A bird in flight with its hooked beak wide open, wings held high, holds a shimmering green and white fish in its talons in this vertical painting. The bird and fish fill the composition against a pale, hazy landscape. Both animals face our left in profile. The bird’s raised wings are dark brown, and the feathers on the underside of its left wing, closer to us, are cream white. Its tail is fanned and the feathers are striped with golden yellow against dark brown. The bird surges forward, to our left, its head low. The yellow eye we see is round and clear, and its dark beak curves to a sharp point over its protruding tongue. The head is striped with cream and brown, creating a mask-like effect. Powerful talons grip the fish, whose tail still dips in the water below. The fish’s mouth gapes and its eye, which is yellow around a black iris, is wide open in the gray and silver head. The top of the fish’s body is iridescent emerald green that fades to tan and parchment yellow along its belly. Light and dark speckles create a dotted pattern along the fish’s length. The body of water meets the horizon about a quarter of the way up the composition. The surface of the water is painted in sage green, golden tan, and pale pink. Cliffs in the distance are soft mauve purple under an aqua-blue sky filled with billowing clouds. White birds with black wingtips fly over the water in the distance.

Osprey and Weakfish

John James Audubon

A bird in flight with its hooked beak wide open, wings held high, holds a shimmering green and white fish in its talons in this vertical painting. The bird and fish fill the composition against a pale, hazy landscape. Both animals face our left in profile. The bird’s raised wings are dark brown, and the feathers on the underside of its left wing, closer to us, are cream white. Its tail is fanned and the feathers are striped with golden yellow against dark brown. The bird surges forward, to our left, its head low. The yellow eye we see is round and clear, and its dark beak curves to a sharp point over its protruding tongue. The head is striped with cream and brown, creating a mask-like effect. Powerful talons grip the fish, whose tail still dips in the water below. The fish’s mouth gapes and its eye, which is yellow around a black iris, is wide open in the gray and silver head. The top of the fish’s body is iridescent emerald green that fades to tan and parchment yellow along its belly. Light and dark speckles create a dotted pattern along the fish’s length. The body of water meets the horizon about a quarter of the way up the composition. The surface of the water is painted in sage green, golden tan, and pale pink. Cliffs in the distance are soft mauve purple under an aqua-blue sky filled with billowing clouds. White birds with black wingtips fly over the water in the distance.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
John James Audubon
Date
1829
Medium
oil on canvas on hardboard
Dimensions
overall: 101.6 x 66.7 cm (40 x 26 1/4 in.) framed: 127.32 x 94.62 x 8.26 cm (50 1/8 x 37 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Department
CAB
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of Richard M. Scaife

Art Genome Taxonomy

6 tags

Subject Matter

  • Animals Both · 99%

    The title and catalog description identify an osprey and a weakfish, which are visibly the dominant subjects of the painting.

  • Movement Both · 98%

    The catalog describes the bird as surging forward, and the image shows it airborne with raised wings, an extended body, and a fish suspended beneath it.

  • Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 98%

    The image includes a broad body of water, a low horizon, distant cliffs, and a cloud-filled sky; the catalog likewise describes a pale, hazy landscape and water.

Visual Qualities

  • Highly Detailed Visual · 97%

    The painting gives sustained visual attention to individual feathers, layered wings and tail plumage, fish scales and speckling, eyes, beaks, and talons.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The catalog identifies the medium as oil on canvas on hardboard.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art dates the painting to 1829, placing it in the nineteenth century.

Source & rights

John James Audubon. Osprey and Weakfish. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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