John Gould and the art of drawing birds

 The most exquisite of bird art is attributed to John Gould. Here is my small tribute to the master from the 19th century.

In Gould’s tale there is a tiny flaw

‘Tis true that he just couldn’t draw!

‘How can that be?’ you ask

So, this now becomes my task

To explain, for better or for worse,

John Gould’s bird art in verse.

 

Oh yes, birds he could roughly sketch

Then it remained for him to fetch

The real talent at his beck and call.

One name you surely would recall-

Edward Lear. But there were more:

His wife, Elizabeth, first came to the fore.

Then Wolf and Richter both played a part

As did the masterful William Hart.

The stunning ‘Gould lithographs’ we see,

Were the works of artists bought for a fee!

 

Lest you think that I aim to belittle

The artistic legacy of Gould, it’ll

Surely be a mistake, because all these plates

Were meticulously made from Gould’s templates.

His vision permeates them all,

In bird art they stand very very tall

Gould pulls all the artistic strings

For the birds to unfurl their wings.

 

Courting couples and doting parents

Lovely ladies and their strutting gents

Fierce raptors eyeing their prey

Sunbirds flashing in the light of day

Such ethereal Birds of Paradise

Owls majestic, and beyond wise.

But if we hark back to the very beginnings-

A taxidermist began his innings.

Sent a hundred skins on his debut

He stuffed the aves, and his artists drew-

‘A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains’.

To critical acclaim, his stock now fountains

Quickly follows the ‘Birds of Europe’

Reputation burgeons more than he did hope.

From taxidermy to ornithology, he had come a long way,

When dame fortune a trump card did play:

Darwin sends him his Galapagos finches

‘All separate species!’ - thus Gould clinches

Proof of the Theory of Natural Selection

How specialised bills evolved in island isolation.

‘Gould, the scientist’- England does hail.

So to Australia he now sets sail.

Antipodean birds, to the world introduce-

Budgerigars, lyrebirds, and...what the deuce!

So many birds that just can’t fly

They have wings, why don’t they try?

‘The Birds of Australia’, his magnum opus be?

'Surely', says biographer Isabella Tree.

But Gould’s hummingbirds, I’d have to say

Can’t be bettered in any which way.

 

Of the ‘Birds of Asia’ and ‘..Great Britain’

I wish that I had something written

No matter, for Gould’s art says it all

Such everlasting beauty shall never pall.

Sahdev Singh

September 2020