Description
Description of John Gould's Birds of Asia
These fabulous prints are hand-colored lithographs from John Gould's famous work, Birds of Asia, published in London between 1850 and 1883. John Gould is perhaps the greatest ornithological artist of all time. During his lifetime he created over 3000 plates of birds in over 40 volumes. In 1827, he became a taxidermist for the Zoological Society of London. Around 1830 Gould received some exotic bird skins from the Himalayas. Shortly thereafter in 1831, he published his first work, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains. This work along with the first edition of Ramphastidae and Birds of Europe were enormously successful and allowed him to raise enough capital to travel abroad. He went to such places as Australia, Asia and New Guinea where he observed and sketched the native birds and mammals. It is widely accepted that Gould sketched all 3000 of his plates. However, his wife (Elizabeth Coxen), Lear, Wolf, Hart, and Richter did much of the remaining artistic work such as transferring these sketches to stone, hand-printing, and hand-coloring. Coxen and Lear are particularly well-known for their masterful artistry. Gould's last work was published after his death in 1888. Gould's prints are masterful in design, composition, detail, accuracy, and color. Even during their original time of publication, his plates were very expensive. They are on fine woven paper that measures ~14 3/4" by 21 5/8".