Recollection: Bird Drawings from Sir Peter Shepheard

“Thank you” to my blogging friends who helped me identify the birds on my last post. I delight in looking at the birds coming to our bird feeders and often spend too much time looking at them and trying to catch them with my camera. There are so many birds to watch whether we are in an urban setting or a rural one.




My husband and I often will stop what we are doing to watch a bird land on a branch close to the window or perch on one of the bird feeders. Often in the morning there will be 10 to 12 doves eating seeds on the ground. Once in a while we even see a hawk or an owl – such beautiful creatures.

Red Tailed Hawk, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, American 1874-1927

In my post about the spoon given to me by Duke Visconti (click here) I mentioned that I would show pictures of another Christmas gift I received years ago. The presents were drawings of birds created by Sir Peter Shepheard. Here is one of them below.

original Raptor drawing by Sir Peter Shepheard

My husband studied at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia to obtain his Master’s Degree in Environmental Land Use Planning. At the time, in the early 1970s, the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at this university was offering some of the first graduate courses given anywhere in the US and abroad in the environmental land use planning field. These were the early days when to study the “environment” and “ecology” was considered very unconventional. Peter Shepheard (1913-2002), a British architect, planner and landscape designer was dean and professor at the university. Later on, in 1980, he was knighted for “service to architecture.”

Picture of Peter Shepheard in an earlier photograph

My husband, very interested in the environment before it became fashionable, had read “Design with Nature” written by Ian L. McHarg (1920-2001) a renowned Scottish landscape architect who pioneered the concept of ecological planning. Ian McHarg founded the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia which is why my husband went there. After my husband obtained his Master’s degree we thought we would go back to California. In the early 70s the environment, even in California, was not of much interest. One of the job offers was from a visionary young governor in Georgia who was trying to bring some good land use planning to his state. This is why we moved to Atlanta where my husband started working on a special project for Governor Jimmy Carter. But I don’t want to go on a tangent here.

University of Pennsylvania quadrangle Dorm, Philadelphia (source Wikimedia)

The 15 or so grad students attending these classes and their professors were a close group. We went to several parties. At one of these parties I spoke with Peter Shepheard who was a European like me, since he was from England. He was passionate about nature and enthusiastically promoted ecology and consideration for the environment. He wrote several books and articles where he produced all the line drawings as he was also an accomplished draughtsman/artist.

Sir Peter Shepheard’s drawing of an albatross from “The Wandering Albatross” by William Jameson

In England his work included landscape designs for the London Zoo, garden design for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Bessborough Gardens. He also worked on the restoration of the garden at Charleston Farmhouse in the heart of South Downs in Sussex. He drew up the design and the planting plans for these gardens. This was the former home of Clive and Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was the sister of renowned author Virginia Woolf.

Gardens at Charleston Farmhouse, Sussex, England (source Wikimedia)

In 1916 Clive and Vanessa Bell and her partner Duncan Grant acquired this Sussex farmhouse and garden. They were pacifists and conscientious objectors to World War I. To be exempted from military service one had to work on the land. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) lived with her husband, writer and publisher Leonard Woolf, across the fields in Rodmell.

Picture of Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf

The Charleston farmhouse and gardens became a place where the Bloomsbury set (a group of intellectuals, philosophers, writers and artists) would meet and create.

Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf had a bohemian lifestyle and they decorated the house with paintings and pottery. Vanessa Bell and her partner Duncan Grant planted a cottage garden with Mediterranean influences. They chose plants with intense colors and beautiful foliage which became the subject of many still life paintings. This was an enchanted retreat for the Bloomsbury Group. Unfortunately when Clive Bell passed away in 1964 the house and the gardens started to deteriorate. Sir Peter Shepheard helped with the garden restoration.




There is now a festival at the Charleston Farmhouse each May with several events presented by international writers, historians, artists, architects, etc. With its beautiful garden and luxuriant plants this is an enchanted spot to have a festival. In addition to the colorful flowers there are mosaic pavements, tile edged pools and a variety of sculptures.




Sir Peter Shepheard explained all this history to me and when we left the party he told us he would see us again at the forthcoming Christmas party. I spent the week prior to Christmas baking a great assortment of cookies, bars, and sweets. I brought them to the party but I also gave both Sir Peter and Ian McHarg a Christmas tin full of my baking. Sir Peter was very pleased and asked me to select several drawings from his sketchbook (which he always kept with him.) I chose the two below -




Sir Peter insisted that I chose at least 3 or 4 more. I chose the drawing of the raptor shown above and the following two drawings which we had framed later.






We have treasured these two framed pictures for years now. We also enjoy looking at our collection of vintage postcards of birds. Here are some from a series produced by the National Wildlife Federation, copyrighted in 1939.




Below are more postcards that are from a series published by the Audubon Society.





Either in our yard or inside the house on the wall, birds have always been a part of our lives.

Wondrous Birds by Hans Thoma, German, 1839-1924