North American brown bear
Date
1828
Creator
Thomas Landseer (1793 - 1880, British) , Printmaker
Object type
Library reference
RCNR60842
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 210mm
width (print): 269mm
width (print): 269mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological study of a Brown, or Grizzly bear Ursus arctos (here styled Ursus ferox). The mammal is shown in a natural landscape, crouched on a rock. There is an additional figure of a juvenile bear, upright on its hind legs, behind.
Plate 1 from the book Fauna boreali-americana; or the zoology of the northern parts of British America, by John Richardson (London, John Murray, 1829).
The plate is inscribed above ‘PLATE 1’. Inscribed below: ‘URSUS FEROX. Drawn & Etched by Thomas Landseer 1828.’ The plate has been cropped, losing the original ‘Published by John Murray, January 1829’.
Accompanying text states that: ‘A young cub, caught on the Rocky Mountains, being brought to England by the Hudson’s Bay Company about eight years ago, has been kept in the Tower [of London] ever since, and there is a spirited etching of it by Landseer…The etching forming plate first of this work, is by the same able artist…’
Sir John Richardson (1787-1865) physician, naturalist, and Arctic explorer was a member of Sir John Franklin’s British Naval Exploring Expedition (also known as the Second Arctic Land Expedition) 1825-1827. Richardson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825.
Plate 1 from the book Fauna boreali-americana; or the zoology of the northern parts of British America, by John Richardson (London, John Murray, 1829).
The plate is inscribed above ‘PLATE 1’. Inscribed below: ‘URSUS FEROX. Drawn & Etched by Thomas Landseer 1828.’ The plate has been cropped, losing the original ‘Published by John Murray, January 1829’.
Accompanying text states that: ‘A young cub, caught on the Rocky Mountains, being brought to England by the Hudson’s Bay Company about eight years ago, has been kept in the Tower [of London] ever since, and there is a spirited etching of it by Landseer…The etching forming plate first of this work, is by the same able artist…’
Sir John Richardson (1787-1865) physician, naturalist, and Arctic explorer was a member of Sir John Franklin’s British Naval Exploring Expedition (also known as the Second Arctic Land Expedition) 1825-1827. Richardson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825.
Associated place