Victorian artist Jemima Blackburn was recognised by her peers as one of the leading bird painters of her day. During her lifetime Jemima Blackburn (1823-1909) was acknowledged as an ornithologist of some importance, corresponding with many of the most eminent naturalists of the period. She was a bird painter of considerable skill and originality, and differed from all the famous Victorian bird painters in that she painted her subjects from life, or as she termed it from nature, not from dead or stuffed specimens.