Iceland, or Jer Falcon

John James Audubon, 1827 – 1838
Iceland, or Jer Falcon, John James Audubon
Iceland, or Jer Falcon, zoomed in
100.3 cmIceland, or Jer Falcon scale comparison72.4 cm

Iceland, or Jer Falcon is an Enlightenment Engraving Print created by John James Audubon from 1827 to 1838. It lives at the Watkinson Library, Trinity College in the United States. The image is in the Public Domain, and tagged Birds. SourceDownloadSee Iceland, or Jer Falcon in the Kaleidoscope

“On the 6th August, 1833, while my young friends, Thomas Lincoln and Joseph Cooledge, accompanied by my son John, were rambling by the rushing waters of a brook banked by stupendous rocks, eight or ten miles from the port of Bras d’Or, on the coast of Labrador, they were startled by a loud and piercing shriek, which issued from the precipices above them. On looking up, my son observed a large Hawk plunging over and about him. It was instantly brought to the ground. A second Hawk dashed towards the dead one, as if determined to rescue it; but it quickly met the same fate, the contents of my son’s second barrel bringing it to his feet.

I made my drawing of them the day after their death. It was one of the severest tasks which I ever performed, and was done under the most disagreeable circumstances. I sat up nearly the whole of the night, to sketch them in outline. The next day it rained for hours, and the water fell on my paper and colours all the while from the rigging of the Ripley.”

— John James Audubon, from Birds of America

Reed Enger, "Iceland, or Jer Falcon," in Obelisk Art History, Published May 10, 2017; last modified October 11, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/john-james-audubon/iceland-jer-falcon/.

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