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.
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.
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