Priced to Sell
A New Era in Printing
Unlike earlier Audubon prints, the Canvas-backed Duck from the Bien Edition was produced by Audubon’s sons using chromolithography. This innovative technique allowed for a softer, more atmospheric background, vibrant colors, and detailed, granulated linework, bringing a fresh perspective to Audubon’s iconic images. It truly represents a historic transition in color printing.
About Audubon’s Bien Edition
Published between 1858 and 1860, the Bien edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America is renowned as the largest and most valuable color plate book ever produced in America, and it’s the rarest of all Audubon folios. Printed by Julius Bien on massive double-elephant folio sheets (26 ½” x 39″), it’s considered a prime example of early large-scale color printing.
Audubon’s sons, John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford, spearheaded this edition several years after their father’s passing. They partnered with New York lithographer Julius Bien to continue Audubon’s legacy through the then-pioneering method of chromolithography. Like its predecessor, the Havell edition, the Bien edition was sold by subscription starting in 1858. However, production was cut short by the Civil War, resulting in only 150 completed plates on 105 sheets. It’s believed that fewer than seventy folios were ever fully completed, making the Bien edition incredibly rare.
The Legacy of John James Audubon
John James Audubon (1785–1851) remains America’s most celebrated artist-naturalist. He dedicated his life to visually documenting the birds and mammals of North America. His monumental works, The Birds of America and The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, are not only icons of 19th-century art but also vital records of early American natural history.
Born in 1785 in Santo Domingo (Haiti), Audubon moved to America at age 18. It was here that his passion for birds blossomed, and he developed his exceptional artistic skill in depicting wildlife. In 1819, as a married man with two sons, he fully committed to the life of an artist-naturalist, embarking on extensive journeys through the American wilderness to illustrate the diverse avian life he encountered.
Audubon’s decades-long endeavor culminated in the publication of The Birds of America, which documented over 700 bird species across 435 plates. Later, with the assistance of his sons and Reverend John Bachman, he produced The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, featuring 150 plates of North American mammals. Audubon’s folios profoundly impacted ornithology and mammology, setting new standards for natural history illustration.
For more details on the Audubon Bien Ed. Pl. 395 Canvas-backed Duck, feel free to email us at joppen@audubonart.com. You can also explore our articles:
- Audubon Print Collecting Guide
- What are the differences between an Audubon Havell engraving and Bien Lithograph
- What is a Lithograph? A Practical Guide to Understanding and Identifying Lithographic Prints
- A Modernist Approach to Understanding a Selection of Prints from Audubon’s Birds of America?
