Provenance
Painted for John James Audubon [1785-1851]; by descent in the Audubon family to his great-grandson, Leonard Benjamin Audubon [1888-1951], Sydney, Australia;[1] sold 1950 to E.J.L. Hallstrom [1886-1970], Sydney, Australia; gift 1951 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1951
- Audubon Centennial Exhibition, National Audubon Society, New York, January-February 1951, no. 33.
- 1951
- Audubon Paintings and Prints from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September-October 1951, no cat.
- 1953
- Extended loan for use by the White House, Washington, D.C., 1953-1954.
- 1954
- [John James Audubon exhibition for the benefit of the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine], Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1954.
- 1969
- Extended loan for use by the White House, Washington, D.C., 1969-1979.
- 1988
- Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1988-1994.
- 2001
- Extended loan for use by Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2001-2004.
- 2001
- Extended loan for use by Administrator Michael O. Leavitt in his office at the Environmental Protection Agency, 2004-2005.
- 2004
- Extended loan for use by Administrator Michael O. Leavitt, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005.
- 2005
- Extended loan for use by Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2005-2009.
Technical Summary
The light canvas is plain woven; it was lined in 1955. The ground is white, thinly applied. There is a light-colored imprimatura. The forms are underdrawn with a light pencil contour line. The painting is executed in thin, smooth layers ranging from opaque to translucent; the landscape is sketchily painted in thin, translucent glazes. There is extensive craquelure, and scattered retouching, now discolored, was carried out throughout the background and in the nest during restoration in 1955. The synthetic varnish has discolored to a moderate degree.
Bibliography
- 1963
- Fries, Waldemar H. "Joseph Bartholomew Kidd and the Oil Paintings of Audubon's Birds of America." The Art Quarterly 26 (1963): 343, 345, 346, 348, fig. 5.
- 1964
- Ford, Alice. John James Audubon. Norman, Oklahoma, 1964: 442.
- 1970
- American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 164, repro.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 186, repro.
- 1980
- American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 306.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 215, repro.
- 1992
- Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 140-142, repro. 141.
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