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Exhibitions and Events

George Lodge
Surrey Heath's Artist-Naturalist

Bird Artist of Camberley
February 10th - 6th March

Also see - Wildlife broadcaster Chris Packham vists the George Lodge Exhibition...

Until 6th 2010, Surrey Heath Museum is hosting a exhibition on a truly remarkable character - the noted artist and naturalist George Edward Lodge, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. Less well known today, in his day, Lodge was seen in his lifetime as a rival to Thorburn, and was described as "a much-revered illustrator" by Sir Peter Scott.

From his earliest years Lodge spent his time studying and sketching the natural world and as an adult his gifts of observation made him a sought-after illustrator, especially of birds. In 1920 he moved to Park Road Camberley, where he named his new home Hawk House. Here he produced hundreds of meticulous paintings, surrounded by examples of his own taxidermy. Over the years he illustrated wildlife from four continents but he was fondest of Scotland and Scandinavia, where his favourite subjects, hawks, could be readily studied - he was a skilled falconer. He was also the first Vice President of Camberley Natural History Society, which has always had close associations with the Museum.

Lodge is remembered as an attractive if somewhat eccentric personality, always willing to help young artists. In his youth he often strode about with a falcon on his shoulder. In later life his appearance was often compared to that of George Bernard Shaw as both favoured plus fours and had white beards! The studio where he painted, pipe clamped between his teeth, was described as by a local reporter as "a collector's treasure of preserved birds - hawks, falcons and almost every variety of British bird", all crammed in alongside paintings, stuffed birds, eggs and cabinet specimens. Photographs of this surreal interior survive and live up to the description.

But George Edward Lodge is most famous for illustrating Bannerman's 12-volume"Birds of the British Isles". Astonishingly, he undertook this work between the ages of 82 and 91, depicting 426 species of bird in all. A Vice President of the British Ornithologist's Union, he died in 1954 at the age of 93.

On display are some fine examples of Lodge's paintings and sketches together with some of his falconry equipment and examples of his taxidermy included a stunning Greenland gyr-falcon. The exhibition is being organised with the George Lodge Trust, www.georgeedwardlodgetrust.co.uk Opens in a new window and the Tryon Gallery, London

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