Audubon vs John Gould: which antique bird prints should you hang?

Audubon and Gould are the two giants of 19th-century ornithological illustration, and their work still dominates the vintage bird print market almost two centuries on. But which one actually belongs on your wall depends less on collector value and more on what you want the room to feel like. This is a decorator's comparison, not an auctioneer's.

The short version

Audubon painted large, dramatic, life-size American birds in motion. Gould produced delicate, jewel-like lithographs of global species, particularly hummingbirds, toucans, and Australian and European birds. Audubon feels bold and cinematic. Gould feels refined and scientific.

If your instinct is toward maximalist rooms, deep colours, and confident statement walls, Audubon is usually the answer. If you gravitate toward pale walls, considered symmetry, and detail you have to lean in to appreciate, Gould tends to win.

Who they were, briefly

John James Audubon (1785 to 1851) was a French-American naturalist who set out to paint every bird species in North America at actual size. The result, The Birds of America, was published between 1827 and 1838 as a "double elephant folio," roughly 100 by 70cm per plate. Nearly life-size wild turkeys. Life-size flamingos folded to fit the page. It's still one of the most physically imposing books ever produced.

John Gould (1804 to 1881) was an English ornithologist and taxidermist who published around 3,000 plates across roughly 40 volumes covering birds of Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. He worked closely with his wife Elizabeth Gould, who lithographed many of the early plates, and briefly with a young Edward Lear (yes, the nonsense poet, who was also an extraordinary bird artist). Gould also identified the finches Darwin brought back from the Galápagos, which is a decent conversation starter above the drinks trolley.

The two men actually met. Audubon travelled to England to promote The Birds of America in the 1820s, and his ambitious, life-like approach clearly influenced Gould's own publishing model.

Visual style: drama vs delicacy

Audubon's aesthetic

Audubon's birds do things. They pounce, they fight, they feed chicks, they wrestle snakes. His compositions fill the frame, often with the bird's beak or wingtip pressing against the edge. The palette is naturalistic but rich: deep greens, ochres, dusty reds, and inky blacks.

The scale matters. A framed Audubon heron or eagle at anything close to original size becomes the anchor of a room. You can't hang it and expect the sofa to still be the main event.

Gould's aesthetic

Gould's plates are quieter, more decorative, and more overtly beautiful in a traditional sense. His hummingbird plates in particular are famous for their iridescent metallic finishes, achieved with gold leaf and varnishes over the lithograph. Backgrounds are usually plain or lightly washed, which throws the bird forward and reads as very modern despite the age.

Gould birds tend to perch, preen, and pose rather than hunt. That makes them easier to live with in bedrooms, hallways, and anywhere you want beauty without theatre.

Subject matter: what you're actually looking at

Audubon is the choice for:

- Iconic American birds: wild turkey, bald eagle, great blue heron, snowy owl

- Waterfowl and shorebirds: flamingos, pelicans, ibises

- Raptors and larger species that hold a big wall

- Songbirds in dynamic group compositions

Gould is the choice for:

- Hummingbirds (his most collected and most decorative work)

- Toucans and other tropical species

- Australian parrots, cockatoos, and lorikeets

- European songbirds and game birds

- Birds of paradise

If you want a small, colourful print that punches above its weight, Gould's hummingbirds are hard to beat. If you want one very large print that commands a whole wall, Audubon's herons, turkeys, and flamingos are the classics for a reason.

Which one suits your room?

This is where most guides give up and say "personal taste." We'll be more useful than that.

Traditional and heritage interiors

Panelled walls, antique furniture, deep colours, a proper fireplace. Audubon feels born for this environment. His large-scale herons and wild turkeys look at home above a dark wood console or flanking a chimney breast. A single Audubon plate in a wide, dark walnut or black frame with a generous mount is often more effective than three smaller ones.

Modern and minimalist interiors

White walls, pale oak, restrained palettes. Gould works beautifully here because his plain backgrounds echo the clean space. A pair of hummingbird prints in slim black frames above a bench in the hallway, or a trio of Australian parrots in a bedroom, feels considered rather than fussy.

Coastal and country homes

Audubon's shorebirds, ducks, and waders are the obvious fit. Sandpipers, plovers, and pelicans in linen-white frames against pale walls give you that easy, unforced country feel without tipping into pastiche.

Maximalist and colour-drenched rooms

If your walls are already sage, oxblood, or navy, Gould's hummingbirds and toucans will sing against them. The metallic highlights in the original hummingbird plates read as jewellery on a strong colour.

Size: don't get this wrong

Audubon's original double elephant folio plates are enormous, roughly 100 by 70cm. Modern reproductions are usually sold at more livable sizes, but the visual DNA of the work is big. If you buy an Audubon reproduction at 30 by 40cm, you'll lose most of what makes it powerful. We'd go 60 by 80cm minimum, and 70 by 100cm for the real statement.

