HERRING GULL... VIEW OF THE ENTRANCE INTO ST. AUGUSTINE (PLATE CCXCI)

Larus argentatus JW 36 very fine, fresh impression, a few light specks of foxing in the sky at center and in the upper margin sheet 38 by 25 5/8 in.; 965 by 650 mm. Based on a composition painted at St. Augustine, Florida, December, 1831. George Lehman, one of Audubon's assistants noted for his skill in completing the landscapes in many of the plates set in the South, drew the standing immature gull. Audubon wrote to his wife, Lucy: "I have put Lehman at Drawing "Birds" when pushed by work and he draws them beautifully after they are put in Position by myself... Lehman is at my Elbow finishing a Drawing of a Gull with a beautiful group of Racoon Oysters.".