LIGHT MANTLED SOOTY ALBATROSS

Biography:

Johannes Gerard Keulemans (1842-1912)

Keulemans was a Dutch bird artist and illustrator.

He was born in Rotterdam and as a young man collected animal specimens for museums such as the Natural History Museum in Leiden, whose director, Hermann Schlegel, encouraged Keulemans and sent him on the 1864 expedition to West Africa. In 1869, he was persuaded by Richard Bowdler Sharpe to illustrate his Monograph of the Alcedinidae, or Family of Kingfishers (1868-1871) and to move to England, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Keulemans was the most sought-after bird artist of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. He was a prolific and talented work-oriented
illustrator. This image is from the last great bird series, The Birds of
Australia by G. Mathew’s and is rarer than John Gould’s work on
Australian birds, with only 225 sets done. It was the last series
produced to use hand colouring rather than colour printed lithography
for the illustrations.