John Gould (Britain, Australia, 1804-81)  Original Hand Coloured Lithograph 'Anthus Pratensis'

John Gould (Britain, Australia, 1804-81) "Anthus Pratensis" (Meadow Pipit). This is an original hand coloured lithograph from 'Birds Of Australia'. There is scattered foxing to the plate. The artwork was 'drawn by J Gould and  H C Richter, titled in pencil below the name and printed by Walter Cohn. Gould is remembered as 'one of the most significant bird artists of the Victorian age'. The hand coloured artwork dates back to 1838-1848 when Gould visited Australia to create the 'Birds of Australia' series.  The frame  is a vintage brown veneer which has some damge but does not detract from the artwork. This is an extremely rare and very important piece of art and one of the original 681 lithographs Gould created. 

Dimensions

Image size: 33.50cm x 47.50 cm. (13.19 x 18.70 in.)
Frame size: 58.50cm x 71 cm. (23.03 x 27.95 in.)

Bio

Businessman, publisher, and obsessive bird collector, John Gould was the first influential figure in Australian ornithology.John Gould (1804-1881) was a businessman, publisher, and obsessive bird collector with an eye for a talented artist. The Birds of Australia is John Gould’s largest and most important work.  When Gould began work on the Birds of Australia, the ornithology of that continent was all but unknown in Europe. Gould started his research using specimens available in England, but quickly realized that the supply was far from sufficient. He discarded the work and traveled to Australia to begin his effort anew on his magnum opus. Arriving in Australia in September 1838, Gould and his wife, Elizabeth, spent the following eighteen months exploring Tasmania and the adjacent islands, South Australia, and New South Wales, and penetrated well into the interior. Over the course of these extensive travels Gould made many of the preliminary drawings that were translated into the remarkable series of 681 lithographs.

He displayed his entrepreneurial skills from a young age while an apprentice in the royal gardens at Windsor, where, by the age of 14, he was selling stuffed birds to the sons of the aristocracy at Eton College. By the time he was 21 he had set up his own taxidermy business in London. Gould is best remembered for his folio volumes of superb colour-plate illustrations of birds. In all, 2999 unique images were produced for these publications, many were the first illustrations of previously unknown species. It is estimated that over half a million individual hand-coloured plates were produced under the Gould name. This extraordinary output was the result of Gould's drive and business acumen as well as an ability to develop a strong international group of specimen collectors, artists and administrative agents. It is an irony that a man who never finished a picture is remembered as one of the most significant bird artists of the Victorian age.

More skilled as an entrepreneur than as an artist, Gould relied on his group of dedicated artists, lithographers and colourers to translate his preparatory sketches into finished illustrations. Yet during his lifetime and beyond, Gould has often been represented as the sole creator of the thousands of plates published in his books. The main artists and lithographers who worked with Gould included his wife, Elizabeth; Edward Lear - now better known for his limericks and nursery rhymes; the great natural history artist, Josef Wolf; and Gould's long-term employees Henry Constantine Richter and William Matthew Hart. A number of these artists are considered the finest practitioners of natural history art in the 19th century.