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After joining the Australian Club in Melbourne in 1980, in one of their rooms they had a full collection of Gould prints. Gould painted and had lithographed approximately 650 Australian birds during his visit to Australia in around 1850 He was here for 2 or 3 years with his wife, and it is the most complete collection of Australian birds ever done. I particularly became interested in the parrots and cockatoos. There are 14 Australian cockatoos and 42 Australian parrots. The Australian Club was short of money in the 80’s and wanted to sell their Gould collection which was donated by Gerry Niall’s father. I purchased the six volumes, I did break it up and hung the parrots, cockatoos and ducks in my various homes. I later bought another full set in London.
There are of course other great bird painters. I was struck by a French artist Barraband who painted in the late 1700’s. His whole collection of originals of the birds he painted was put up for auction by Sotheby’s in Monaco in June 1988. I looked through this catalogue and found there were six Australian birds. Remembering that James Cook and Banks had discovered Australia in 1772, Barraband had got hold of some of the specimens Banks brought back, the eastern rosella, sulphur crested cockatoo, etc. I was able to buy three of the originals at the Monaco auction and around a year later found two that I failed to buy at auction for sale in an antique shop in London. I duly purchased them and had five of the six Australian birds that Barraband had painted. These were worth a lot of money.
The other great bird artist was Edward Lear he painted Australian birds in the 1820’s and he did show a little bit of enterprise because he painted the sulphur crested cockatoo male as it should be painted, but he painted the female differently. As we all know both birds look identical, so he was cheating a little. He also shows up with Gould. Gould used his wife Elizabeth Gould to help do the early lithographs, she then died and Edward Lear did the next 70 or 80 and then he stopped and Richter did most of the others. Edward Lear was a great bird artist but he gave up painting birds to become a cartoonist and became very famous drawing cartoons for many of the newspapers at the time.
My ranking is Barraband 1, Lear 2 and Gould 3.
Another great bird artist was the American Audobon and also the English artist Selby. I was fortunate enough to purchase several of Selby’s originals from which the lithographs were taken. Neither Audabon nor Selby ever painted Australian birds.
Dear Anne-Marie
Thanks for your information on your Barrabrand prints.To respond to your enquiry can you please send photo images of each print by email to me at —
jdereport@gmail.com
Regards
John
Hello. I have 3 original Barraband Prints. Sizes 15 and a half inches by 11 and a half inches. Plate mark round all edges with 1 inch margin. Buff coloued paper with very faint lines.No.1. Le Grand Toucan a Ventre Rouge. Barraband f bottom left. On the right Peree sculpsit. In the middle De lImprimerie de Langlois. Birds beak facing left. Beautiful colours. No. 2. L Oiseau de Paradis rouge.Particulars on bottom as before. Bird facing right. No.3. Le grand Oiseau de paradis Emeraude, male. No. 4. L Aracari Azara. Auguste pinxt. On the right Barierre sculp. Middle. De l Imprimerie de Millevoy. Best colouring. Facing right. Same paper and plate mark. Could you help me with prices please. Sincerely Anne
Mark,
Yes I am very interested to see the two Barraband prints as I ranked him as my top Australian bird artist .i will email you separately today so you can send these to me.
Thanks for your interest
Regards
John
hello my email is
sadler@fitzroyfallspottery.com
I have the pictures listed on my website but if you need larger pictures email and I can send full size photos of both Barraband pictures.
I have dealt with 17th century maps and paper and to me the paper age seems correct and checked to make sure it was not printed.
I think I would like to sell one if they are expensive
Mark
I have good contact with Bird print specialist who can give an appraisal but they will need photo images .If you ring my office 03 9 606 0711 we can sort out best way to pass on images .
Regards
John
hello I have 2 Barraband original pictures, a bird of paradise and a le grand jacamar which I purchased from a small shop. Both are about 22 inches by 15 and I can see the press mark from the plate they used in the paper so are not fakes. I was wondering what value these would be in and should I have them insured as you said in interview the prints were not cheap.
Just wanted to say that your wife has style,very pretty person.The photo in todays Herald Sun at Mr Pratts funeral,very pretty.
I was interested to see some history on Gould. I remember as a primary school student (Dromana Vic) in the 50′s being a member of the Gould League of Bird Lovers. Oh if only I still had the magazines & badges. Find your website very interesting. Keep up the good work.