Brown Pelican

Paper Size: 100 x 67 cm/ 39.4 x 26.4 inches.
Published in cooperation with Teylers Museum.

Certified Art Giclée on Hahnemuhle White Etching paper.

All prints are strictly limited to 250 copies. Signed, numbered and with blind embossing. Including a Certificate of Authenticity.

John James Audubon was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America (Alexander Wilson has that distinction), but for half a century he was America’s dominant wildlife artist. His ’Birds of America’, a collection of 435 life-size watercolours is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists are measured.

In 1826 he sailed with his partly finished collection to England where he found a printer for the Birds of America. The original  edition was first engraved in aquatint by Robert Havell junior, then each color was applied by a colorist in assembly line fashion (over fifty were hired for the work).

Known as the Double Elephant folio it is often regarded as the greatest picture book ever produced and the finest aquatint work. It took 12 years and the last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon has achieved fame.

The originals of our Facsimile Edition one can see at the Teylers Museum. Approximately 200 sets were thought to have been created in the early 1800’s but only 130 are still known to exist. One of these was sold in 2011 by Christies in New York for 8 million dollars, the third highest price for a printed book at auction. This strong result for Audubon’s masterpiece confirms its iconic status and now holds the top three auction records for printed books. Teylers Museum bought their first edition when it came out for 243 guilders and is the only institute in the Netherlands that has a copy. 

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