Canada in 1881, where Brooks spent his time collecting birds and studying his surroundings. He learned the proper methods of collecting specimens and preparing bird skins for scientific collections from Thomas McIlwraith, the Ontario ornithologist. The family moved to Chilliwak, British Columbia in 1887. It was British Columbia that Brooks was to call home for the remainder of his life.

During the late 1880s and early 1890s, Brooks furnished specimens to the Smithsonian Institution and to American naturalists, as there was no support for artists-naturalists from the Canadian naturalists or institutions. After receiving encouragement from William Brewster, ornithological curator at Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, Brooks began his career as an illustrator of birds. Between 1898 and 1904, his drawings of birds were published in Recreation magazine. Brooks’ association with Frank Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History resulted in his providing Bird Lore magazine (precursor to Audubon Magazine) with colored illustrations from 1907 to 1932.

In 1909, reproductions of Brooks’ finely detailed watercolors appeared in William Dawson’s The Birds of Washington. From 1911 to 1914, Brooks was in California preparing watercolors for Dawson’s The Birds of California, published in 1923. Brooks’ watercolors appear in John C. Phillips, The Natural History of Ducks, a four-volume set published between 1922 and 1926; Edward H. Forbushes, Birds of Massachusetts, 1929; Hoffman’s Birds of the Pacific States, 1927; and Bailey’s Birds of New Mexico, 1929. Between 1932 and 1939 his bird illustrations appeared National Geographic Magazine. His only Canadian commission of note was Percy Taverner’s Wild Birds of Western Canada, published in 1926.

Brooks was also an avid sportsman and painted “big game” with the same fidelity as he did with birds. It has been said that his interest centers first in the animal--he cannot avoid painting a portrait, whether of caribou, antelope or cougar, and his subject dominates or overrides a scene of immortal beauty.

It is truly remarkable that Brooks had no formal training in art and yet could render such exquisite paintings of wildlife. Although he spent most of his time in the field or concentrating on his illustration commission, he managed to periodically exhibit his work in the 1920s and 30s. Exhibitions included: Cooper Ornithological Club, Los Angeles Museum (1926, 1928, 1936); 44th meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union, Ottawa (1926); and Fine Arts Gallery, Bilboa Park, San Diego (1928).

High auction record for this artist is $6,600.

Call now to talk about your interest in this painting: 724-459-0612 Jerry Hawk, Bedford Fine Art GalleryORWe don't know which of your own thoughts will convince yourself that a great decision is going to be made. Only you can find yourself doing so because it naturally and easily makes sense and feels right for you. So please feel free to ask any questions that allow you to recognize that is happening.

We will only use your email to reply to you. We respect your privacy.
We will only use your email to reply to you. We respect your privacy.