Snowy Owl (Audubon)

Last updated

Snowy Owl
Bubo scandiacus (Audubon).jpg
John James Audubon's etching
Artist John James Audubon
Year1831;192 years ago (1831)
TypeEngraving
LocationIn various archives, museums and collections around the world.
OwnerUniversity of Pittsburgh

Snowy Owl is an engraving by naturalist and painter John James Audubon. It was printed full size and is an early illustration of a snowy owl and part of The Birds of America . It was first published as part of a series in sections around 1831. This specific engraving of the snowy owl, like others in The Birds of America, consists of a hand-coloured engraving, made from copper engraved plates, measuring around 39 by 26 inches (99 by 66 cm). The same book includes images of six now-extinct birds. [1] Art historians describe the quality of Audubon's work as being high and printed with "artistic finesse". [2]

Contents

The plant life backgrounds of this engraving were done by Audubon's assistants and Joseph Mason but they are not credited in the book. [3] The piece was created by shooting the owls and then painting them after Audubon set them into poses. He then directed the production of the printing plate based upon his painting. Audubon included details on the bird itself in his Ornithological Biographies. [4] [5] The Snowy Owl engraving was made by Robert Havell. The original prints were printed on J. Whatman watermarked paper. The border of the image is labelled "Snowy Owl (No. 25, Plate CXXI)" and "Strix Nyctea". On the lower left is written "Drawn from Nature by J. J. Audubon F.R.S.F.L.S." "Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R.R.Havell, London" appears on the lower right. [6]

Background publication history

This is a detailed and enlarged image of Audubon's engraving, Snowy Owl. It shows the details of the etching of the owl's foot. Audubons snowy owl foot.png
This is a detailed and enlarged image of Audubon's engraving, Snowy Owl. It shows the details of the etching of the owl's foot.
This is a detailed and enlarged image of Audubon's engraving, Snowy Owl. The original piece is life sized. It shows the details of the etching of the owl's feathers. Audubon snowy owl feather details.png
This is a detailed and enlarged image of Audubon's engraving, Snowy Owl. The original piece is life sized. It shows the details of the etching of the owl's feathers.

Though Audubon typically used oil colours, for this piece he used watercolours and pastel crayons (and occasionally pencil, charcoal, chalk, gouache, and pen and ink). [7] His first depiction of the snowy owl was done in pastels in 1809. [8] The Snowy Owl was part of the original edition of The Birds of America (sometimes called the Havell Edition [9] [7] after its printer, and sometimes called the "Double Elephant Folio", because of its size). It was printed on handmade paper 39.5 inches tall by 28.5 inches wide (100.3 × 72.4 cm). The principal printing technique was copperplate etching, but engraving and aquatint were also used. [9] Colourists applied each colour in an assembly-line fashion (over fifty were hired for the work). [10] He was able to sell the Snowy Owl engravings to his wealthy patrons as part of The Birds of America. [11]

Audubon described the snowy owl in his Ornithological Biographies, which he wrote with Scottish naturalist and ornithologist William MacGillivray. [12] Part of his role as a naturalist was his examination of the stomach contents of owls. As was his habit, Audubon included his assessment of the owl's use as a food source. He stated that snowy owls were "not indelicate eating". [13]

Critique

One art historian described the piece, as an image that depicts the owls as "...gazing directly into the eyes of the observer." The owls stand out from their dark background, as a developing winter storm is seen behind them. Though Audubon depicted the birds perched on the branch of the tree, the owls do not typically use trees as perches since much of their hunting ground is tundra and lacks trees. The female bird is realistically displayed as being larger than the male. [8]

Public exhibitions

The Snowy Owl engraving has displayed individually and as part of exhibitions of The Birds of America by the following organizations:

Collections and archives

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John James Audubon</span> French-American ornithologist (1785–1851)

John James Audubon was a French-American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book titled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon is also known for identifying 25 new species. He is the eponym of the National Audubon Society, and his name adorns a large number of towns, neighborhoods, and streets across the United States. Dozens of scientific names first published by Audubon are still in use by the scientific community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquatint</span> Tonal printmaking technique

Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used historically to print in colour, both by printing with multiple plates in different colours, and by making monochrome prints that were then hand-coloured with watercolour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Tory Peterson</span> American naturalist, ornithologist and writer (1908–1996)

Roger Tory Peterson was an American naturalist, ornithologist, illustrator and educator, and one of the founding inspirations for the 20th-century environmental movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Wilson (ornithologist)</span> Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator (1766-1813)

Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator. Identified by George Ord as the "Father of American Ornithology", Wilson is regarded as the greatest American ornithologist before Audubon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William MacGillivray</span> Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (1796–1852)

William MacGillivray FRSE was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gould</span> English ornithologist (1804–1881)

John Gould was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prothonotary warbler</span> Species of bird

The prothonotary warbler is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. It is named for its plumage which resembles the yellow robes once worn by papal clerks in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Havell family of Reading, Berkshire, England, included a number of notable engravers, etchers and painters, as well as writers, publishers, educators, and musicians. In particular, members of this family were among the foremost practitioners of aquatint; and had a long association with Indian art and culture. The family first came to notice through the brothers Luke Havell and Robert Havell the Elder ; along with their nephew Daniel Havell.

<i>The Birds of America</i> 1827–1838 book by John James Audubon

The Birds of America is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and London. Not all of the specimens illustrated in the work were collected by Audubon himself; some were sent to him by John Kirk Townsend, who had collected them on Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth's 1834 expedition with Thomas Nuttall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Martin</span>

Maria Martin Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina, was an American watercolor painter and scientific illustrator. She contributed many of the background paintings for John James Audubon's The Birds of America (1831–39) and Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845–48). Bachman was the only woman of the three principal assistants that Audubon employed at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowy sheathbill</span> Species of bird

The snowy sheathbill, also known as the greater sheathbill, pale-faced sheathbill, and paddy, is one of two species of sheathbill. It is usually found on the ground. It is the only land bird native to the Antarctic continent.

