Broderipus formosus, the largest Orioles. Keulemans hand-coloured lithograph c1877.

by Keulemans, John Gerrard

Black-Naped Oriole of Siau Island, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Original lithograph circa1877 (with contemporary hand-colour), by the Dutch natural history artist John Gerrard Keulemans (1847-1908) for naturalist George Dawson Rowley’s Ornithological Miscellany, published in London between 1875 and 1878.

In 1866 Keulemans was invited to England by Richard Bowdler Sharpe to lithograph 121 birds specimens for Sharpe's Monograph of the Alcedinidae, or Family of Kingfishers, published between 1868 and 1871. Although he only produced bird illustrations, J.G. Keulemans was able to support his large family in London. He was one of the most talented lithographers, with scientific accuracy combined with sensitivity for the personality of each bird. One of the finest lithographers during the greatest period of publication of grand hand-illustrated books, Keulemans was illustrating The Birds of Australia, by G.M. Mathews when he succumbed to blindness. A dreadful end for someone who had such a fine eye for detail in his interpretation of wildlife.

Page measure 31.5 x 24cm (12 3/8 x 9.5 inches).