Gould's plates were smaller to begin with, typically around 55 by 37cm for his imperial folio work. That means reproductions at 40 by 50cm or 50 by 70cm sit comfortably in most rooms. Two or three Gould prints at 30 by 40cm can also work beautifully as a small gallery grouping, which is much harder to pull off with Audubon.

A rough rule: hang art at roughly two-thirds the width of the furniture below it. A 180cm sofa wants art around 120cm wide, which could be one large Audubon or a pair of Gould prints hung with a small gap between them.

Framed or unframed?

Both artists benefit from proper framing. These are historical works, and a slim contemporary frame with a generous white mount lets them look their age without feeling like a museum. Our framed bird prints ship with the print already fitted and the fixtures attached, which matters more than it sounds. The most common failure in this category, industry-wide, is prints and frames arriving separately or arriving warped from poor packaging. Getting the whole thing in one box, properly assembled, saves you a trip to a framer and about £80.

For Audubon, we'd usually pick a wider frame in black, dark walnut, or natural oak with a wide mount. The scale of the work can carry a heftier frame.

For Gould, slim black or natural oak with a narrow to medium mount. You want the frame to disappear and the bird to do the work.

If you want a lighter, less formal look, bird canvas prints are a solid alternative. Canvas suits the more painterly Audubon plates particularly well and is easier to hang in humid rooms like bathrooms and kitchens. Just note that the very fine detail in Gould's hummingbirds tends to look sharper on matte paper than on canvas.

Originals vs reproductions: what you're actually buying

Most people who search for "vintage bird prints" are not in the market for a £15,000 original. Here's the honest breakdown.

Original Audubon Havell edition plates (the large 1827 to 1838 first edition) sell at auction for anywhere from £3,000 to well over £100,000 depending on the species. Colourful, dramatic birds like the flamingo and wild turkey are at the top end.

Original Audubon octavo plates (the smaller 1840s edition) can be found from around £50 to £500 depending on subject and condition. These are genuinely antique but small, roughly 15 by 25cm.

Original Gould plates typically range from around £150 for common European songbirds up to several thousand pounds for the most sought-after hummingbirds and birds of paradise.

Modern reproductions, if done properly, give you the exact visual experience of the artwork at a fraction of the price and often at a more usable size. What matters in a good reproduction:

• Giclée printing (not standard inkjet), which gives you the depth and colour accuracy of the original
• Archival matte paper, thick enough not to warp
• UV protection if it's going anywhere near a window
• Sensible standard sizes so you can replace or reframe later

Our own vintage bird art prints use museum-grade giclée on thick matte paper with UV-protective acrylic glaze rather than glass, which means they won't fade in direct sunlight and won't shatter if a frame comes off the wall.

Gallery walls: mixing Audubon and Gould

You can mix them, but do it with intent. The most common mistake is combining a huge Audubon heron with a small Gould hummingbird and expecting them to talk to each other. They won't. The heron will shout, the hummingbird will vanish.

Two approaches that work:

Stick to one artist per wall. A trio of Gould hummingbirds above a bed. A single Audubon over a sofa. Each artist gets to be themselves.

Match scale, not artist. If you want a mixed gallery, pick Audubon and Gould plates at similar sizes and with similar palettes. Grouped songbirds from both artists at 40 by 50cm in matching frames read as one collection rather than two competing ones.

For a larger gallery wall, consider building outward from bird prints with other animal art prints in the same period style. Botanicals, butterflies, and shells from the same 19th-century natural history tradition mix beautifully with both artists.

Other names worth knowing

If you've already exhausted Audubon and Gould, or want something less recognisable, look at:

• Mark Catesby: earlier than both (1730s), rougher, more folk-art in feel. Good for characterful country interiors.
• Prideaux John Selby: a British contemporary of Audubon. His Illustrations of British Ornithology is life-size like Audubon's work but focused on British species.
• Edward Lear: before the nonsense poems, he painted parrots. His Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae (1832) is one of the great parrot books.
• Elizabeth Gould: John's wife, who lithographed many of his early plates and deserves her own recognition.

Which one should you actually buy?

If you can only have one bird print and you want it to define the room, buy an Audubon at 70 by 100cm and frame it properly. Heron, flamingo, or wild turkey are the classics.

If you want beauty without drama, or you're building a small collection over time, start with a pair of Gould hummingbirds at around 40 by 50cm and add from there.

If you're decorating a large wall on a smaller budget, three Gould plates at matching sizes will do more work than one middling Audubon.

Hang bird prints at eye level, roughly 145 to 150cm from the floor to the centre of the piece. Give large prints breathing room, at least 20cm from any adjacent furniture or frame. And resist the urge to hang bird prints in every room. They're most powerful when one room owns them.