1161 - John Gould, black-necked grebe, coloured lithograph, The Birds of Great Britain

John Gould, black-necked grebe, coloured lithograph, The Birds of Great Britain Hand-coloured lithograph on paper, lettered in the stone below the image „PODICEPS NIGRICOLLIS.“, at the left „J. Gould and H.C. Richter, del. et lith.“, at the right „Walter & Cohn, Imp.“. Two black-necked grebes swim close together on calm water: the front one in profile to the left, with a black head, raised crown feathers, a golden yellow fan of feathers behind the red eye, a dark back and a rust-brown flank; the one behind turns its head frontally towards the viewer and shows the same fan of feathers. At the right a flowering water plant with a white umbel grows out of the reeds, at the left floating leaves drift on the water moved by ring-shaped ripples. From John Gould's „The Birds of Great Britain“. Age-appropriate good condition, paper slightly browned, partially stained. Image 27 x 39 cm (HxW), mount, behind glass, framed, frame slightly bumped, overall size 58 x 71 cm (HxW) „The Birds of Great Britain“ is regarded as the high point of the collaboration between John Gould (1804-1881) and the draughtsman and lithographer Henry Constantine Richter (1821-1902). The work appeared from 1862 to 1873 in 25 parts and was published by the author himself; after printing from the stone the 367 plates were coloured individually by hand. Gould deliberately showed the birds in their habitat and with the plants belonging to it, which sets the plates apart from the purely systematic bird illustration of the 18th c. The black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) carries its striking golden fan of feathers only in the breeding plumage.