Goshawk / Stanley Hawk [Plate 141]

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John James Audubon
Goshawk / Stanley Hawk [Plate 141]

About the Item

Hand-colored etching Aquatint Numbered (at upper right); inscribed (at lower left center and lower right center) John James Audubon’s keen observation, passion for the natural world, and remarkable aesthetic sensibility combined to produce one of the world’s preeminent natural history documents. Publication of the four-volume The Birds of America, the grandest and most sumptuous colorplate portfolio ever produced, was a massive undertaking without precedent. For the portfolio, Audubon created 433 original paintings in watercolor, pastel, and other media, from which the engravings for the colorplates were made. Arguably the most important natural history publication of all time, the watercolors and prints for The Birds of America also stand as one of the finest achievements in American art. Audubon’s accomplishment—a story of triumph over immeasurable obstacles—has made him one of America’s most written-about artists. At least twenty-three biographies of the woodsman-cum-naturalist have been published to date, and even an opera has been devoted to the subject. When John James Audubon (1785–1851) stepped off the ship Delos in the autumn of 1826 and onto the crowded Liverpool docks, he was already forty-one years old and virtually unknown to the scientific and artistic community in Great Britain. Although he carried with him a portfolio of 240 drawings which, by themselves, represented an extraordinary achievement, he knew these comprised only roughly half the subjects he would need to fulfill his dream of publishing the definitive study of the birds of North America. With a fortuitous chain of introductions to guide him, the artist made his way to Edinburgh, where by December 1826 he had engaged the printing firm of William Home Lizars, and his father Daniel. Work proceeded quickly on the first ten prints, but before they could be completed and forwarded to the subscribers, the colorists employed by Lizars went on strike. After the printer’s unsuccessful attempts to negotiate their return, he was forced to advise Audubon to transfer the store of prints, in various stages of completion, to London, where the artist would once again have to embark on the search for a printer willing to assume the immense task. Once Audubon arrived in London, his search for an engraver quickly led him to the firm of Robert Havell, Sr. This shop, whose ancillary trade in natural history specimens may have led the artist to believe he had found a kindred spirit. For the first year or so of their collaboration, there were problems with the colorists under the elder Havell’s supervision. However, by June 1828, Robert, Sr., retired. The partnership was officially dissolved, and the quality of the numbers issued from that point on by the younger Havell were higher, consistent with the extraordinary level of craftsmanship in colorplate book publishing that had evolved over the preceding fifty years. From a technical standpoint, the illustrations for “The Birds of America” can best be understood as watercolors with prints underneath them. A subject's linear details, textures, and form were first established by the etched and engraved passages laid down on copperplate by the printer, Robert Havell, Jr. Following the printing of the image in black ink on sturdy sheets of Whatman paper, identical to the paper Audubon employed for the original watercolors, the prints were colored assembly-line fashion to match the example set by artist's proofs, a number of which have survived and descended in the Havell family. As production proceeded, tensions often ran high as the artist and his family struggled to assure that the engraving and coloring remained as faithful to the originals as possible. Publication of “The Birds of America” ended on June 20, 1838, with the pulling of the final plate; the era of the grand color aquatinted folios also came to a close, prompted by the increased adoption of the new and more economical lithographic printing process. Audubon’s accomplishment was made possible by the moment in the history of colorplate printing in which it occurred and the confluence of talent, commensurate with his own, that was brought to bear at every stage. Comparison of the original watercolors with the prints, along with review of the types of instructions given by Audubon to the Havells, makes immediately clear the extent to which the artist relied upon this remarkable family. Audubon’s achievement, while singular, was nonetheless the outcome of an extraordinary collaboration with a family of engravers whose consummate skill and artistic sensibility breathed life into every image they created.

Creator:
John James Audubon (1785-1851, American, French)
Dimensions:
Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 24.75 in (62.87 cm)
Medium:
Aquatint,Etching
Movement & Style:
American Realist
Period:
19th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: APG 20610D.0031stDibs: LU231329623