Milton Avery (1885-1965)

A seabird which spends most of its time traversing oceans, the Sooty Tern most commonly nests in remote islands and can often be found in tropical locales, such as Hawaii, the Dry Tortugas and the Florida Keys. At the time the present work was painted, Milton Avery was probably looking at John James Audubon's depiction of a Sooty Tern, originally published in his seminal volume Birds of America in 1827.