Le Cougar de Pensilvanie
<p>Plate 41 from George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, <em>Histoire naturelle, générale et párticulière</em>, supplément, tome III</p>
<p>The mountain lion of Pennsylvania, mascot of Penn State since 1908, has many names: puma, deer tiger, panther, cougar, and catamount, among others. The apprehensive creature here, appearing perhaps more suitable as a pet at the French court, bears little resemblance to Audubon’s ferocious predator in his lithograph of Felis concolor, hanging nearby.</p>
<p>John O’Connor and Ralph Yeager reached into the eighteenth century to add an image of the Nittany Lion to their collection. This etching comes from George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon’s massive study of natural history, begun in 1749 and completed, posthumously, in 1789. The sheet illustrates a section in the third supplemental volume on quadrupeds, where Buffon differentiates (as it turns out, correctly) the North American puma, which he calls the Pennsylvania cougar, from the remainder of the species, all located in Central and South America. Adapted from the entry written by Judith Hansen O’Toole for the 1980 Pennsylvania Prints exhibition catalogue.</p>
Madeleine-Thérèse Rousselet
French, active c. 1750–1800
After Jacques de Sève
French, active 1742–1788
Published in 1776 by L’Imprimerie royale, Paris
John C. O'Connor and Ralph M. Yeager Collection, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University
c. 1776
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, Partial gift and purchase from John C. O’Connor and Ralph M. Yeager
This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.
Etching with hand coloring; 9-15/16 x 7-3/4 in. (25.3 x 19.7 cm)
86.707
Felis Concolor
<p>Plate 96 from <em>The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America</em></p>
<p>Not long after publishing the final volume of his monumental The Birds of America in 1838, John James Audubon began the production of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America in collaboration with the Reverend John Bachman (1790–1874), a recognized authority on mammalogy who wrote the accompanying scientific texts. Audubon, at least in the early stages, provided the original drawings. The lithography was entrusted to John T. Bowen, who bore the additional responsible for ensuring the proper coloring of the sheets by artists working in his shop. Issued to subscribers in numbers of five plates each starting in 1845, the project extended to a total of 150 plates by the time of its completion three years later.</p>
<p>Half way into the undertaking, Audubon’s eyesight had failed to the point where he could not see well enough to draw, so the remaining illustrations were assigned to his sons, Victor and John Woodhouse, both trained by their father as artists and naturalist. (The title of John Woodhouse Audubon’s image here, incidentally, is no longer considered accurate. Though originally classified by Linnaeus as Felis concolor, since 1993 the mountain lion has been recognized as belonging not to the genus Felis, but to the genus Puma. Its correct classification today would thus be Puma concolor.) Adapted from the entry written by Judith Hansen O’Toole for the 1980 Pennsylvania Prints exhibition catalogue.</p>
John T. Bowen
American, 1801–c. 1856
After John Woodhouse Audubon
American, 1812–1862
Printed by John T. Bowen
Published by John James Audubon, American, 1785–1851
John C. O'Connor and Ralph M. Yeager Collection, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University
1846
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, Partial gift and purchase from John C. O’Connor and Ralph M. Yeager
This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.
Lithograph with hand coloring; 21-3/16 x 27-1/4 in. (53.8 x 69.2 cm)
86.706