John James Audubon

oil on canvas

61.0 x 76.2 cm

Dec 17, 2024 • Christie's

oil on canvas

45.7 x 38.1 cm

Dec 17, 2024 • Christie's

Dec 17, 2024 • Christie's

hand-coloured engraving with aquatint and etching, on wove paper watermarked 'j whatman 1836'.

159 x 96.8 cm

Jun 8, 2023 • Christie's

hand-coloured engraving with aquatint and etching, on wove paper watermarked 'j whatman 1831', trimmed unevenly into plate mark, with loss to number at top-left and just touching the lower caption.

94.9 x 62.9 cm

Jun 8, 2023 • Christie's

oil on canvas laid down on masonite

67.3 x 100 cm

Jan 18, 2023 • Sotheby's

27 x 16.5 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

37.7 x 53.2 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint, on watermarked j whatman paper dated 1834, with margins. plate size 657 x 522 mm (956 x 630 mm sheet). (pale mat toning and a little wear/soiling to edges, matted and framed.

size 657 x 522 mm 956 x 630 mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, and etching, on watermarked j whatman turkey mill paper, date obscured. sheet size 958 x 641mm. (narrow edge-chipping, mostly to top edge where disbound, lower margin trimmed and extended with later paper, lizars' imprint trimmed off, subtitle with latin name trimmed to letters and re-pasted below title.) matted.

size 958 x 641mm.

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

216 x 130mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

408 x 262mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint, on watermarked j whatman paper dated 1836. 982 x 644 mm sheet size. (plate number trimmed from upper right corner, some very pale mat toning.) float-mounted, matted and framed.

982 x 644 mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

49.6 x 31 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

rare catalogue. audubon exhibited his watercolor models for the birds of america at the new york academy of sciences (then called the lyceum of natural history) in 1839, following a triumphal return to the united states from england. the present catalogue is rare; rbh records no copies.

18.5 x 11 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

94 x 63.8 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

47.2 x 70.2 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

49 x 31.3 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

52.4 x 55.6 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

31.5 x 49.8 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint, on watermarked j whatman paper dated 1831, with margins. plate size 499 x 315 mm (970 x 642 mm sheet). (minor soiling to sheet edges, small pale spot in upper left of plate.) matted and framed.

size 499 x 315 mm 970 x 642 mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

96.5 x 64 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

audubon left st. louis up the missouri in april of 1843 along with a party of trappers and several indians who had come to st. louis for trade. of the trappers, audubon was astonished that their knowledge of animals was confined to useful furs only. however, audubon enjoyed showing off his work to the indians and one of his party, the naturalist edward harris, reported that one of the women actually ran away from audubon’s specimen lithograph of the woodchucks, exclaiming that they were alive. after about 1000 miles, the party finally reached the prairie and a paradise of wildlife: elk, deer, bear, and wolves in plenty and buffalo by the thousands. audubon was fascinated by the large animals. on his return home, he was soon in declining health and left many of the smaller mammals for his son, john woodhouse, to draw. a little over half the animals are after john james audubon, the remainder after his son, and the backgrounds are after his youngest, victor gifford, who also oversaw the printing and publication. it took the closely-knit audubon family five years to publish the 150 plates, for which there were three hundred subscribers. the lithographer was j.t. bowen to whom the audubons were also entrusting the octavo edition of the birds. the quadrupeds was the most successful large color-plate book to be produced in america in the 19th century. audubon’s collaborator on the text was the pastor john bachman, whose passion for american mammals equaled audubon’s own for birds. bachman was an exacting partner and they disputed points of accuracy and detail. no one, however, disputes the fruit of their labors: audubon’s quadrupeds is still one of the grandest and most beautiful depictions of american mammals ever produced. bennett, p. 5; mcgill/wood, p.208; nissen zbi 162; stamped with a national characater, 36; sabin 2367. see rhodes, john james audubon: the making of an american

68 x 52.5 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint, on watermarked j whatman paper dated 1828, with margins. plate size 491 x 310 mm (954 x 628 mm sheet). (very pale mat-toning, edges with light soiling and a few spots.) matted and framed.

