Bartholomew's Work

Methodical and systematic in his approach, Bartholomew's work was characterised by a fastidious attention to detail and remarkable technical facility. His mastery of the application of successive watercolour glazes built richness and depth into his colour, while using layers of varnish gave an extraordinary three-dimensionality to images such as the leathery chrysalis of Lepidoptera.

Most, if not all, of Bartholomew's illustrations were completed in the laboratory, where he was at McCoy's mercy for the range and quality of available specimens. Exquisite watercolour studies of insects are the highlight of his work, indicative of his responsibility to nurture the smaller animals kept alive in the laboratory, with notes on their life stages consistently made in his hand. These images reveal a level of detail comparable to such masters of scientific illustration as Ferdinand Bauer and Jean Charles Werner.

Bartholomew's images of larger, dead animals brought to the university were equally well observed, but lack the animation of smaller studies.

Some specimens supplied by Mr Jenkins, a Swanston Street fishmonger, were not exactly fresh. With these, Bartholomew would typically prepare a precise pencil sketch of each fish, complete with diagnostic details and geometric analysis of the scale pattern. He also rendered a watercolour, which together with the pencil sketch guided the lithographic process. His 'Sardine' image provides insight into the level of detail required to translate laboratory observations successfully into printed plates.

After McCoy's death Bartholomew retired from the university's Natural History Department. He continued illustrating for the Museum until at his death at age 75 in 1909, when after a year of illness, he succumbed to a fatal stroke.