Bottero's African Wildlife Gallery

Bottero's African Wildlife Gallery (Collectible Illustrated Catalogue of 73 Wildlife Paintings)

A Landscape-Format Colour Catalogue of Giuseppe Bottero's African Wildlife Oil Paintings

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Bottero's African Wildlife Gallery
• Publisher: Wildlife Feature Corporation, Johannesburg
• ISBN-10: 0620026618
• Binding: Publisher's hardcover boards in simulated dark brown leather-grain cloth, gilt-stamped to front board and spine, with pictorial colour endpapers showing an African wildlife panorama.
• Physical Format: Landscape-format (oblong) art book with large colour plates, each captioned with title, medium and dimensions.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: Dark brown leather-grain textured boards with gilt script lettering to the front and a gilt-lettered spine. The spine is sound, with slight wear at the head. There are a few small white specks to the back board and some light scuffs, consistent with age and handling.
• Interior: The pages are clean and cream, and the colour plates are well reproduced with no foxing or marks. The binding is tight. Small pale spots appear on the plate for 'Run or die' (plate 46). Pictorial colour endpapers with the Bottero's logo are present.
• The Dust Jacket: Not Present

Synopsis & Historical Value

Bottero's African Wildlife Gallery is a large-format colour catalogue of the wildlife paintings of Giuseppe Bottero, issued in Johannesburg by the Wildlife Feature Corporation. Each plate reproduces an oil painting of African fauna, among them elephants, buffalo, zebra and lions, with a caption giving the title, medium and size of the original.

The book records an artist's lifelong project to portray the animals of southern Africa. Bottero called his body of work Bottero's African Wildlife Collection, and the catalogue presents the paintings as a gallery in book form, with the large plates giving the detail of each canvas.

For collectors of Africana wildlife art, it is a handsome record of a distinctive South African wildlife painter, bound in gilt-stamped simulated leather.

Author Profile: Giuseppe Bottero

Giuseppe Bottero (1911-2004) was an Italian-born artist, born in Piedmont. He joined the army in 1932 and was posted to Ethiopia in 1935. After the Second World War he moved to southern Africa and spent the rest of his life building what he called Bottero's African Wildlife Collection.

His best-known work is The Meeting, a painting showing more than 400 animals, birds, reptiles and insects, a poster of which was used in conservation outreach. His paintings continue to appear at South African auction.

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