Originally created as Christmas cards for his loved ones, Eric Thake’s linocut prints soon drew attention beyond his mailing list. He decided to pull additional limited editions of each design, allowing his fellow Australians to collect them. Each work observed a changing nation infused with the artist’s unique sense of humour, critique and poeticism, appealing to institutions and individuals alike. 

Dated 1943, ‘The Habitat of the Dodo’ sees a dodo gaze into its museum enclosure. It is a gentle satire of museums, the word “habitat” – typically reserved for the living – turned on its head. Are museums zoos for the extinct? What draws visitors to stare at fabrications of nature, stuffed dodos in make-believe wilderness? 

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Australia, ‘The Habitat of the Dodo’ is a museum-quality work. It speaks to Thake’s remarkable wit and ingenuity, a prize for collectors of modernist, surrealist and Australian art. 

Eric THAKE (1904 - 1982)
'The Habitat of the Dodo' 1943
linocut on paper
Image Size: 16 x 17 cm
Dimensions: 29 x 24 cm
Signed: Titled lower left. Signed and dated lower right: Eric Thake 1943.
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Impressions of this work are at the:

Art Gallery of South Australia, accession number: 775G20;
and National Gallery of Australia, accession number: 73.257.3.

Condition is Very Good: Describes a work of art's image as Excellent, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear to paper or frame. There are no tears to paper margin or disruption to the paint surface.

(c) The Artist or Assignee