A fine large Watercolour of a Long-Tailed Cuckoo or Koel in the style of Aert Schouman.

Late 18th Century Watercolour, (400 x 300mm), Mounted, large gouache and watercolour painting

Schouman was a leading artist in Zeeland between 1735 and 1785. During that period he lived and worked in Dordrecht, The Hague and Middelburg and taught pupils in Dordrecht and The Hague. He travelled to England twice and assembled an important collection of paintings. He was a prolific and versatile Dutch painter, glass engraver, printmaker, collector and dealer, who produced still lifes, biblical and mythological themes, natural history studies, genre, historical and topographical works, portraits, sketches, etchings and mezzotints.

The Long-tailed Koel breeds only in New Zealand, where it is resident in the warmer months, from early October until February or March, sometimes April and occasionally later. The length of an average one-way journey from New Zealand to Polynesia is around 2500–3500 kilometres and thus travel over 6000 kilometers. For winter, the bird migrates to islands right across the southern Pacific. It is found year-round on the Kermadec Islands, the Norfolk Island group and the Lord Howe Island group, which are subtropical islands part way between the New Zealand mainland and the tropical Pacific Islands. The spread of its winter distribution is extraordinarily wide, stretching almost 11,000 km from Palau in the west to Pitcairn Island. Over most of its winter range, it is known by the indigenous name kārewarewa (or local variations of this). In spring, the bird’s routes of migration would almost certainly have served to guide the Polynesian ancestors of Māori to find New Zealand