size 491 x 310 mm 954 x 628 mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

seven volumes, royal octavo (256 x 163 mm). subscribers' lists present in all volumes. 500 hand-colored lithographed plates after audubon by w.e. hitchcock, r. trembly and others

25.6 x 16.3 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

lithograph with hand-coloring on artists board, with margins. proof before letters, without imprint or captions. image 560 x 452 mm (705 x 557 mm sheet). (spotting and some mat burn, some heavy dampstain along edges, upper right corner restored, all corners chipped, surface scratch in hindquarters of second-largest rat). matted and framed. framed by ludwig katzenstein in baltimore before c. 1984. provenance: james henry carleton

56 x 45.2 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

three volumes, octavo (256 x 172mm). half-titles in vols 1 and 3. 155 hand-colored lithographed plates by w.e. hitchcock and r. trembly after j.j. and john wodehouse audubon (vol. 1 preliminary leaves spotted, a few stray other spots/stains). later half morocco gilt, spine with raised bands, top edges gilt (spines sunned, some rubbing to corners, couple of stains to fore-edge). provenance: moncure biddle

25.6 x 17.2 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

63.7 x 95 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

49.6 x 31 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint, with margins. plate size 497 x 310 mm (960 x 645 mm sheet). (some very pale offsetting and mat-shadow, top quarter of sheet affixed to mat board.) matted and framed.

size 497 x 310 mm 960 x 645 mm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint

32.4 x 54.5 cm

May 26, 2022 • Christie's

hand-colored engraving with aquatint and etching, on J. Whatman paper

96.6 x 64 cm

May 17, 2022 • Christie's

5 volumes, large 8vo (267 x 159 mm). half-titles, numerous woodcut in-text illustrations, prospectus and list of subscribers with separate title at rear of vol. i. publisher's pink cloth, original paper labels to spines; some fading and wear, vol. i rebacked with original spine, endpapers in vol. ii renewed, other repairs to hinges.

267 x 159 mm

Jan 25, 2022 • Sotheby's

color printed lithograph (image size: 641 x 946 mm; sheet size: 679 x 1,013 mm). on fine handmade paper. handsomely matted, framed, and glazed, with frame finished in 24k gold leaf, and silk mat with beveled gold edge; not examined out of frame.

size 641 x 946 mm size 679 x 1,013 mm

Jan 25, 2022 • Sotheby's

hand-colored aquatint, engraving and etching

660 by 528 mm 26 by 20 3/4 in 981 by 651 mm 38 5/8 by 25 5/8 in 1045 by 717 mm 41 1/8 by 28 1/4 in

Jan 24, 2022 • Sotheby's

hand-colored aquatint, engraving and etching

96.4 x 64.9 cm

Jan 24, 2022 • Sotheby's

hand-colored aquatint, engraving and etching

984 by 665 mm 38 3/4 by 26 1/4 in 1025 by 705 mm 40 3/8 by 27 3/4 in

Jan 24, 2022 • Sotheby's

watercolor and colored pencil on paper

46.4 x 31.8 cm

May 19, 2021 • Sotheby's

watercolor and colored pencil on paper

30.5 x 47 cm

May 19, 2021 • Sotheby's

hand-colored copperplate engraving with aquatint, 965 x 647mm. some surface soiling, few pale stains to left edge. two repaired closed tears at lower edge, one encroaching into ground, marginal chipping and reinforcement along left edge. tipped to mount and framed.

