Buckbeak the Hippogriff Spreading Its Wings — Print & Oil Painting

The bird half of this hippogriff is a cockatoo. Not the grey eagle most people carry in their heads but a white parrot: hooked charcoal beak, a black bead of an eye, and a crest of sulphur-yellow feathers standing straight up off the crown. It is a real departure from the familiar design, and it is the reason the painting is worth a second look.

Below the neck everything is orthodox. Feathered forequarters in white and dove grey break at the elbow into equine hindquarters, the front feet ending in grey scaled talons, the back ones in small neat hooves, a long pale tail trailing nearly to the ground. One wing is thrown up and open behind the shoulder with the primaries fanned, a wash of the same yellow bleeding through the coverts.

The setting is a woodland path in late sun: ochre earth, dry leaves, a bank of dense green behind worked in broad wet strokes with light coming through it in flecks. A second animal of the same kind stands half out of frame at the left, head down, which turns a portrait into a glimpse of a herd.

The creature holds its head high and turned slightly away, which is the correct note for an animal whose whole reputation rests on being greeted properly before anyone approaches it. The handling is loose and confident, with the brush left visible in the ground and the foliage. Part of our Harry Potter collection, alongside the portrait of the house-elf and the castle above its lake.