Elizabeth Gould (illustrator)

Elizabeth Gould (née Coxen) (18 July 1804 – 15 August 1841) was a British artist and illustrator, married to naturalist John Gould. She produced many illustrations for his ornithological works.

Elizabeth was born in Ramsgate, England. She married John Gould in January 1829, and he encouraged her to learn lithography and had his collaborator Edward Lear teach her. Once proficient with the art form, she created illustrations from John's drawings. Her brother Charles Coxen She produced over 600 lithographs, which appeared with the illustrations of Edward Lear in:

Her early illustrations have been described as stiff, and while they improved with experience they remained quite formal compositions.

The Goulds and the oldest of their surviving 4 children travelled to Australia in 1838. She spent much of her time in Hobart as a guest of Jane Franklin. While John travelled extensively collecting specimens, she drew and painted his collection. Her brother Charles Coxen also immigrated to Australia, where he and his wife Elizabeth Coxen were also interested in natural history and members of the Queensland Philosophical Society.

Elizabeth made hundreds of drawings from specimens for the publications Birds of Australia and A Monograph of the Macropodidæ, or Family of Kangaroos, as well as illustrations for the ornithology volume of Charles Darwin’s Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle.

She bore one son while living in Australia, and gave birth to their eighth child when they returned to England in 1840. She died shortly thereafter.

The drawings she produced in Australia were made into lithographs by H. C. Richter and published under his name. Subsequently, her reputation and importance became almost totally eclipsed by the fame of her husband.

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