Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
Original Watercolor by George F. Sandström

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Ivory-billed Woodpeckers

Image cropped to artist's pencil marks (above) and detail of male (below).

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers detail
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers detail Ivory-billed Woodpeckers detail

Full sheet (above left), detail of female (above right), signature (below left) and inscription (below right).
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers detail Ivory-billed Woodpeckers detail
George F. Sandström (1925-2006)
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
American: c. 1982
Watercolor on illustration board
Signed "Sandström" and titled in pencil
19.75 x 11.75 inches overall
Provenance: Estate of John E. duPont
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Ornithological painting of a pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers produced by the natural history artist George F. Sandström for a monograph on woodpeckers by Lester L. Short. The painting was owned by the naturalist and author John Eleuthère duPont who collaborated extensively with Sandström. This highly detailed, realistic rendering shows a male and a female perched on a fragment of a log. The work is titled by the artist in the lower margin “Campephilus Principalis” and was evidently painted from specimens borrowed from the American Museum of Natural History, where Short was chairman of the Department of Ornithology, since “AMNH” collection reference numbers are also listed there.

This work was used to illustrate Lester L. Short's book Woodpeckers of the World, published in 1982 by the Delaware Museum of Natural History. It appears in the book as Plate 83 on page 621. The Delaware Museum of Natural History was founded by duPont and he was instrumental in building its ornithological collection. This work was again published in 1986 in Newsweek and on the front page of the New York Times to illustrate articles about confirmed sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers in Cuba. This was major news because the birds had not been seen in the U.S. since the early 1950s and had been feared to be extinct.

The large and impressive ivory-billed woodpecker once ranged through the swampy forests of the lower Mississippi Valley, from North Carolina to Florida and west to Arkansas and eastern Texas. There is also a Cuban variant. The population of these birds, which can exceed 20 inches in length and have distinctive bills the hue of pale ivory, has declined due to habitat destruction, to the point that since the mid-20th-century sightings have been extremely rare. The latest reported sightings were in Arkansas in 2005, but those are the subject of scientific controversy, since the bird is easily confused with the pileated woodpecker.

George F. Sandström was a natural history artist who illustrated over 40 books with his paintings birds, animals, flowers, minerals and plants over a long career. Born in Argentina, he earned a masters degree in economics there. In 1950, he immigrated to the United States and spent several years trying to launch an acting career and another five as a banker in Philadelphia before embarking on a career as a natural history artist in 1962. Although he was a self-taught artist, he quickly found success with Seashells of the World(1962), a best-seller that was translated into seven languages and sold millions of copies over the next 25 years. During the 1970s and 1980s, Sandström collaborated with John E. duPont, naturalist, founder and chairman of the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington, illustrating duPont's books Philippine Birds (1971), South Pacific Birds (1976) and Woodpeckers of the World (1982). His painting of an ivory-billed woodpecker was published in Newsweek in 1986. He also illustrated regularly for the New York Times, Ranger Rick magazine, and other periodicals. Sandström painted from his own field sketches and photos as well as borrowing stuffed specimens from museums. His paintings have been exhibited at museums and galleries in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Washington, DC.

Inscription in lower margin: “Plate 83. AMNH #363840 Campephilus Principalis [male]. AMNH #755578 [Campephilus Principalis female].”

Provenance: Estate of John E. duPont (1938-2010), founder of the Delaware Museum of Natural History. DuPont was an ornithologist who discovered some two dozen species and authored several books on birds.

References:

"About the Ivory-bill." Cornell University: The Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. 2014. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/aboutibwo/ (31 March 2014).

Benish, Bill. "Illustration of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers by George F. Sandström." Campephilus Woodpeckers. 28 February 2014. http://cwoodpeckers.blogspot.com/2014/02/illustration-of-ivory-billed.html (31 March 2014).

Downey, Sally A. "George F. Sandström, 81, Artist and illustrator." Philadelphia Inquirer. 24 June 2006. Online at Alt.obituaries: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/ZWkg1nsJqxY (25 March 2014).

duPont, John Eleuthère. Philippine Birds. Greenville, DE: Delaware Museum of Natural History, 1971.

Eckholm, Erik. "Woodpecker, Believed Extinct, Seen in Cuba." New York Times. 5 May 1986. p. A1.

Gress, Karen K. "Artist Draws His Subjects From Nature." Philadelphia Inquirer. 18 January 1987. http://articles.philly.com/1987-01-18/news/26189912_1_wildlife-paintings-wildlife-art-exhibition-watercolor-painting (25 March 2014).

"John Eleuthere du Pont." Delaware County Daily Times. 12 December 2010. Online at Remembering Pa.us. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/delcotimes/obituary.aspx?n=john-eleuthere-du-pont&pid=147097458 (12 January 2012).

Wilson, Wendell E. "George F. Sandström." The Mineralogical Record Museum of Art. 2014. http://www.minrec.org/artwork.asp?artistid=29&cat=1 (25 March 2014).