John Gould (1804-1881), Podiceps cristatus [Great-crested Grebe]

John Gould (1804-1881) Podiceps cristatus [Great-crested Grebe]
from The Birds of Great Britain Vol. V
Published: London, 1873
Aquatint engraving with original hand coloring
Paper size: 21 3/8" x 14 1/2"

John Gould (1804–1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world’s birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 "Birds of Europe" and the [1840]–1869 "Birds of Australia" with its Supplement, Gould responded to popular demand for birds of the British Isles. The "Birds of Great Britain" was Gould’s most popular of his large-format multi-volume ornithological works, with the greatest number of subscribers. Gould’s challenge was to circumvent the conception of British birds as ordinary or unremarkable. He had to bring the birds that circled overhead before his readers’ eyes with freshness and striking beauty. The complexity of the scenes grew, with tableaux of nests, chicks and eggs joining the usual modes of depiction.

Gould wrote in the Preface that he “felt that there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera - a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by authors; and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest…” The text is longer than in any of his other works, and many of the illustrations were prepared from freshly-killed specimens. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations.