Description
Audubon’s text also observed:
I have not met with this species farther south than the Bay of New York. During the winter it is not rare about Boston and farther eastward. At the approach of summer, before the pairing of the Herring Gull, Larus argentatus, the White-winged Gulls collect in flocks, and set out for the distant north, where they breed.
The flight of this species so much resembles that of the Herring Gull, that were it not for its smaller size, and the different colour of it wings, it could not be distinguished from the other. It is less shy, however, proceeds farther up the rivers and salt-water creeks, and alights oftener on the water as well as on the salt-meadows, than that species. While at Portland in Maine, I observed a good number of these Gulls flying over the inner harbour close to the shores, descending towards the water, and picking up garbage in the manner of the Herring Gulls, with which they associated. Their notes were not so loud, nor so often heard.
I was surprised to find but very few on the coast of Labrador, and those did not seem to be breeding, for although we carefully watched them, we did not succeed in finding any nests.
John James Audubon, the most renowned American bird artist and ornithologist, was born in Haiti, in 1785. When French control of Haiti ended in 1803, he was sent to his father’s farm near Philadelphia. He married and moved to Kentucky five years later. A self-taught artist, Audubon developed his own methods of mounting birds so he could draw them in lifelike positions. He also expanded on showing the birds in the natural habitat, following the lead of Mark Catesby (1682- 1749), an English naturalist responsible for the first published illustrated account of the flora and fauna of North America. Audubon conceived of the project to document the birds of America in 1810, but financial setbacks prevented him from seriously embarking upon it until 1820. He and his family relocated to Louisiana, and from there he explored vast regions of the United States along the East Coast and through parts of the Midwest, drawing the various species of birds in their natural habitats.
In 1826, Audubon traveled to England with his portfolio of ornithological works to seek support for its publication, and was warmly received by influential members of the scientific community, who helped him make the necessary connections. Audubon’s original drawings and watercolors were engraved and published as The Birds of America, principally in London, by Robert Havell, Jr., in an unprecedented “double elephant folio” size. Approximately 200 sets were issued in parts of five prints each, from 1827 to 1838, and then often bound as a set of books. This exceedingly rare work is now considered the greatest natural history color-plate book ever made in terms of its historical and scientific importance and accuracy, the artistry of the compositions, and the quality and size of the prints.
Robert Havell Jr. was a British-born engraver and painter, and member of the renowned Havell family of artists. He learned the art of aquatint engraving from his father, Robert Havell Sr. and worked in the family engraving business and then with Colnaghi’s in London. He established himself as a master of aquatint with 425 plates (of the set of 435 plates) he executed for John James Audubon’s double elephant folio first edition of The Birds of America, published principally in London between 1827 and 1838. In 1839, at Audubon’s invitation, Havell moved with his family to New York and embarked on a new career as a landscape painter in the style of the Hudson River school, while also working as an engraver. He lived in Ossining and Tarrytown and traveled throughout the Northeast, sketching views which he translated into oil paintings and engravings at home. Perhaps his best known aquatint is Niagara Falls from the Chinese Pagoda, which he engraved after one of his paintings. His works are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The White House, the New York Historical Society and many others.
Full publication information: “No. 57. Plate CCLXXXII. White-winged silvery Gull. Larus Leucopterus. Bonap. 1. Male summer plumage. 2. Young in winter. Drawn from Nature by JJ Audubon FRS FLS. Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell, 1835.”
References:
Audubon, John James. The Birds of America, from Drawings made in the United States and their Territories. Re-issued by J.W. Audubon. New York: Roe Lockwood & Son: 1861. Vol. 7, pp. 159-160. Online at Google Books:http://books.google.com/books?id=GQk6AQAAIAAJ (28 October 2011).
Nissen, Claus. Die Illustrierten Vogelbucher: ihre Geschichte und Bibliographie. Stuttgart: 1976. 49.
“Robert Havell Jr.” The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com.http://www2.artnet.com/library/03/0369/T036956.asp (9 September 2003).
“Sale 9326, Lot 39.” Christie’s. 10 March 2000. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/audubon-john-james–ithe-birds/1723601/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=1723601&sid=bbb2364c-9c2c-412e-a383-7863cb664fea (28 October 2011).
Sitwell, Sacheverell. Fine Bird Books, 1700-1900. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990. p. 57.
Wood, Casey A. (ed.) An Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology Based Chiefly on the Titles in the Blacker Library of Zoology, the Emma Shearer Wood Library of Ornithology, the Bibliotheca Osleriana, and Other Libraries of McGill University, Montreal. London: Humphry Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931. p. 207.
Zellman, Michael David. American Art Analog, Vol. 1. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. p. 113 (Havell).
Zimmer, John Todd. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Zoological Series, Publ. 239-240, Vol. 16. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1926. pp. 18-20, 20-21.
