John Gould
Gould, John (1804-1881), a British ornithologist, was especially renowned for creating and publishing numerous exquisitely illustrated volumes on birds from around the world.
When he was about 14, Gould began working with his father, who was head gardener at Windsor Castle. This gave him the opportunity to observe birds in their natural habitat and to learn taxidermy, at which he became highly skilled. In 1827, after serving as gardener himself at a Yorkshire castle, he was hired by Nicholas Vigors as taxidermist to the Zoological Society of London, which had opened the preceding year.
Gould's first folio illustrated volume was inspired by his receipt, in 1830, of a valuable collection of Himalayan bird skins. For that work, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1831–1832), Gould created 80 hand-painted sketches that were then transferred to lithographic stones by his wife Elizabeth, herself a talented artist. With accompanying text by Vigors, the work represented the most comprehensive and accurate depiction of foreign birds ever produced up until that time.
Because he was unable to find a publisher willing to undertake the job, Gould self-published the plates in groups of four per month, and after a trip to Australia, he published his most acclaimed work, The Birds of Australia, in seven volumes (1840–1848). Other work produced over his lifetime included volumes on the birds of the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, Asia, and New Guinea, and a volume on Australian mammals, which collectively made him a wealthy man.
Gould was additionally renowned for his huge collection of hummingbirds and of Australian mammals, and for being a prolific writer of scientific papers. But it is his ornithological illustrations, 2,999 highly prized works of art in all, for which he is best remembered.