Neville William Cayley is known as ‘Junior’ to differentiate him from his father, notable ornithologist and painter-of-birds, Neville Henry Cayley.
Cayley Junior was born in 1886, and went on to study art before receiving the commission to illustrate the first of many books.
Perhaps the best known is ‘What Bird Is That?’, first published 1931, becoming an all-time best seller in Australia and still in print today.
His love of birds was unescapable, following in his father’s footsteps; he was a council-member of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (president 1932-33), the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union (president 1936-37), the Gould League of Bird Lovers and the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia, and was a trustee of the National Park in 1937-48. He also held several exhibitions of his paintings: in 1932 one was presented to King George V.
Above is a work in the stock of Moorabool Antiques, Geelong. It is interesting to compare this work with the later datable N.W. Cayley’s. His early style is described as ‘pretty’, his later as very accurate to life. In this example, there is a lot less detail, and a more naive charm. It is quite different to the life-like illustrations used in ‘What Bird is That?’.
The work has some of the earlier style seen in his father’s works, Neville Henry Cayley. We suggest this work is an earlier W. Cayley work, before the defining of his mature ‘accurate’ style.
Growing up in the shadow of his father, regarded as the best of the bird artists in Australia, must have been inspirational, and his obvious artistic ability must have made his father proud; perhaps this is a work of the young Neville Cayley when he was indeed ‘Junior’, before going to art school.