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Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Around 1830, John James Audubon commissioned the Scottish artist Joseph Bartholomew Kidd to copy many of his paintings of birds. Audubon hoped to use these paintings in a natural history gallery that would tour England. The project was never completed, however, in part because Kidd took too long to finish the work. In this painting, Kidd directly copied the four birds on a branch from the original illustration, then added a landscape to the background to create an “embellished” painting for Audubon’s proposed exhibition.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineRose-Breasted Grosbeak. n.d.. Joseph Bartholomew Kidd, Scottish, born Edinburgh, Scotland ca. 1808-died Greenwich, England 1889. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U. S. National Museum. CC0.