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Hummingbirds
19th-Century Lithographs of Exotic Hummingbirds (Through September 5) Experience a beautiful new exhibit about the exotic hummingbird family in the Museum’s Maximus Gallery. Featured are original nineteenth-century hand-colored lithographs by British ornithologist John Gould. Hummingbirds have captivated gardeners and bird watchers alike for their delicate beauty and avian maneuvers. Native to the New World, there are over 320 species, mostly found in Central and South America. Of the 17 species found to breed in North America and winter south of the border, only six are routinely found on the Central Coast. While all of Gould’s books on birds were popular, it was his five-volume monograph on The Family of Hummingbirds, published between 1849 to 1861, that drew the most attention. Gould developed a special process to capture the reflective iridescence of bird feathers. His work on hummingbirds provided the most reliable attempt to arrange the species systematically and became the definitive reference for the Victorian era. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 2559 Puesta del Sol Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Telephone: (805) 682-4711 This free display (until July 6, 2022) of engravings from John James Audubon's "The Birds of America" reaffirms why it continues to inspire artists, bird experts and conservationists alike.
John James Audubon was born in 1785. A self-taught wildlife artist, he spent twenty years travelling North America to record birds for his book. Published between 1827 and 1838, the 435 prints transformed bird illustration through realistic proportions, animated poses and innovative new printing techniques. The Birds of America is a feat of artistry and technical skill. Display highlights include:
The Natural History Museum THE MUSEUM AT SOUTH KENSINGTON Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom Looking at the Collection: Audubon Quadrupeds
This exhibition (March 27 - July 3, 2022) presents a selection of original Audubon prints from the Museum’s own collection of thirty-four viviparous quadrupeds, donated by Mr. & Mrs. William H. Told. The Tolds collected Audubon prints for nearly forty years, having received their first work — a marmot — as a gift. They appreciated the scientifically accurate animal subjects (some of which are now extinct), as well as the beautifully detailed backgrounds that often included native foliage and other naturalistic details. HUNTSVILLE MUSEUM OF ART Haws Gallery 300 Church Street S., Huntsville, AL 35801 Phone: 256.535.4350 Catesby in the Carolinas
Mark your calendar for this exhibit (3/21/22 - 8/13/22) of Mark Catesby works and accompanying programming. Catesby (1683-1749) was an English naturalist, explorer and artist who traveled the southeastern U.S. and Caribbean and documented the wildlife he encountered there through his publication Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Catesby in the Carolinas is a collaborative exhibit between the Libraries Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and the McKissick Museum. The Irvin Department is showcasing its collection of Catesby prints in its gallery at the Hollings Library and McKissick is exploring Catesby's natural history. Both exhibits are free and open to the public. Hollings Library 1322 Greene Street Columbia, SC. 29208 803-777-3847 McKissick Museum McKissick Building 1501 Pendleton Street Columbia, S.C. 29201 803-777-2515 Published between 1827-1838, Birds of America contains 435 life-size watercolours, all reproduced from hand-engraved plates. Due to its enormous size (standing at almost one metre tall), very few complete versions remain today. The exhibition showcases a beautiful bound copy of Birds of America, 46 original unbound prints, rare books, letters, ephemera and taxidermy specimens that demonstrate the accuracy of the drawings. Coveted for its accurate life-size drawings of North American birds as well as it’s depiction of many now-extinct species, its scientific value makes Birds of America one of the most celebrated books of natural history.
National Museum of Scotland Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF 0300 123 6789 Did you know that the New-York Historical Society (NYHS) houses the world's largest collection of Auduboniana? One of the great American artist-naturalists, John James Audubon (1785–1851) was the legendary rara avis who created the landmark Birds of America (1827–38). Experience highlights from Audubon’s spectacular watercolor models for the 435 plates of The Birds of America with their corresponding plates from the double-elephant-folio series, engraved by Robert Havell Jr. This intimate gallery—the only place in the world where one can see the artist's watercolor model, the Havell plate, and reduced octavo-edition exhibited together—features a bimonthly rotation that highlights a single species at a time. Each rotation also includes other watercolors and Auduboniana to showcase the artist’s creative process and his contributions to ornithological illustration. Curated by Roberta J.M. Olson, curator of drawings emerita.
Note: Due to the watercolor medium and its paper support, these light-sensitive works can only be displayed for short periods of time under low light levels. The gallery allows New-York Historical to share these national treasures with the public while preserving them for future generations. Please contact the NYHS for details about admission. New-York Historical Society 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street) New York, NY 10024 (212) 873-3400 The works in this exhibition (November 4, 2021 - March 2, 2022) come from the impressive collection of Dr. Michael and Elyn Stubblefield. The selected pieces showcase art from the 1700s to modern times and demonstrate how much art and artists’ views have evolved surrounding the scientific depiction of birds.
