The Black Moray – Mark Catesby

A dark moray eel coiled at the foot of a golden sea fan. On a plain cream ground, Mark Catesby sets a slate-grey moray, its body curled into an S, its small eye and long jaw turned to the left, beneath the branching yellow-orange arms of a gorgonian, the soft coral that sways on Caribbean reefs. The contrast between the smooth, heavy eel and the fine lacework of the coral is what makes this plate so graphic.

Moray eels live hidden in the crevices of rocks and reefs, coming out at night to hunt. Catesby studied the fish of the Bahamas in the 1720s, painting them as soon as they were caught so that he could capture their colours before they faded, and often placed them, as here, with a plant or coral from the same waters.

Mark Catesby, naturalist of the New World

Mark Catesby (1683-1749) was an English naturalist who spent years in Virginia, Carolina and the Bahamas. Back in London, he learned to etch so that he could make the plates of his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands himself: two volumes and some 220 hand-coloured plates, the first great illustrated survey of the animals and plants of North America.

• Artist: Mark Catesby (1683-1749)
• Date: published 1754 (second edition)
• Technique: etching and engraving, hand-coloured
• Source: The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, vol. II, plate 21
• Format: vertical
• Theme: moray eel, sea fan, coral reef, marine life

A striking print for a bathroom or a study. It pairs well with the other fish of the book, such as The Porgy and The Croaker and the Squirrelfish; find more plates in our natural history posters. Printed on thick matte archival paper, in 13 sizes from A4 to A0. Free shipping, no minimum order. Shipped rolled in a sturdy tube.