Belted Kingfisher

Artist John James Audubon (American, 1785 - 1851)

Engraver Robert Havell Jr. (American, 1793 - 1878)

Colorist Robert Havell Jr. (American, 1793 - 1878)

Date1830

Mediumetching and aquatint on paper, hand-colored

Dimensions38 7/8 x 26 inches (98.7 x 66 cm)
Frame: 43 3/4 × 35 3/4 × 1 1/8 inches (111.1 × 90.8 × 2.9 cm)

Credit LinePurchase of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, 1987

Object number91.100.25

ClassificationsPrints

Label TextArtist John James Audubon changed the way we see nature. He had a grand vision. It came from his personal passion for studying birds. Audubon produced one of the world’s most beautiful and amazing publications. The Birds of America features 435 individual prints of birds. The birds are life-size and lifelike. The artist incorporated natural habitats in the imagery. Audubon observed the Belted Kingfisher in Louisiana. He described how it fished for food. The Kingfisher “dashes spirally headlong into water, seizes a fish, and alights on the nearest tree or stump, where it swallows its prey in a moment.”

ProvenancePurchased August 4, 1987 through (W. Graham Arader, III, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania) by the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art

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