Grizzly Bears
After
Titian Ramsey Peale
(American, 1799 - 1885)
Engraver
Thomas Doughty
(American, 1793 - 1856)
Date1830
MediumLithograph with colors
DimensionsOverall: 7 13/16 × 9in. (19.8 × 22.9cm)
Image: 7 1/2 × 8 15/16in. (19.1 × 22.7cm)
Image: 7 1/2 × 8 15/16in. (19.1 × 22.7cm)
ClassificationsPRINTS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Terms
Object number86.2.3
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextThis hand-colored lithograph of two grizzly bears, a species that inhabits northwestern North America, was the second illustration in Doughty’s Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports, a book he edited with his brother between 1830 and 1832. It contained articles on hunting as well as descriptions of indigenous North American birds, animals, and plants. The illustrations that accompanied these articles are some of the finest examples of early American hand-colored lithography.
This image was based on a drawing that Doughty’s contemporary, the Philadelphia artist Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) made when he participated in an expedition led by Stephen H. Long (1784-1864) to explore the Great Plains in 1819-20. Doughty added a touch of self-deprecating humor to the image by including his initials, “T.D.” on the tree trunk around which the two bears are cavorting. The awkwardness with which these two animals were drawn, and the picture’s lack of a convincing western American background, suggests that Doughty had limited knowledge of this part of North America. An inscription in the lower right margin of the lithograph, “From Childs & Inman Press,” indicates that it was printed by a company that Cephas G. Childs (1793-1871) and the portrait painter Henry Inman (1801-46) ran in Philadelphia from 1830 to 1833.
PDS
