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John James Audubon

John James Audubon Harris's Buzzard 1856

Documentation

Ample Provenance

Period

19th Century

Materials

Watercolor, Lithograph.

Dimensions

W.	17.25 in;	H.	20.75 in;
W.	43.82 cm;	H.	52.71 cm;

Condition

Excellent. Clean, crisp image. Original hand-coloring. Framed to museum specifications using archival matting, backing, hinging. Glazed with ultra-violet filtering Plexiglas.

Creation Date

1856

Description

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON.
BIRDS OF AMERICA
from Drawings Made in the United States
and Their Territories.
Lithographed, colored, and printed by J. T. Bowen. Philadelphia.
Published by V. G. Audubon.
New York, 1856. Octavo edition.
Hand-colored lithographs. 7” x 10.5”.
435 plates.

Even before he had finished the work on his monumental double elephant folio edition, Birds of America, Audubon started planning an octavo edition to compliment it. This would include his text for the much larger illustrations, originally issued separately as Ornithological Biography. This smaller edition of both illustrations and text combined was intended to give the general public access to Audubon's work, as the price of Havell's elephant-folio edition restricted ownership to wealthy collectors and institutions.

The octavo edition of the Birds of North America.... was an immediate success and was reprinted eight times by 1871. It was lithographed, printed and hand-colored by John T. Bowen and his assistants in Philadelphia. John James Audubon, himself, fully guided the work by both written and personal supervision. This second edition, with background color, was published in New York by Audubon’s son, Victor.

Reference: Lois Bannon and Taylor Clark, Handbook of Audubon Prints. Pelican Publishing, 1980.

Styles / Movements

Other

Dealer Reference Number

2015 07-22-15 / 08-23-20

Incollect Reference Number

390741