You will likely recognise the name #JohnGould because he is, after John James Audubon, the greatest illustrator of birds ever. However, this is not quite accurate. Gould’s speciality was in the drawings and sketches he produced. He was an observer of minutiae, which carried into his drawings the ability to render different species by their characteristics and at a speed that most artists could not duplicate. Gould then passed his drawings to selected fellows to produce finished drawings/watercolours from which lithographs were produced. The whole process always being under his close supervision.

The finishing of his rough drawings was delegated to his wife Elizabeth as well as other artists, including Edward Lear, Joseph Wolf, and Henry Richter. The lithography was mostly performed by William Hart.

In my collection is a fabulous drawing of the birds seen in the lithograph shown above. The paper has aged and darkened and has a number of age spots on it, as well as a slight discolouration due to the cedar board on the back splitting. The birds are marginally larger than those of the lithograph but otherwise identical. It’s not a rough sketch but a very finely drawn finished work.

Might this be the finished work of #ElizabethGould or #EdwardLear. The work done only in two colours would so easily be copied by a lithographer onto stone.