Description
Description of John Gould's Family of Hummingbirds
These hand-colored lithographs are ORIGINAL John Gould hummingbirds from his work, Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Hummingbirds, published from 1849-1861. John Gould is perhaps the greatest ornithological artist of all time. During his lifetime and beyond, which spanned the years 1804 to 1881, he created over 3000 plates of birds in over 40 volumes. Gould's father was a gardener, and it was at a young age that he learned taxidermy at Windsor Castle. In 1827, he became a taxidermist for the Zoological Society of London, and it was during this same year that he married Elizabeth Coxen. It was around 1830 that 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 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, 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 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. Only the wealthiest were able to purchase Gould's work in small sets at a time. His inspiration for Hummingbirds developed upon his visit to America where he was greatly excited to see the small birds. He painted the birds, normally with spectacular foliage and amazing flowers in the background, with accurate and beautiful colors. Gould's Hummingbirds is perhaps the greatest ornithological work of all time. Included with each print will be the original descriptive text. These prints are on fine heavy-stock paper ~ 14 1/4" by 21 3/8".