Gallus gallus domesticus
This watercolour of the Rooster, the adult male of the Domestic Fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus), was painted by Charles Collins on 6 January 1749. It forms part of the Taylor White Collection, a body of 18th Century natural history watercolours held in the McGill University Library, commissioned to document the birds and animals kept and observed in England during the period.
Description of the Rooster
Collins has captured the Rooster’s defining features with close attention to detail: the fleshy red comb crowning the head, the paired wattles hanging beneath the beak, and the long, arching tail feathers that sweep behind the body in a graceful curve. The plumage is richly layered, with a dense ruff of feathers at the neck giving way to the iridescent sheen characteristic of the breed. The stance and posture suggest the alert, upright bearing typical of the Rooster within a flock, a detail consistent with the observational precision found throughout the Taylor White Collection.
The Rooster’s Origins
The Domestic Fowl is descended from the Red Junglefowl of South and Southeast Asia, and its domestication is thought to date back several thousand years, making it one of the oldest and most widespread domesticated birds in the world. By the 18th Century, when this watercolour was painted, the Domestic Fowl was a familiar and economically significant presence on English farms, valued for both eggs and meat, and its varied plumage and distinctive form made it a natural subject for the kind of close observational study practised by Collins and his contemporaries.
The Habits of the Rooster
Within the flock, the Rooster serves a distinct social role, more vocal and visually prominent than the hens, a characteristic that would have made it an appealing subject for an artist working to document the range and variety of domestic and wild birds of the period. (This context on the species’ broader natural history and role is drawn from general knowledge of the Domestic Fowl rather than the original source description, and is included here to support the depiction rather than as a specific claim about this individual bird or painting.)
As with the other works in the Taylor White Collection, this watercolour reflects the scientific curiosity of the 18th Century, a period in which detailed illustration served as one of the primary means of recording and classifying the natural world, well before the widespread use of photography. Charles Collins was among a small number of artists engaged in this documentary tradition, producing precise, closely observed studies intended as much for scientific reference as for aesthetic appreciation.
c.1680 - 1744
Charles Collins (c.1680-1744) was a painter of birds, mammals and still life, born in Dublin and trained in Ireland before establishing himself in London. He built his early reputation on still-life subjects, including a series of fruit studies for Robert Furber's Twelve Months of Fruit (1732), before turning increasingly to natural history illustration. From 1736, Collins worked alongside Peter Paillou to produce watercolours of British birds and mammals for the naturalist and collector Taylor White, contributing over 200 signed works to White's collection. His animal studies are noted for their lifelike composition, typically set against a grassy mound or tree stump rather than a plain background, and for the accuracy with which plumage and colouring were recorded from live or preserved specimens. Collins died in London in 1744, described at the time as Bird Painter to the Royal Society.
Credit: Taylor White Collection, Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University Library.