The Hummingbirds. The hummingbirds were especially close to Gould's heart. He himself owned a remarkable collection of these jewel-like creatures which he displayed in a pavilion in the London Zoological Gardens during the Great Exhibition of 1851. The technical problems of representing the iridescent colors of the plumage in his illustrations exercised his ingenuity until he developed a process utilizing gold leaf which provides a remarkable glowing realism in his pictures.
Three tissue tracings, by Gould or H.C. Richter, showing hummingbirds and Cicoma alba, the White Stork. The two sorts of birds appear to have been drawn originally on a single piece of tissue and then traced separately onto the other two pieces, each of which shows color experimentation.
Pencil drawing by John Gould of his hummingbird pavilion at the London Zoo, with the cases he designed for exhibiting the birds.
Wood-engraved portrait of Gould and two views (interior and exterior) of his hummingbird pavilion, shown in the Illustrated London News, 12 June 1852, p. 457.
Finished hand-colored lithographic print of the Cometes phaon Gould, a hummingbird first described by John Gould. In his A Monograph of the Trochilidae, vol. 3, plate 175.
Experimental prints by Gould incorporating five hummingbirds from various illustrations. These tissue prints have been used as color experiments, the colored parts back-painted on the other side of the tissue, one with silver, and the other with gold.

~return to collections~