Birds in woodland: bittern, woodcock, curlew, wood-pigeons and a woodpecker

Barlow studied portraiture under William Sheppard. He then turned to painting birds and animals and might be compared with the Flemish master Melchior Hondecoeter. His reputation was established by 1656 when John Evelyn referred to him as 'the famous painter of Fowle, Beasts and Birds.' His engraved works include 110 plates for an edition of Aesop's Fables (1666) preserved in the British Museum, and fourteen plates entitled Several Ways of Hawking, Hunting, and Fishing (1671).

The present sheet appears to be a study for Multae et Diversae Avium Species, a book which was first published in 1671 and which was so popular that it was still being reissued in 1799. Published by Pierce Tempest, Barlow provided sets of birds at different dates, and this drawing was probably intended for the 1686 edition. Barlow's drawings for the project were engraved by various prominent artists including Jan Griffier I, Francis Place, Johannnes Kip, and Wenceslaus Hollar.