John James Audubon (1785-1851), Iceland, or Jer Falcon

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The Winter Sale 2022, Day 2

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Mar 5, 2022

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• Lot Description
  John James Audubon (1785-1851)
  Iceland, or Jer Falcon, 1837
  (No. 74, PIate CCCLXVI)
  hand-colored engraving, 35 3/8 by 23 in. (sheet)
  on J. Whatman 1837 watermarked paper
  
  According to the family, Frank W. Benson acquired this arresting Audubon print of Falco Islandicus “as a true splurge as soon as he had enough money to do so.” His granddaughter recalled, “He gave it to Mother as a very special and valuable gift.” Although he trimmed the margins finding them "a distraction," Benson's family has enjoyed this Havell-edition work for generations. It has never left the family walls.
  
  Purchasing the Audubon print was significant for Benson, since “As a child he had been fascinated by birds and had decided at an early age that he wanted to be an ornithological illustrator. He haunted the halls of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and pored through the thick volumes in its library. He admired the work of Audubon, hoping to follow in his footsteps.”
  
  Audubon first sketched this species on an expedition in Labrador in early August 1833, reporting, “I made my drawing of them the day after their death. It was one of the severest tasks which I ever performed, and was done under the most disagreeable circumstances. I sat up nearly the whole of the night, to sketch them in outline. The next day it rained for hours, and the water fell on my paper and colours all the while from the rigging" of the boat.
  
  The noted ornithologist and artist also drew from a specimen in London in 1837. He notes, “Their flight resembled that of the Peregrine Falcon, but was more elevated, majestic, and rapid. They rarely sailed when travelling to and fro, but used a constant beat of their wings. When over the Puffins, and high in the air, they would hover almost motionless, as if watching the proper moment to close their pinions, and when that arrived, they would descend almost perpendicularly on their unsuspecting victims.”
  
  Provenance: Frank W. Benson Collection
  Private Collection, Virginia, by descent in the family
  
  Literature: Faith Andrews Bedford, "The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson," Boston, MA, 2000, pp. 17-19. John James Audubon, "Iceland, or Jer Falcon," Audubon Society, accessed 13 December 2021, https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/iceland-or-jer-falcon John James Audubon, "Birds of America, From Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories," London, England, 1826-1838.

  Condition

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