Portrait of a Country Artist: C. F. Tunnicliffe

Tunnicliffe (19011979) trod the same turf as Audubon and has a devoted English following for his drawings, paintings, engravings and etchings of birds. His other subjects included horses, in Ploughing; a terrier leaping for its dish in an engraved ad from the '30s; ""Suffolk ewes''; and occasionally human beings. Niall seems defensive about Tunnicliffe's gifts, such as they werethere was no ``starvation in the garret,'' he writes, and Tunnicliffe ``was never a soul in torment. His struggles were to cultivate his talent.'' And so he did, producing a series of birds that do not, however, have the out-of-doors pungency of Audubon's. Lavishly illustrated, this volume also delves into Tunnicliffe's London schooling, book illustrations and post-mortem wildlife sketches, among other topics. The author collaborated with Tunnicliffe on a number of field-and-stream volumes. (May)