Joseph Wolf was one of the preeminent natural history artists active in the nineteenth century. Born in Germany, he travelled to London in 1848 where he began a career illustrating natural history books including the ‘bird books’ of John Gould and David Livingstone’s accounts of his travels in Africa. His illustrations were praised for their accuracy and ability to capture lifelike portrayals of the animals they depicted.
Feathered Favourites is a series of illustrations of twelve common British birds: house sparrow, wren, blackcap, swallow, green woodpecker, pied wagtail, great tit, kingfisher, woodlark, mute swan, golden eagle and mallard. Wolf's vignettes depict each bird in their natural habitat and are accompanied by verses on the animals by poets including Alfred, Lord Tennyson and James Grahame.