| John Gould - Richard Bowdler Sharpe |
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John Gould, who lived and worked in London for much of the nineteenth century, has been called by one authority "the greatest figure in bird illustration after Audubon." (Fine Bird Books 1700-1900 by Sacheverell Sitwell). Over a period of some fifty years, as naturalist, publisher, and artist, Gould created an immense body of ornithological work, encompassing birds from all over the world. The climax of his life's work, according to Sitwell, is the posthumously-published Monograph of the Birds of Paradise, which grew out of Gould's Birds of New Guinea, and was compiled and published by his long-time assistant and fellow artist, Dr. Richard Bowdler Sharpe.
Most of the prints offered here are from The Birds of Paradise. Some were originally drawn by Gould himself, for Birds of New Guinea, and some were drawn and engraved specifically for Birds of Paradise, by William Hart, who spent some fifty years as Gould's chief artist.
The prints are hand-colored lithographs, displaying an exquisite richness of coloring which heightens the exotic colors of these magnificent birds. All were published by Mintern Brothers of London between 1891 and 1898. As Sharpe points out in his introduction to the monograph, the intent of the lavish production was, quite simply, to dazzle the beholder. They succeeded admirably.
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