Before anyone mentions antique natural history illustration, notice what the soft grey-blue does to linen. The cream background reads almost the same as an off-white wall, so the bird appears to stand in the room rather than sit inside a picture. Hung up, it brings quiet detail to a wall that has gone flat the fine feather markings and the yellow legs give the eye somewhere to land. It works at eye level in a hallway, over a writing desk, or on a narrow stretch of bedroom wall. Pair it with oak or walnut, linen, wool and a little brass. Keep loud colour-block prints and glossy modern graphics well away from it; this one wants breathing space and matt surfaces around it. As a canvas the pale ground picks up a light woven texture.