Bird, EDWARD

Bird, EDWARD, an English genre painter of considerable celebrity, was born at Wolverhampton in 1772. On the expiration of his apprenticeship to a maker of tea-trays in Birmingham, where his duty was to ornament the trays with flowers and shepherds, he established himself as a drawing-master in Bristol. In 1809 he sent to the Royal Academy a picture called 'Good News,' which brought him into notice; and two of his pictures, the 'Choristers Rehearsing' and 'The Will,' having procured him influential patrons, henceforth his reputation was secure, and ere long he was elected a Royal Academician. Other pictures were the 'Field of Chevy Chase the day after the Battle,' his masterpiece; the 'Death of Eli;' a number of rather poor Scripture subjects; and the unfinished 'Embarkation of Louis XVIII.' for France. He died in 1819. His reputation now depends on such of his works as 'The Blacksmith's Shop,' 'The Country Auction,' 'The Village Politicians,' and 'The Young Recruit.'