Arthur Bartholomew

About Arthur Bartholomew

Arthur Bartholomew was a nineteenth-century natural history artist who worked in Melbourne, producing watercolour studies of Australian insects, fish and marine animals for museum collections. His job was accuracy. Each specimen is drawn at its true proportions and lit evenly. The plain ground lets nothing distract from the wing, the fin or the shell. What raises the work above record-keeping is the colour. Moth wings are washed in soft browns and pinks, fish carry a metallic sheen, and the bare paper is left to stand in for air.

The Arthur Bartholomew Collection at BestOfBharat

The selection leads with the moths. The Emperor Gum Moth and the Double Headed Hawk Moth are the best known of them, wings spread flat across the sheet. Fish studies follow, including the Butterfly Gurnard and the Golden Perch, along with a paper nautilus, a prawn and a red-shouldered stick insect. Most sheets carry their scientific names in a period hand, which is part of the appeal, and the prints keep that lettering legible.

Arthur Bartholomew in Your Space

Scientific illustration hangs well in numbers. Four or six sheets in matching frames, spaced evenly, make a grid that suits a study, a kitchen wall or a stair. Keep the frames narrow and identical: black, dark walnut, or plain white if the room is bright. A wide off-white mount reads as museum practice and gives each specimen air. Single large prints also work over a console table, where the pale ground lifts a dark corner.

Every artwork here is an archival print, hand-framed to order and delivered ready to hang — made in India.