By Charley Harper
Located in Dayton, OH
Vintage print titled Ptarmigan by Charley Harper, one of many images designed by Harper for the Ford Times. Silkscreen on paper. Signed in plate. Titled in pencil at the lower right edge.
"Puzzle for bird counters, and everybody else—find the Ptarmigan. White-on-white in winter, brown-on-brown in summer, he spends his life above timberline in the Cascades and Rockies. But near perfect concealment does not save him from a rhythmic rise and fall in numbers revealed by counts of non-migrating populations. The cause of the several-year cycle is still black-on-black."
Ptarmigan, any of three or four species of partridgelike grouse of cold regions, belonging to the genus Lagopus of the grouse family, Tetraonidae. They undergo seasonal changes of plumage, from white against winter snowfields to gray or brown, with barring, in spring and summer against tundra vegetation. Ptarmigan differ from other members of the grouse family in having the toes covered with stiff feathers above and below. The rock ptarmigan is a medium-sized game bird in the grouse family. It is known simply as the ptarmigan in the UK. It is the official bird for the Canadian territory of Nunavut, where it is known as the aqiggiq, and the official game bird for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus).
Willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus).
white-tailed ptarmigan with summer plumage
white-tailed ptarmigan with summer plumage
The common ptarmigan (L. mutus) ranges in the British Isles, Europe, and North America, where it is called rock ptarmigan.
“Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 – June 10, 2007) was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations. Born Charles Burton...
Category
Late 20th Century Charley Harper Furniture