Audubon Bowen Ed. Pl. 54, Brown or Norway Rat

Experience the captivating beauty and untamed spirit of the Audubon Bowen Ed. Pl. 54, Brown or Norway Rat

Pictured in its native habitat, the quadruped is dynamically positioned to show off its unique features which are rendered in great detail. As part of the first attempt to comprehensively document the four-legged mammals of North America, this print marks a significant point of inflection in American natural history. Animate your walls and enliven your art collection with this magnificent antique original artwork!

About the Imperial Bowen edition of the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

Produced from 1845 to 1848 by distinguished Philadelphia printmaker John T. Bowen, Audubon’s Imperial Bowen edition of the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America contains 150 hand-colored lithographs of North American mammals. This folio was Audubon’s last major project, which he created in collaboration with his two sons John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford, and his friend and fellow naturalist the Reverend John Bachman. These antique original hand-colored lithographs are printed on imperial folio-size paper measuring approximately 22″ by 28″.

About John James Audubon

America’s most revered artist-naturalist, John James Audubon (1785—1851), is renowned for his extraordinary undertaking to visually record the birds and mammals of North America. His publications The Birds of America & The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America are icons of 19th-century art and capture the nascent stages of American natural history.

Born in 1785 in Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (Haiti) to a Creole mother and French father, Audubon spent the early years of his life in France but moved to America at age 18. It was during this time that his appreciation for birds flourished and he developed a keen artistic acumen for rendering wildlife. It was not until 1819 when Audubon was married and the father of two sons, that he embraced the life of artist-naturalist and embarked on his venture through the backwoods of America with the intent of illustrating the avian life he encountered there.

Audubon’s muti-decade venture resulted in the publication of his monumental folio The Birds of America which documented over 700 bird species on 435 plates. In a similar manner and with the help of his two sons and his friend Reverend John Bachman, Audubon later produced The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which contained 150 plates depicting the mammals of North America. Audubon’s folios were seismic in the fields of ornithology and mammalogy and set a new precedent for natural history illustration.

For more information about the Audubon Bowen Ed. Pl. 54, Brown or Norway Rat, email us at [email protected] or check out our articles Audubon’s Imperial Folio, Visualizing the Human Impact on the Natural World in Audubon’s Quadrupeds, and What is a Lithograph? A Practical Guide to Understanding and Identifying Lithographic Prints.

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