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Audubon Plate # 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoo $250 Click here to see if this print is available at reduced cost with minor edge blemish Click the small image to see more detail
Print size: 26 1/4" x 39 1/4"; image size: 25 1/2 x 20" This print is based on a painting done in Louisiana in 1821 or 1822. Although cuckoos live almost entirely on caterpillars and seldom, if ever, eat butterflies, Audubon portrayed one of the birds seizing a tiger swallowtail. Joseph Mason probably painted the leaves and fruit of the pawpaw tree. On December 10, 1826, Audubon wrote in his journal about the progress of the first proof impressions for Birds of America. "It is now a month since my work was begun...; the paper is of unusual size, called 'double elephant' and the plates are to be finished in such superb style as to eclipse all of the same kind in existence. The two plates now finished are truly beautiful. This number consists of the Turkey-cock [this painting has been chosen to prove the necessity of the size of the work], the Cuckoos on the pawpaws,..." In seasons when caterpillars are abundant, cuckoos usually become common in the infested localities. They are especially fond of tent caterpillars and gypsy moth larvae, and with such plentiful food, the size of their broods seems to increase. Unlike the European cuckoo, American cuckoos only occasionally lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Princeton Audubon prints are far beyond mere reproductions. Princeton (formerly Princeton Polychrome Press) earned an enviable nationwide reputation by reproducing fine art prints for, among others, The National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The New-York Historical Society, and The Detroit Institute of Arts. The finest reproductions of Picasso and Andrew Wyeth works were done by Princeton. Princeton double elephant prints, the same size as life, are also exceptional works of fine art and were produced by the same Master Printer, the late David O. Johnson of Princeton New Jersey, who was also one of the world's foremost collectors of the antique Audubon originals. Princetons are thus the real deal in Audubon fine art, the world's only direct-camera Audubon facsimiles. Chris Lane of the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW: "...of all the full-size facsimiles of Audubon's prints, those from Princeton Audubon Limited come the closest in appearance and quality to the originals. Combining this with their very reasonable cost make the Princeton Audubon facsimiles winners for those looking to acquire some of the most dramatic American natural history images ever produced."
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