Thorburn's Peacocks

This is Archibald Thorburn's magnificent Peacock and Peacock Butterfly, one of a private collection of 15 works by Thorburn which will feature in an auction of 19th Century Paintings at Bonhams, London, on 13 July. The dot in the foreground is indeed a peacock butterfly painted to scale, but it barely shows on my glorified thumbnail of a large 87.5x111.5cm painting. Even on a bigger graphic (title link) it hardly shows. The pre-sale estimate is £80,000 to £120,000, but my guess is that it will fetch more. Thorburn's The Covey at Daybreak (CLICK) made £192,000 in January.