Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
ca. 1830–31
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
39 1/4 x 26 1/4 in. (99.7 x 66.7 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1941
Accession Number
41.18
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the majestic *Ivory-billed Wooders*, a stunning oil on canvas painted around 1830–31 by Scottish artist Joseph Bartholomew Kidd under the direction of John James Audubon Measuring nearly 40 by 26 inches, this work captures a pair of these striking birds—a male with his vivid scarlet crest and a female—in a dynamic, life-like tableau amid their Louisiana swamp habitat. Housed in The Met's American Wing, it exemplifies early 19th-century American natural history art. Audubon, the pioneering ornithologist and artist behind the monumental *The Birds of America* (1827–38), commissioned Kidd...
About the Artist
Joseph Bartholomew Kidd|John James Audubon (American|American, born Haiti) · 1808 |1785 –1889 |1851
1808–1889|American (born Haiti), Les Cayes (Saint-Domingue) 1785–1851 New York