Albums and sample books
Fresh Water Fishes of Great Britain by Sarah Bowdich (British, 1791-1856)
Sarah Bowdich (1791–1856) was an English author, illustrator and ichthyologist. Her sole-authored natural history of Fresh Water Fishes of Great Britain, c. 1828, features twenty-one lifelike illustrations of fish. During a time when the majority of international scientific expeditions were exclusively male, Bowdich was a rarity. Her illustrations are not only scientifically accurate but also demonstrate her considerable understanding of the medium to achieve these lifelike renderings. She worked, in her own words, “from the living Fish immediately as it came from the water it inhabited; so that no tint has been lost or deadened, either by changing the quality of that element, or by exposure to the atmosphere.”
