English bird artist and naturalist G. E. Lodge was born at Scrivelsby, near Horncastle, Lincolnshire on 3 December 1860. He was taught at home until he joined the Lincoln School of Art aged 14. Two years later he was apprenticed to a wood engraver. He travelled a lot in England and Scotland and abroad, always with his artists materials and in this way accumulated numerous sketchbooks of birds and mammals. When sketching out his ideas, Lodge worked in pencil, and charcoal, rather than watercolour. Although he pictured all kinds of animals, his preferences were for birds of prey, game birds, ducks and geese, and deer and game animals. These were also the subjects that most of his clients commissioned him to paint in oils for their homes. Lodge was a most successful artist, able to bring together the salient characteristics of a species in its natural habitat to create an exquisite piece of art.