Some highlights include art work by Pieter Holsteyn, Johann Leonhard Frisch, Eleazer Albin, Mark Catesby, Sarah Stone, Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon, Prideaux John Selby, John Gould, Henry Constantine Richter, Roger Tory Peterson, David Beadle etc among others. Simmons Visual Arts Center Sellars Gallery 200 Boulevard Brenau University Gainesville, GA 30501 Phone: (770) 534-6263 Email: gallery@brenau.edu John James Audubon’s The Birds of America has been analyzed by scholars of art history, ornithology, and history of science and mythologized within American frontier history alongside the evocative biography of Audubon himself. It has not been thoroughly considered, however, through the lens of its primary printmaker, Robert Havell Jr., who printed the publication in his London shop between 1827 and 1838. In doing so, Havell Jr. transformed Audubon’s original watercolor studies into the scientific and artistic masterpiece for which Audubon is known today. Seeing Audubon presents the ongoing research of artist, printmaker and UW–Madison Associate Professor Emily Arthur as she explores the techniques and methods that Havell Jr. used to print The Birds of America. Additionally, two volumes of a complete four-volume set of The Birds of America are on view in this exhibition. Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust.
Chazen Museum of Art University of Wisconsin 750 University Avenue Madison, WI 53706 608-263-2246 The traveling exhibition "REVISITING AMERICA: THE PRINTS OF CURRIER & IVES" organized by Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, will be at the Florence Griswold Museum from October 2, 2021 through January 23, 2022. Special lectures about Currier & Ives on October 6th and 8th. Please visit the museum website for details.
Florence Griswold Museum 96 Lyme Street Old Lyme, CT 06371 860-434-5542 Revisiting America: The Prints of Currier & Ives, Jun 2 - Aug 29, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT7/22/2021
Revisiting America: The Prints of Currier & Ives will explore how the largest printmaking company in nineteenth-century America visualized the nation’s social, political, and industrial fabric. The company is best known today for its lush, hand-colored lithographs that nostalgically depicted an idyllic republic of pioneer homesteads, sporting camps, and bucolic pastimes; however, these sentimental images comprised only one aspect of Currier & Ives’ production. The company’s inexpensive and popular prints were a ubiquitous presence for decades, and just as frequently touched on pressing social and political issues. Addressing economic development, western expansion, the Civil War, and controversies of racial and class politics, Currier & Ives portrayed scenes of urbanization, nation building, naval battles, catastrophic disasters, and current events that were far from idyllic.
Divided into five themes—Country Life, Hunting, Politics and History, Sport, and Urbanization—this exhibition reveals the surprising modernity of the firm’s prints. The works on view offer a complex and conflicted vision of America that embraced the possibilities of an emerging urban and industrial society while nostalgically celebrating the social stability of a rural ideal. Associate Curator : Katie Wood Kirchhoff SHELBURNE MUSEUM 6000 Shelburne Road PO Box 10, Shelburne, VT 05482 (802) 985-3346 info@shelburnemuseum.org "Faces from the Interior is the first Museum project to focus exclusively on Karl Bodmer’s watercolor portraits of Native Americans. The exhibition features sixty-four recently-conserved watercolors, drawn entirely from Joslyn’s renowned Maximilian-Bodmer collection. This includes portraits of individuals from Omaha, Yankton, Lakota, Mandan, Hidatsa, Assiniboine, and Blackfoot tribes, among many Native communities encountered by Maximilian and Bodmer during their travels along the Missouri River from Saint Louis to Fort McKenzie, in present-day Montana. The installation will be complemented by a selection of Bodmer’s Missouri River landscapes and Native American village sites, placing viewers within the larger context of life on the High Plains.
Faces from the Interior was organized by the Margre H. Durham Center for Western Studies, Joslyn Art Museum, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Spring 2021, the exhibition will be one of the first rotating installations to complement The Met’s new installation of The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art. The exhibition will return to Omaha in Fall 2021 and travel to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX during October 29, 2022 - January 22, 2023. Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge Street Omaha, NE 68102-1292 (402) 342-3300 "The MAC is pleased to present an exclusive collection of original prints, and a selection of drawings, paintings, manuscripts, and personal possessions that shed light on the man behind the masterpieces. Our exhibition tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the people, processes, and young nation that produced this American original. who overcame so many obstacles to attain international recognition through his creativity and initiative.
Supplemented with taxidermy from the MAC’s collection, the objects in the exhibition are on loan from the John James Audubon State Park Museum in Henderson, Kentucky, where Audubon and his family lived for many years." Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture 2316 West First Avenue Spokane, Washington 99201 509-456-3931 An exhibit about the diversity and abundance of wildlife in North America in the early 19th century as witnessed by artists and ornithologists, paired with their own prophetic warnings about wilderness loss during their time. Images of now-extinct birds illustrated by Mark Catesby, Alexander Wilson, and John James Audubon are on display, through May 2, 2021.
John and Peggy Maximus Gallery Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 2559 Puesta del Sol Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Telephone: (805) 682-4711 Two new in-person exhibits explore the work of artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), created during Bodmer's voyage with Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied into the American interior beginning in 1833.
