Roland Green

1890-1972

Roland Green was an English bird artist, who produced numerous bird studies in watercolours and oils. Green remained a bachelor throughout his life, making his home at Hickling in Norfolk, where he set many of his bird paintings in the Broads, and captured some of the wild beauty of this region in his distinctive style. 

Born in Kent, Green was the son of a taxidermist, who trained him in the skinning, stuffing and setting up birds, thereby instilling an extensive knowledge of anatomy and plumage. He showed an early aptitude for drawing and painting birds. Educated in Rochester and at the Regent Street Polytechnic, he was a skilled bird and mammal painter, holding annual exhibitions of his paintings and etchings. The subjects of his etchings were snipe, Canada geese, mallard and kingfishers. He also gave lectures on bird watching and the drawing of birds, with an emphasis on birds in flight. He spent a great deal of time in the reedbeds, creating the mistaken impression of being antisocial, but his talks to pupils at various schools dispelled that notion. Green was commissioned by Lord Desborough of Hickling Estate in Norfolk to paint a frieze at Whiteslea Lodge, showing the birds of Hickling Broad.

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