96.5 x 64.7 cm

Oct 16, 2020 • Christie's

the most ambitious of all color-plate books to be wholly produced in the United States. Audubon, reported that one viewer actually ran away from Audubon’s specimen lithograph of the woodchucks, for which there were three hundred subscribers. The lithographer was J.T. Bowen to whom the Audubons were also entrusting the octavo edition of the Birds. The Quadrupeds was the most successful large color-plate book to be produced in America in the 19th century. Bennett, McGill/Wood, spotting to content leaves). 150 hand-colored lithographic plates by J.T. Bowen after John James and John Woodhouse Audubon, minor occasional fingersoiling). Modern brown half morocco over green cloth boards (faintly rubbed

68.5 x 55.5 cm

Jun 18, 2020 • Christie's

7 vols., 8vo (10 6/8 x 6 3/4 in.; 278 x 175 mm). 500 hand-colored lithographed plates after audubon by w. e. hitchcock, r. trembly, and others

27.3 x 17.1 cm

Dec 18, 2019 • Sotheby's

CI–CCCCXXXV) with line-engraving and aquatint, after the original life-sized watercolor drawings by Audubon (some botanical and landscape backgrounds by friends and collaborators of Audubon, AN EARLY SUBSCRIBER'S COPY OF AUDUBON'S "DOUBLE ELEPHANT FOLIO"—INCOMPARABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT AND MOST BEAUTIFUL COLOR-PLATE BOOK EVER PUBLISHED, THIS IS AN UNUSUALLY LARGE AND BRILLIANTLY COLORED COPY, with silk stockings, and the finest ruffled silk shirt Philadelphia could afford, the natural son of Jean Audubon, that had been purchased in 1789 for its potential lead deposits, offered many subjects to my pencil, ” he soon developed an elaborate scheme of wiring the birds into natural attitudes that he had observed in the wild, There he took a soft board and sharpened pieces of wire and “pierced the body of the Fishing bird and fixed it onto the board—another Wire passed above his upper Mandible was made to hold the head in a pretty fair attitude, —the last Wire proved a delightful elevator to the Bird’s Tail and at Last there Stood before me the Mankin of a Kings Fisher! … I sat to, Audubon made modifications and improvements to his wiring scheme—he adopted uniform grids behind his tableaux and on his drawing paper to assist him in depicting proportions—but this became his standard protocol for the original drawings that were the basis for The Birds of America, … The more I understood my Subjects the better I became able to represent them in what I hoped was a natural Position, and had already taken a pen to write my name in his favour, all of Natural Size, The first collecting and painting expedition Audubon made with this goal clearly in mind was in the autumn of 1820, since it is likely that the American publishing industry was not yet technically advanced enough to produce and print the massive engraved plates that Audubon had in mind, and abundance of copper, Audubon’s plan was to issue 80 parts or fascicles, to Lucy: “it is to come out in numbers of 5 prints the size of Life and all in the same size paper of my Largest Drawings called Double Elephant paper, and colored the plates for The Birds of America, While supervising the work—or leaving his son Victor to do so—Audubon made trips back to America to look for subscribers and—more significantly—to find and paint more birds, He won subscriptions from many prominent individuals and institutions and must have been particularly pleased that Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences and American Philosophical Society both subscribed, As for his painting, he captured so many new subjects that The Birds of America was eventually extended to 87 parts totaling 435 engraved plates, as much a natural wonder as the remarkable birds it depicts, with the brilliantly colored plates in very clean and fresh state with brilliant paper tone, The four volumes are housed in a George IV oak folio cabinet, and Carnegie Museum of Natural History) have subsequently been acquired by private collectors in 2005, Great Natural History Books and their Creators

97.155 x 63.5 cm

Dec 18, 2019 • Sotheby's

hand-colored engraving

38.1 x 53.34 cm

Feb 16, 2018 • Copley Fine Art Auctions

a stone lithograph with applied watercolor on unwatermarked, off-white paper

54.61 x 69.52 cm

Feb 11, 2018 • Simpson Galleries

a stone lithograph with applied watercolor on unwatermarked, off-white paper

55.55 x 70.79 cm

Feb 11, 2018 • Simpson Galleries

collotype

100.97 x 66.67 cm

Jan 28, 2018 • Neal Auction Company

color engraving with aquatint and etching

93.34 x 59.05 cm

Jan 20, 2018 • Litchfield County Auctions

engraving on wove paper

48.26 x 68.58 cm

Nov 19, 2017 • Thomaston Place Auction Galleries

Oil on canvas

51.44 x 43.81 cm

Oct 13, 2017 • Heritage Auctions