"Karl Bodmer: Travels in North America" April 1 - December 31, 2021 Fenimore Art Museum 5798 STATE HIGHWAY 80 (P.O.BOX 800) COOPERSTOWN, NY 13326 607-547-1400; INFO@FENIMOREART.ORG "Karl Bodmer: North American Portraits" April 5 - July 25, 2021 The Met Fifth Avenue 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10028 Phone: 212-535-7710 John Woodhouse Audubon and Victor Gifford Audubon were both highly talented artists in their own right, though their accomplishments are often eclipsed by the works of their more famous father, John James Audubon. The Audubon Museum in Henderson, KY boasts 17 original oil paintings (2 on display currently, and 15 in storage) by John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford Audubons. A recent post about these oil paintings (as well as images) by the museum curator Heidi Taylor-Caudill can be seen in the Blog section of the link for the Audubon Museum and Nature Center, Henderson, KY (see the Audubon page).
In 2016, ConAgra Foods, Inc. (now Conagra Brands) donated nearly 600 Currier & Ives lithographs to Joslyn Art Museum. Now home to one of the largest public collections of these popular and historically significant images, Joslyn has organized this exhibition that sheds new light on the famous firm’s artistic and commercial practices. Revisiting America: The Prints of Currier & Ives will explore how the largest printmaking company in nineteenth-century America visualized the nation’s social, political, and industrial fabric.
Known today for its lush, hand-colored lithographs that nostalgically depicted an idyllic republic of pioneer homesteads, sporting camps, and bucolic pastimes, these sentimental images comprised only one aspect of Currier & Ives’ production. The company’s inexpensive and popular prints were a ubiquitous presence for decades, and just as frequently touched on pressing social and political issues. Addressing economic development, western expansion, the Civil War, and controversies of racial and class politics, Currier & Ives portrayed scenes of urbanization, nation building, naval battles, catastrophic disasters, and current events that were far from idyllic. Revisiting America is organized into themed sections—Sails, Steam, and Speed; Urban Experiences; Domestic Visions; Sporting Life; The Frontier; The Civil War and the American South; America in War and Peace; and Humor. The exhibition reveals the surprising modernity of the firm’s prints, offering a complex and conflicted vision of America that embraced the possibilities of an emerging urban and industrial society while nostalgically celebrating the social stability of a rural ideal. For additional details, please contact the museum. Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge Street Omaha, NE 68102-1292 (402) 342-3300 Location: University Libraries Virtual Event
Admission Cost: Free Join our virtual expedition into the wilderness of the 18th century New World through the eyes of the mysterious Mark Catesby — Englishman, adventurer, explorer, naturalist and artist. Rudy Mancke, along with other naturalists and curators who assist in the work of The Mark Catesby Centre at the University of South Carolina, will share tales of Catesby’s adventures. - - - - - - - Registration is required to attend this free, online event (see link below). You will receive an email with a link to join closer to the event date. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/curious-like-catesby-tickets-124459831707 Exhibition Dates: Through Jan. 3, 2021,
Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Galleries Curated in response to the pandemic, “Nurture” brings together 12 striking large-scale works on paper from the elephant folios of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America.” Each work-on-paper depicts nature’s family unit, playing out the natural life cycle and quest for survival. Visitors are invited to study the detail of the nests and the vibrant colors of each bird; It is also an opportunity to reflect on the ways in which we need to be nurtured and the ways we build our nests and support structure during this time. The work of the famed 19th-century naturalist takes on a new, timely meaning in light of our own nesting and search for comfort as we face the uncertain. For additional information, please contact: Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art 901 South College Street | Auburn, Alabama 36849 | Phone (334) 844-1484 The Museum welcomes visitors back into the galleries starting Wednesday, September 9, with updated hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, required free timed tickets to encourage social distancing, and increased health and safety procedures including required cloth masks.
Today only about 200 complete sets of The Birds of America exist. The Museum’s set, bound in four leather portfolios, was acquired by the State of North Carolina in 1848 and kept for more than a century at the State Library before being transferred to the Museum. The hand-colored engravings were recently conserved and rebound. In the new Audubon Gallery, the NCMA presents Audubon’s work in special cases designed for each of the enormous “double elephant” volumes, with hydraulic lifts that allow staff access so that the pages can be turned periodically to display a new selection of birds. Organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art Free to public. For additional information, please contact: North Carolina Museum of Art 2110 Blue Ridge Road Raleigh, NC 27607 (919) 839-6262 Birds of America Audubon Exhibit
JUN 1 - SEP 6, 2020 Explore American ornithologist, naturalist and painter John James Audubon (1785-1851) with 50 illustrations from his extensive studies documenting American birds. Audubon's' color-plate book, The Birds of America, with detailed illustrations of birds in their natural habitats is one of the finest examples of ornithological literature ever published. In addition to these illustrations, the exhibition will feature some of Audubon's colored plates of animals along with taxidermied birds and animals depicted on various works. For all ages, and includes an “Explorers Campsite” with a tent, animals, fishing pond and other hands-on activities for young visitors. Midland Center for the Arts 1801 W. Saint Andrews Midland, Michigan 48640 Tel. 989.631.5930 Email. info@midlandcenter.org |
Antique Print BlogAuthorThis blog is devoted primarily to sharing information about some interesting events and news related to antique prints, and the artists who published them, with main focus on antique nature prints. Archives
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