John Gould, B. 1804 – 1881

Elizabeth Gould, B. 1804 – 1841

The life of John and Elizabeth Gould represents a unique creative and life partnership, resulting in a body of work with profound resonance in Western natural history. 

English ornithologist, taxidermist and devoted record-keeper of all that is strange and wonderful in the natural world, John Gould was also a skilled entrepreneur: by the age of 14 he was selling his taxidermy creations to students from Eton while still an apprentice at the Royal Gardens in Windsor. He met Elizabeth and they were married in 1829 at the age of 24. Elizabeth was well versed in the Victorian pastime of sketching the landscape and gardens of England and soon found a greater calling when she was employed to produce several illustrated plates for Charles Darwin’s Zoology of the Voyage of the H.M.A.S. Beagle. 

Elizabeth and John would eventually join creative forces when they embarked on a two year research trip around Australia for John's self-initiated and eventually self-published work documenting the species of the region. John Gould’s research and early drawings were made complete by Elizabeth’s beautiful and sensitively seen coloured lithographs of the unusual birds they encountered in the southern hemisphere. In the burgeoning study of natural history, many of these species were completely unknown to their English audiences. 

This project would come to represent their life’s work - for Elizabeth this was only two years after their return to England, when she died suddenly following the birth of their daughter. Her passing devastated John Gould, who would go on to name one of the most charming and vivid birds they documented – the Gouldian Finch – in his wife’s honour.