The Dromedary Camel, Early Brodtmann Hand-Colored Lithograph, 1816

About this sheet

This original antique hand colored lithograph, The Dromedary Camel, was printed at Lindau in 1816 for Carl Joseph Brodtmann's Naturhistorische Bilder-Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche, one of the earliest illustrated natural histories produced in the medium. The sheet shows a single humped dromedary standing in profile on sand, the coat a warm sand yellow with darker tufts at the knees and the top of the hump, the long neck curved and the head turned very slightly toward the viewer.

The lithograph belongs to the Naturhistorische Bilder-Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche, Lindau, 1816, Brodtmann's first great natural history undertaking. The sheets are large, printed from the stone and colored by hand, and they predate almost every other illustrated natural history in the medium.

The dromedary and the Bactrian are the two camels, and this lot and its companion lot between them hold one of each, drawn eleven years apart by the same hand. The 1816 sheet is the larger and the earlier of the two and is the stronger piece of lithography. The plate is a hand colored lithograph. Because the image is drawn rather than cut, there is no plate mark and no engraved line anywhere on the sheet, and the tone is continuous. The coloring was applied by hand in the publisher's own workshop, which is why the strength of the washes varies a little from one impression to another. It frames well in gilt or in dark wood and is equally at home in a modern interior, where the pale ground and the single clearly drawn animal read as graphic rather than fussy.

Even age toning. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the right.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.