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John James Audubon
Purple Martin
1860

Name: Purple Martin
Brand: John James Audubon
Rating: 4.9 (44 reviews)

$8,500List Price

About the Item

Original color lithograph of Purple Martin from John James Audubon, The Birds of America, Bien Edition, 1860. Unframed. Image size: 28 x 22 inches. Produced between 1858 and 1860, the Bien edition of Audubon’s Birds of America is the physically largest (27 x 40 inches), and most valuable color plate book ever published in America. It is the rarest of all Audubon folios. John James Audubon (1785–1851), is renowned for his extraordinary undertaking to record the birds of America. The images he created are icons of 19th-century art. Having studied and drawn birds since childhood, in 1819, Audubon followed his passion and fully embraced the life of an artist-naturalist, embarking on a mission to create the Birds of America. He explored the American backwoods and wilderness to discover, record, and illustrate its avian life. It was not until he reached the shores of Great Britain with a portfolio laden with his bird portraits that Audubon found an engraver who could produce his great work in the size of life, as he desired. Together with London engraver, Robert Havell, J. J. Audubon and his family created the lavish double-elephant-size Havell edition of aquatint engravings of The Birds of America, published 1827–38. Seven years after their father’s death, Audubon’s sons, John Woodhouse Audubon and Victor Gifford Audubon, began an American edition of The Birds of America with Julius Bien, a New York-based printer who was pioneering the field of chromolithography. Bien used six printing stages; additionally, hand-drawn lithography and coloring were used to reproduce image subtleties. The new technique of chromolithography was perceived as an advancement in print-making technology that promised to achieve effects entirely different from engraving. This edition represents one of the finest examples of early large-scale color printing. The Bien edition was also sold by subscription beginning in 1858. Production was brought to a halt by the advent of the Civil War and only 150 plates on 105 sheets were completed. The Audubon family was unable to complete and sell the edition or recoup their losses, which led to a devastating bankruptcy. The consensus is that fewer than seventy folios were completed.

Creator:
John James Audubon (1785-1851, American, French)
Creation Year:
1860
Dimensions:
Height: 38.5 in (97.79 cm)Width: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)
Medium:
Lithograph
Movement Style:
Naturalistic
Period:
1970-1979
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: JZ 10-4-211stDibs: LU5188887982

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John James Audubon
Purple Martin
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About the Item