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Joseph Bartholomew Kidd, after John James Audubon

Black-Backed Three-Toed Woodpecker, 1831/1833

Not on View

Medium

pencil and oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 66.7 x 52.4 cm (26 1/4 x 20 5/8 in.)

framed: 78.2 x 64.4 x 3.1 cm (30 13/16 x 25 3/8 x 1 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of E.J.L. Hallstrom

Accession Number

1951.9.6

Artists / Makers

Joseph Bartholomew Kidd (painter) Scottish, 1808 - 1889

John James Audubon (artist after) American, 1785 - 1851

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

reverse in ink: J.J. Audubon

Provenance

Painted for John James Audubon [1785-1851]; by descent in the Audubon family to his great-grandson, Leonard Benjamin Audubon [1888-1951], Sydney, Australia;[1] sold 1950 to E.J.L. Hallstrom [1886-1970], Sydney, Australia; gift 1951 to NGA.

[1] John James Audubon had four children, one of whom was John Woodhouse Audubon [1812-1862]. The younger Audubon married twice; he had two children with his first wife, Maria Bachman [1816-1840], and seven with his second wife, Caroline Hall [1811-1899]. Of the seven, five lived to adulthood, and one of them, William Bakewell Audubon [1847-1885], left the United States for Australia in either 1880 or 1882. He began a new life raising sheep near Yass, a small town about 250 miles west of Sydney. He married Lucy Ann Grovenor in 1885, and they had two children, Leonard Benjamin and Ella Caroline. According to a letter of 9 July 1952 from Ella Caroline Audubon to John Walker (in NGA curatorial files), Audubon paintings were sent to Australia in 1899 or 1900, which would correspond with the death of Caroline Hall Audubon on 1 February 1899. Miss Audubon's letter states that her father arrived in Australia 8 April 1880. However, Walter Audubon gives 21 January 1882 as the date that William Bakewell Audubon sailed for Australia, and he writes also that it was William who "brought with him many paintings by his grandfather, John James Audubon" (see Walter Audubon, Last of the Audubon Line: The Descendants of John Woodhouse Audubon, Franklin, North Carolina, 2002: 72-79).

Associated Names

Audubon, John James
Audubon, Leonard Benjamin
Hallstrom, E.J.L.

Exhibition History

1951: Audubon Centennial Exhibition, National Audubon Society, New York, January-February 1951, no. 34, as The Arctic Three-Toed Woodpecker.

1951: Audubon Paintings and Prints from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September-October 1951, no cat.

1953: Extended loan for use by the White House, Washington, D.C., 1953-1954.

1969: Extended loan for use by the White House, Washington, D.C., 1969-1980.

1988: Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1988-1994.

1999: Extended loan for use by Secretary William Richardson, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C., 1999-2001.

2001: Extended loan for use by Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2001-2004.

2001: Extended loan for use by Administrator Michael O. Leavitt in his office at the Environmental Protection Agency, 2004-2005.

2004: Extended loan for use by Administrator Michael O. Leavitt, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005.

2005: Extended loan for use by Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2005-2009.

Technical Summary

The fine canvas is plain woven; it was lined in 1951. The ground is white, of moderate thickness and smoothly applied. There is a thicker light cream imprimatura which is used as the middle tone in the sky. The forms are drawn in pencil with a dry, careful contour line. The painting is executed in very thin, fluid washes with linear details. The paint surface is severely solvent abraded and was retouched throughout in 1958, not only in losses and in the cracks of the pronounced craquelure, but with a generalized glaze to consolidate abrasion. The thick synthetic varnish then applied has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1963: Fries, Waldemar H. "Joseph Bartholomew Kidd and the Oil Paintings of Audubon's Birds of America." The Art Quarterly 26 (1963): 345.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 164, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 184, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 306.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 215, repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 145-147, repro. 146.