John and Elizabeth Gould. Elizabeth Coxen Gould (1804-1841) was an accomplished artist when she and John Gould were married in 1829. She was the chief artist and lithographer for the Gould partnership for the first ten years of major publications. The first major monograph of John and Elizabeth Gould was A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1831 and 1832, 80 plates). Through the succeeding years they produced The Birds of Europe (1832-37, 449 plates, a quarter of them by Edward Lear), A Monograph of the Ramphastidae (1834, 34 plates, some of them by Lear), A Monograph of the Trogonidae (1835-38, 36 plates), A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia (1837-38, 73 plates), The Birds of Australia (1837-38, 20 plates), and Icones Avium (1837-38, 18 plates). In May 1838, the Goulds sailed for Australia where they spent two years of intensive work. Gould explored as far as four hundred miles into the interior of the continent and two of his assistants lost their lives on the expedition. Mrs. Gould spent at least part of the time at Government House in Hobart, Tasmania, and it was there that Franklin Gould (the youngest of the three Gould sons) was born. She painted a good many birds on the journey as we know from signed and dated drawings in the Collection. The Goulds arrived back in England in 1840. Unfortunately Elizabeth did not long survive (dying in 1841) and her work was translated into lithographs by H. C. Richter and published under his name.
Noctua cuculoides, 1830-31. A fine example of Elizabeth Gould's early style, stiff and somewhat primitive but charming. Published in A Century of Birds, plate 4.
Garrulus lanceolatus, 1830~31. Published in A Century of Birds, plate 40.
Falco frontatus, published in Birds of Australia, vol. 1, plate 10. This shows a major development of Elizabeth Gould's artistic skills over, for instance, items 1 and 2 in this case. It may be that Lear's influence can be seen.
Unidentified sketch of a woman, found among sketches for birds published in The Birds of Europe (1832-37). This is not the work of Elizabeth Gould but it is pleasant to imagine that this may be a likeness of Elizabeth by John.

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