Description
Description of John Gould's Birds of Great Britain
These hand-colored lithographs are from John Gould's famous work entitled The Birds of Great Britain. It was published between 1862 and 1873 by William Hart, H.C. Richter, and Josef Wolf from drawings by Hart, Richter, J. Gould, and Wolf. John Gould is perhaps the greatest ornithological artist of all time. It is widely accepted that Gould sketched all 3000 of his plates. However, his wife, Lear, Wolf, Hart, and Richter did much of the remaining artistic work such as transferring these sketches to stone, hand-printing, and hand-coloring. His wife and Lear are particularly well-known for their masterful artistry. Gould's prints are masterful in design, composition, detail, accuracy, and color. Even during their original time of publication, his plates were very expensive. "The Birds of Great Britain (1862-1873) was the fruit of Gould's late middle age, produced after many years of describing foreign birds, and in it many family groups of birds, nests, eggs, chicks, and fledglings were illustrated for the first time. The majority of the plates were drawn and lithographed by Richter, a brilliant pictorial designer, who arranged the birds in delightfully composed settings among British wild plants - honeysuckle, dogrose, gorse, flowering may, and ivy" (The Art of Bird Illustration, Lambourne, 1990). This work was produced perhaps at the peak of Gould's artistic life. Nearly every plate has an amazing quality of color, detail, and background, unfound in his earlier works. At the time of publication, this work was highly sought after, and its popularity remains incredibly strong today. They are on fine, heavy woven paper that measures ~21 3/4" by 15".