Audubon, John James (1785-1851).
Great Northern Diver or Loon, Plate 306.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
37 3/4” x 25” sheet, 49 1/2” x 37” framed.
Comparable: Arader Galleries, 2017 - $39,650.
“View it as it buoyantly swims over the heaving billows of the Atlantic, or as it glides along deeply immersed, when apprehensive of danger, on the placid lake, on the grassy islet of which its nest is placed; calculate, if you can, the speed of its flight, as it shoots across the sky; mark the many plunges it performs in quest of its finny food, or in eluding its enemies; list to the loud and plaintive notes which it issues, either to announce its safety to its mate, or to invite some traveller of its race to alight, and find repose and food; follow the anxious and careful mother-bird, as she leads about her precious charge; and you will not count your labour lost, for you will have watched the ways of one of the wondrous creations of unlimited Power and unerring Wisdom.”
- (Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, 1831).