Sharp-Tailed Finch
1831/1833
Painter, Scottish, 1808 - 1889
Artwork overview
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Medium
pencil and oil on millboard
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 48.3 x 29.9 cm (19 x 11 3/4 in.)
framed: 58.3 x 39.9 x 1.9 cm (22 15/16 x 15 11/16 x 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1951.9.5
Artwork history & notes
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] Handwritten in ink across a label on the back of the painting is: "W.B. Audubon." 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
Exhibition History
1951
Audubon Centennial Exhibition, National Audubon Society, New York, January-February 1951, no. 36, as The Sharp-Tailed Sparrow.
Audubon Paintings and Prints from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September-October 1951, no cat.
1954
[John James Audubon exhibition for the benefit of the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine], Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1954.
1969
Extended loan for use by the White House, Washington, D.C., 1969-1978.
1981
Extended loan for use by William J. Casey, Director, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C., 1981-1987.
Bibliography
1963
Fries, Waldemar H. "Joseph Bartholomew Kidd and the Oil Paintings of Audubon's Birds of America." The Art Quarterly 26 (1963): 345.
1964
Ford, Alice. John James Audubon. Norman, Oklahoma, 1964: 443.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 164, repro., as Sharp-Tailed Sparrow.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 184, repro., as Sharp-Tailed Sparrow.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 306, as Sharp-Tailed Sparrow.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 215, repro., as Sharp-Tailed Sparrow.
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: 144-145, repro. 144.
Wikidata ID
Q20185755