Keulemans, John G. “Soft Plumaged Petrel”

John G. Keulemans.  “Soft Plumaged Petrel.” 

Ca. 1885.  8 ½ x 8 ¼ (image).  Lithograph.  Original hand color.  Initialed in image by artist. Upper left hand corner chipped.  Else, very good condition. 

Dutch born Keulemans (1842-1912), a skilled scientific artist in late 19th-century England, became one of the best-known and most prolific bird illustrators in a world exploding with discoveries, descriptions, and publications of species of animals and plants from all over the globe.  Excelling at draftsmanship, his consistently high standard of scientific precision and accuracy was so widely acknowledged and appreciated that an extraordinary number of the major ornithological monographs published between 1870 and 1910 contained illustrations by Keulemans as artist, lithographer or both, as in this case.