Past Exhibition

Audubon Prints, "Birds of America"

An ocean-blue bird with a long body and a flax-yellow beak and legs stands in a lush landscape in this vertical color print. The image is printed on cream-colored paper with a wide margin around the edges. The bird stands with its body in profile facing our left on a low dirt mound. Its head is turned completely around to our right with its beak tilted down and one amber-yellow eye looking our way. Its tall legs are dotted with brown, and a long blue and brown plume drapes down from its back. Long, plum-purple feathers adorn its throat, and white feathers line the underside of its neck and head. The bird stands next to a tall plant to the right. Bare tree trunks float in a pewter-gray river that begins in the lower left and widens as it reaches the center. The river divides the bird from a grove of palm trees, bushes, and reeds painted in muted tones of green, yellow, and gray that almost fills the left side. Another grove of palms in tones of gray fills the center distance with bare, contorted tree trunks in the water before it. The print is inscribed outside the image in all four corners and the bottom center. The upper left reads, “No. 44” and the upper right reads, “Plate CCXVII.” The lower left reads, “Drawn from Nature by J.J. Audubon. F.R.S. F.L.S.” and the lower right reads, “Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell, 1834.” The center inscription reads, “Louisiana Heron” printed in script and continues, “ARDEA LUDOVICIANA. Wils Male adult.”
Robert Havell, Jr., Louisiana Heron, 1834, hand-colored engraving and aquatint on Whatman wove paper, Gift of Mrs. Walter B. James, 1945.8.217

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    Ground Floor, Central Gallery
An ocean-blue bird with a long body and a flax-yellow beak and legs stands in a lush landscape in this vertical color print. The image is printed on cream-colored paper with a wide margin around the edges. The bird stands with its body in profile facing our left on a low dirt mound. Its head is turned completely around to our right with its beak tilted down and one amber-yellow eye looking our way. Its tall legs are dotted with brown, and a long blue and brown plume drapes down from its back. Long, plum-purple feathers adorn its throat, and white feathers line the underside of its neck and head. The bird stands next to a tall plant to the right. Bare tree trunks float in a pewter-gray river that begins in the lower left and widens as it reaches the center. The river divides the bird from a grove of palm trees, bushes, and reeds painted in muted tones of green, yellow, and gray that almost fills the left side. Another grove of palms in tones of gray fills the center distance with bare, contorted tree trunks in the water before it. The print is inscribed outside the image in all four corners and the bottom center. The upper left reads, “No. 44” and the upper right reads, “Plate CCXVII.” The lower left reads, “Drawn from Nature by J.J. Audubon. F.R.S. F.L.S.” and the lower right reads, “Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell, 1834.” The center inscription reads, “Louisiana Heron” printed in script and continues, “ARDEA LUDOVICIANA. Wils Male adult.”
Robert Havell, Jr., Louisiana Heron, 1834, hand-colored engraving and aquatint on Whatman wove paper, Gift of Mrs. Walter B. James, 1945.8.217

Overview: This selection of 68 prints came from the double-elephant folio given to the Gallery by Mrs. Walter B. James of New York, in memory of her husband, Dr. James, and his brother, Norman James of Baltimore. The sheets from this unique set, untrimmed and unbound, had never before been exhibited.

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