Priscilla Susan Bury, born Falkner, was an English botanist and illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Weidensaul</span>

Scott Weidensaul is a Pennsylvania-based naturalist and author. He was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for his book Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds.

<i>Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots</i> 1832 book by Edward Lear

Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots is an 1832 book containing 42 hand-coloured lithographs by Edward Lear. He produced 175 copies for sale to subscribers as a part-publication, which were later bound as a book. Lear started painting parrots in 1830 when he was 18 years old, and to get material for his book he studied live birds at the London Zoo and in private collections. The latter included those of Edward Smith Stanley, later 13th Earl of Derby, who had a large menagerie at Knowsley Hall, and Benjamin Leadbeater, a taxidermist and trader in specimens. Lear drew onto lithographic plates for printing by Charles Joseph Hullmandel, who was known for the quality of his reproductions of fine art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D-Scribe Digital Publishing</span>

D-Scribe Digital Publishing is an open access electronic publishing program of the University Library System (ULS) of the University of Pittsburgh. It comprises over 100 thematic collections that together contain over 100,000 digital objects. This content, most of which is available through open access, includes both digitized versions of materials from the collections of the University of Pittsburgh and other local institutions as well as original 'born-electronic' content actively contributed by scholars worldwide. D-Scribe includes such items as photographs, maps, books, journal articles, dissertations, government documents, and technical reports, along with over 745 previously out-of-print titles published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The digital publishing efforts of the University Library System began in 1998 and have won praise for their innovation from the leadership at the Association of Research Libraries and peer institutions.

William Home Lizars was a Scottish painter, engraver and publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlington Collection</span>

The Darlington Collection is extensive collection of rare documents, maps, and other historical material focusing on early American history, particularly that of Western Pennsylvania. The original material is housed by the Archives Services Center (ASC) of the library of the University of Pittsburgh with digitized material available at the Darlington Digital Library. The collection was inherited by Darlington's daughters Mary O'Hara Darlington and Edith Darlington. The donation of the collection was first given to the University of Pittsburgh in 1918. The rest of the collection was donated in 1925.

The Audubon Society of Haiti is a non-governmental, non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the conservation and restoration of Haiti’s biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Through the organization’s strides toward conservation of the environment, they are also working towards improving the quality of life for the Haitian people. Their activities include scientific research, education, outreach, and establishing local and international partnerships. The organization was founded in July 2003 by Philippe Bayard, Jacky Lumarque and Florence Sergile. It was named in honor of John James Audubon, an ornithologist, naturalist and native of Les Cayes, who painted, cataloged, and described birds of North America in the famous elephant folio book Birds of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audubon Mural Project</span> Public art project

The Audubon Mural Project is a public art project with the goal of painting the birds depicted by John James Audubon in his early 19th century folio The Birds of America on blank walls and roll-down corrugated metal shop shutters of the Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights neighborhoods of upper Manhattan where Audubon once lived.

<i>The Costume of Yorkshire</i> 1814 book by George Walker

The Costume of Yorkshire is an 1814 book by George Walker illustrating the various styles of dress worn by people of differing traditional professions in the county of Yorkshire in the 19th century.

References

  1. Society, National Audubon. "Birds of America: Extinct birds: Birds driven to extinction since Audubon's time". web4.audubon.org.
  2. 1 2 Hoover, Bob (4 March 2008). "Audubon's 'Birds' now in flock on one Web site". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, PA. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  3. Burt, DeVere. "The Joseph Mason Project, Historic Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum". Ruthven.com website. Accessed 17 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Audubon at Pitt". University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  5. "Audubon's Birds of America | Digital Pitt". digital2.library.pitt.edu. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  6. "An Audubon Engraving Is on the Block". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Central Park's Winged Tenants, By Audubon". The New York Times . 26 December 2003.
  8. 1 2 Olson 2012, p. 222.
  9. 1 2 "Original Audubon Prints - Antique Natural History Prints - Books - Havell - Bien - Imperial Folio - Bird and Animal Prints". minniesland.com.
  10. Rhodes, 2004, pp. 273, 389
  11. "Rarae Aves: Audubon At Auction". The New York Times. 3 March 2000.
  12. "William MacGillivray". nhm.ac.uk.
  13. Davis 2003, p. 218.
  14. "PictureIt Rare Book Reader". umich.edu.
  15. Willard Spiegelman (19 May 2011). "Birds of America by John James Audubon at Hill Memorial Library at Louisiana State University-The Joys of Slow Looking-By Willard Spiegelman - WSJ". WSJ.
  16. "Audubon's Birds of America". pitt.edu.
  17. "Free Audubon Day includes prints, lectures". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  18. "Pitt's University Library System Hosts Second Annual Audubon Day". www.news.pitt.edu. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  19. "Birders flock to Audubon's art". The Pitt News. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  20. "Teyler's 2007 exhibition website". Vogelsxxl.nl. 3 November 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  21. "Original Audubon Prints - Antique Natural History Prints - Books - Havell - Bien - Imperial Folio - Bird and Animal Prints". minniesland.com.
  22. Pitz, Marylynne (16 November 2013). "Pitt exhibits Audubon prints". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  23. "Audubon's Birds of America at the University of Pittsburgh". audubon.pitt.edu. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  24. "Meisei University Birds Of America, Meisei University". birdsofamerica.meisei-u.ac.jp. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  25. Webmaster. "Trinity College is Nest for Birders". www.trincoll.edu. Retrieved 1 October 2016.

Bibliography