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J(ohannes) G(erardus) Keulemans

8 Juni 1842--29 Maart 1912

CATALOGUE OF WORKS WHICH KEULEMANS CONTRIBUTED ILLUSTRATIONS

1868--1915

--Keulemans, J(ohannes) G(erardus). Onze Vogels in huis en tuin. 1869--1876

--Keulemans, J(ohannes) G(erardus). Natural History of the Cage-Birds. 1871.

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This website was created in appreciation of the work of John Gerrard Keulemans (1842--1912) and serves as an online exhibition of his zoological illustrations. Owing to capacity limitations in Google's Page Creator website program, this exhibit has expanded to become a network of interconnected websites, and this page serves as the main page for all of them.

Keulemans was born in the Netherlands, but also spent a great deal of time in London, as well as in Africa and the Cape Verde Islands. He described a species of warbler, Calamodyta (Acrocephalus) brevipennis (Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. (Amsterdam), ex Dohrn), in 1866. This is a drab marsh bird about 16 cm. in length and having short wings; it is light brown above and on its flanks, and buff below. He did not publish an illustration of it, though his plate for Acrocephalus brunnescens (see Traveling Accounts--Henderson and Hume, Lahore to Yarkand, pl. XVI) is a similar example.

His notes and findings on the island of Principe, along with those of his colleague Heinrich Dohrn, would eventually become the basis for a later description of a rare and now extinct form of ibis, Lampribis rothschildi (Bannerman 1919; Bull. Brit. Orn. Club). Keulemans, in the report he published in Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk., considered them to be "...surprisingly fat. Their meat is tasty and much sought after by the natives; from the armbones pipes are being made." The specimen he had collected in 1866 is now deposited in the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum (Leiden). During his visit to the same island he had also collected a number of specimens of the endemic flora--and for some time these were wrongly attributed to have come from the island of Java.

The only significant biography of him is by Jan Coldewey and Tony Keulemans, Feathers to Brush, a book that includes a bibliography of the artist's publications, but which did not make reference to his single illustration in The Journal of the Linnean Society. This obscure plate is exhibited here (see "lost" illustration). Also of note is a contemporary obituary of Keulemans which was recorded in the journal British Birds.

His work can be characterized as being very consistent, showing little change over the course of his career, and focused to an extraordinary degree on detail and the rendering of fine delineations. These generalizations have also proven to be the basis for unjustified criticism of his work (Lambourne, The Art of Bird Illustration). As repetition is a consequence of scientific illustration itself on account of the fact that what is of most importance is the actual specimen being illustrated, this type of illustration is, for the most part, not really designed for change. However, a number of critics have rightly placed Keulemans above his contemporaries (Fuller, Extinct Birds, rev. ed.); his ability to create accurate and vivid representations of birds placed him prominently in his field.

In addition, Keulemans was incredibly prodigious, and was commissioned to draught pictures of birds extensively throughout his career, and his prints were published continuously from 1867 to 1911. There are some which appeared posthumously, as late as 1915 (Mathews/Birds of Australia); he had rendered the image on stone in advance of publication of these works. A calculation of his total output is about 4,000 published illustrations. The vast majority of them were small vignettes published within octavo-size books and publications, and a great quantity of his work also appeared in quarto (Dresser/Europe) and in folio (Seebohm/Turdidae and Du Cane Godman/Petrels). Early on, they were signed "J G Keulemans," or by the last name alone, but by 1880 he simply used his initials or "Joh G K." In a number of instances, the publisher or printer of a particular work did not individually numerate the plates or indicate them by scientific names, or such indications as these were provided only as a reference within the text. For this exhibit such prints as these are denoted in their captions, with parentheses around the omitted numeral or scientific name, however it may apply. While the subject of his illustrations was almost entirely avian, Keulemans was also commissioned to create portraits of mammals, insects, and shells, which are likewise included here.

