Black-winged Hawk
Medium
hand-colored engraving and aquatint on Whatman wove paper
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Walter B. James
Accession Number
1945.8.352
Art Historical Context
Behold the majestic *Black-winged Hawk* (1837), a stunning hand-colored engraving and aquint by Robert Havell John James Audubon, housed in the National Gallery of Art. print is a gem from Audubon's epic *The Birds of America*, a 19th-century publication that revolutionized natural history illustration with its life-sized depictions of over 400 North American bird species. Audubon, a self-taught artist and ornithologist, drew his subjects from meticulous field observations, capturing them in dynamic, naturalistic poses amid their habitats—a departure from the stiff, static bird art of the era....
About the Artist
Robert Havell after John James Audubon
Robert Havell Jr., born on November 25, 1793, in Reading, Berkshire, England, was the son of renowned engraver and publisher Robert Havell Sr. and Lydia Miller Phillips. Growing up in a family of artists that included notable engravers and etchers, he trained under his father, mastering aquatint techniques early on. Though briefly estranged from the family business, Havell reconciled with his fath...