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John Gould and Henry Constantine Richter
Leucippus Fallax (Buffy Hummingbird) — Original 1849 Hand-colored Lithograph
c. 1850

Name: Leucippus Fallax (Buffy Hummingbird) — Original 1849 Hand-colored Lithograph
Brand: John Gould and Henry Constantine Richter
Price: 750 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

John Gould, 'Leucippus Fallax' (Buffy Hummingbird), original lithograph with hand-coloring (not a reproduction), c. 1850. Signed in typeset 'J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del et lith.', lower left. A finely detailed lithographic impression with transparent oil and varnish hand-coloring on cream wove paper; the full sheet with wide margins. Several small spots of foxing (shown in the full-sheet image), minor glue stains in the left and right top sheet edge, verso (from previous hinges); otherwise in very good condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 12 x 10 1.4 inches; sheet size 21 3/8 x 14 1/4 inches. From ‘A Monograph of the Trochilid, or Family of Humming-birds in Five Volumes’ v. 3, Printed by Taylor and Francis; published by John Gould, 1849, London. Impressions of this work are held in prominent public collections, including Amherst College, Arts Council England, Australian Museum (Sydney), College of Charleston, Cornell University, Glasgow Libraries (University of Glasgow, Scotland), Royal Collection Trust ( Buckingham Palace, London), State Library of Victoria (Australia), and the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Washington DC). ABOUT THE ARTIST John Gould maintained an obsessive fascination for hummingbirds throughout his life: "These wonderful works of creation my thoughts are often directed to them in the day, and my night dreams have not infrequently carried me to their native forests in the distant country of America." John Gould (1804 –1881) was born in England, on the Dorset coast but was brought up in Surrey and later Windsor, where his father was one of the gardeners at the castle. The young Gould taught himself taxidermy from an early age and soon established a skill for the craft. Following a brief 18-month stint as a gardener at Ripley Hall in Yorkshire, in 1824, he moved to London to establish a shop in the city. The taxidermy enterprise was successful and Gould counted important public figures, including George IV (for whom he stuffed a pet giraffe in 1826), among his clients. In 1828, he won a competition to become taxidermist at the Museum of the Zoological Society of London and eventually became the curator of the museum, where he developed connections with some of the most prominent naturalists of the day and received specimens from around the world to preserve and prepare for display. He was also noted for his own knowledge of ornithology and, in 1836, assisted Charles Darwin in understanding the specimens collected from the Beagle voyage to the Galapagos, demonstrating that the birds collected were not different species as Darwin initially thought but varieties of the same species, thus inspiring his revolutionary theory of natural selection. Gould began to publish fine ornithological volumes in 1830. They are among the most famous and important 'bird books' of the nineteenth century, and the volumes in the Royal Library were subscribed to by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. Gould's passion was for hummingbirds. Though not seeing one alive until a specially arranged trip to the United States in 1857 specifically for that purpose, he collected over 1,500 different birds from across 300 species, going so far as to display them to the public at the Zoological Garden of the Great Exhibition in 1851. Between 1849 and 1861, Gould published his most beautiful work, '‘A Monograph of the Trochilid, or Family of Humming-birds', containing finely painted illustrations of these tiny birds based upon the stuffed specimens in his collection. The major achievement of Humming-birds is the inclusion of gold leaf under the colouring to replicate the iridescence of the animals' plumage. The practice was not new; naturalists painting watercolor over gold leaf to show iridescence in feathers and in the scales of fish since the beginning of the century. Gould learned the technique from correspondence with the American ornithologist William Lloyd Baily (1828-61). However, Gould's innovation, employed by Henry Richter, who painted many of the birds, was the use of oils and varnish instead of watercolors to produce a brilliancy never before seen on the page. —excerpted from the introduction to the artist, Royal Collection Trust, Buckingham Palace, London

Creator:

John Gould and Henry Constantine Richter (1804 - 1881, English)

Creation Year:

c. 1850

Dimensions:

Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 10.25 in (26.04 cm)

Medium:

Lithograph

Movement & Style:

Realist

Period:

1850-1859