|
The
eye can be easily fooled
When viewing
the products of Gould.
The hand, it is clear,
May be John, Liz or Lear,
Or others whose talents were pooled.
James
Helyar
|
|
Whodunit?
The close cooperation in which Gould
and his artists worked makes it very difficult to determine which piece
of work is from whose hand. Since the sketches are rarely signed, stylistic
evidence and identification of the occasional fragment of handwriting
become important, although Gould's handwriting may be found on the work
of any of the group.
|
|
Small study of bill colors of Ramphastos toco,
with short note. This may be by Elizabeth Gould.
|
|
| Tissue tracings of a
large drawing of Ramphastos toco. Possibly by Edward Lear. |
 |
 |
| The
following items appear to be two leaves from a sketchbook, with coloured
sketches of the two birds, heavily annotated by Lear, apparently done during
a visit by Lear and Gould to the Zoological Society of Berlin. |
| Watercolor
sketch of Pteroglossus prasinus, heavily annotated. |
|
| Watercolor
sketch of Pteroglossus regalis, heavily annotated. |
|
| Finished handcolored
lithographic print of Ramphastos toco. Signed by Edward Lear. The bird's
wicked and humorous eye would probably identify it as the work of that celebrated
nonsense writer and accomplished artist even without his signature. The
closeness of size and pose of the bird to those in the two tracings above—the
difference is in the turn of the head—makes it likely that the tracings
are for an unused version of the same original. In A Monograph of the
Ramphastidae (1834, plate 6), acquired on the tenth anniversary of the
Spencer Library (1979) with the generous help of the KU Friends of the Library. |
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