Topaza pyra (Fairy Topaz)
1801 to 1825
Medium
hand-colored lithograph
Dimensions
sheet: 55.7 × 38.5 cm (21 15/16 × 15 3/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. George Benjamin Green
Accession Number
1970.25.6
Art Historical Context
This hand-colored lithograph, *Topaza pyra (Fairy Topaz)*, captures the shimmering iridescence of a hummingbird species native to South America. Created between 1801 and 1825 by the renowned British ornithologist and artist John Gould in collaboration with H.C. Richter, the print exemplifies the golden age of natural history illustration. Gould’s meticulous studies brought exotic birds to European audiences at a time when global exploration was expanding scientific knowledge. The work’s medium is particularly noteworthy. Lithography, a relatively new printing technique in the early nineteenth...
About the Artist
John Gould and H.C. Richter
John Gould (1804–1881) and Henry Constantine Richter (1821–1902) formed one of the most productive and celebrated partnerships in the history of natural history illustration. Gould, an English ornithologist and publisher of extraordinary ambition, built a career on the production of lavishly illustrated folio volumes documenting the birds of Britain, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Americas. Thou...