This website focuses exclusively on illustrations by Keulemans which had been produced through traditional lithography, allowing for a finished product that depicts a vivid, life-like figure through depth and tone. Most of the plates were pressed on paper from the firms of either Mintern, Hanhart, R. H. Porter, T. Walter, Judd & Co., Becquet, Witherby & Co., Richard Bentley & Son, Bale & Danielsson, Banks & Co., Imprimerie Nationale (Paris), or West, Newman, and in the beginning of his career some were printed by P. M. W. Trap. Often the published lithographs were not colored, and perhaps some (see "lost" illustration) may not have been provided a colored example at all. A number of those issued during his earlier period only allowed for the figure in the illustration to be colored, leaving the background in marked contrast. What is not included here are chromolithographic prints of Keulemans, nor any of his line illustrations. While the decision to print them in such a manner as this was not the artist's responsibility, and for all their innovation, chromolithographs did not render the figures in the lifelike, dimensional quality so typical of the prints produced through traditional lithographic presses.

The technique of lithography made it necessary for the print to be colored by hand. This was done by semi-skilled artisans working in an assembly line, who applied colored tints to them in a manner that was similar to stenciling. While Keulemans' talents as a draughtsman were hardly disputed by his contemporaries, often the finished, colored plates were the subject of criticism (see Sharpe/Alcedinidae). If the colors did not naturally represent the birds portrayed this would, in part, undermine the quality of the finished product. Gum arabic was often applied to the tinted plates to provide them a more glossed and vivid appearance.

It is also important to note that certain images included in this exhibit are taken from sources where the coloration of the print has been affected. The background may be unnaturally white to conceal the effects of time and wear on the original, or the color of the figures may have been brightened or enhanced. This exhibit of is designed to show as many of Keulemans' plates as are accessible, and ultimately preference is afforded to those which convey them in their true condition.

A word is made regarding nomenclature and taxonomy. The title of the illustration is the scientific name of the figure depicted, and this is italicized. The titles as they are provided here also refer to the characteristics of the figure described, if they are notated that way on the plate, but such reference is not made to the authority of the scientific name (if that is noted as well). Since Keulemans' time changes in nomenclature have occurred for many of the birds depicted. The name of the genus of the figure described, as it was printed more than a century ago, has been compared to the genera used by Richard Howard and Alick Moore in A Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, second ed. (Academic Press), as well as various synopses, and where necessary has been brought into conformity with the more recent usage as a reference guide. For names of extinct species of birds not included in Howard and Moore, the first edition of Errol Fuller's Extinct Birds (Viking) was consulted. For mammals, the earlier names of the genera have been compared primarily with those used by Ronald Nowak in both volumes of Walker's Mammals of the World, fifth ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press). The specific terms, the second part of scientific names, have not been provided comparisons in this manner.

The prints exhibited here are from a wide variety of sources. As Keulemans' last works are now close to a hundred years in age, copyright restrictions are not applicable, and thus such restrictions do not apply to the images exhibited. Some prints intended for this website have not been added on account of their having a digital watermark or other such similar mark, pending a search for a suitable replacement. His plates which are not included here, but which are elusive, have been labelled desiderata. Some of the prints have been taken from reference material where the available image is a black/white photocopy of a hand-colored illustration, pending a search for a colored image.

Keulemans--Illustrations of Non-Avian Subjects

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London

Recherches sur la faune de Madagascar (Insectes, Mamm?)

Novitates Zoologicae

Yunnan Expeditions

Second Yarkand Mission--Mammalia (Blanford)

Dogs, Jackals, Wolves, and Foxes

Biologia Centrali-Americana (Mamm.)

Blanford, Eastern Persia

Blanford, Abyssinia

Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn (Mammiferes)

Keulemans--Illustrations of North American Avifauna

Nearctic/North America: United States (48 contiguous states, District of Columbia, Alaska), Canada, Kalaallit Nunaat [Greenland], St.-Pierre et Miquelon, Bermudas Islands, Mexico (Distrito Federal, all states (excluding Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatan), excluding the coastal lowland regions of Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Michoacan (40 miles inland, south of Sierra Madre ranges).

Oceanic Waters of N. America

FAMILY FALCONIDAE

Falco columbarius

Ibis, 1896, pl. v [richardsoni]

Dresser, B. Europe, pls. 380, [regulus?] 381

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Capitonidae, Nectariniidae, Nouvelles Archives, Tierra del Fuego, Avifauna Laysan, Petrels, Meropidae