Henrik Grönvold (6 September 1858 – 23 March 1940) was a Danish naturalist and artist, known for his illustrations of birds. Grönvold was among the last natural history illustrators to publish lithographs.
Grönvold had an early interest in natural history, and an early aptitude for natural history art. He studied drawing in Copenhagen, and worked first as a draughtsman of the Royal Danish Army's artillery and an illustrator at the Biological Research Station of Copenhagen. In 1892, Grönvold left Denmark intending to emigrate to the United States. While stopping in London en route, he was employed at the Natural History Museum preparing anatomical specimens. Grönvold's Swedish wife Josefine joined him a year later.
Grönvold became a skilled taxidermist, and established a reputation as an artist. He was employed at the Museum until 1895, when he accompanied William Ogilvie-Grant on an expedition to the Salvage Islands. After this expedition, Grönvold worked at the Museum in an unofficial capacity as an artist for decades, and only left London to attend an ornithological congress in Berlin.
Grönvold's illustrations largely appeared in scientific periodicals such as the Proceedings and Transactions of the Zoological Society, The Ibis and the Avicultural Magazine. In these publications, he drew plates for William Ogilvie-Grant, George Albert Boulenger, and Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas, among others. Grönvold also completed numerous plates for Walter Rothschild, many of which appeared in Rothschild's journal Novitates Zoologicae. Grönvold mostly illustrated birds and eggs, rare and newly discovered species from many parts of the world, and mostly worked in lithographs. His egg plates include some of great auk eggs made for Alfred Newton. He made some depictions of mammals as well, and the Natural History Museum collection has oil paintings of apes he made for Rothschild.
Among the books Grönvold illustrated is George Shelley's Birds of Africa, which contained 57 plates, many of species that had not been illustrated before.[1] He illustrated W. L. Buller's books on the birds of New Zealand, Brabourne's Birds of South America,[1] Henry Eliot Howard's The British Warblers (1907–14), Charles William Beebe's A Monograph of the Pheasants (1918–22), and Herbert Christopher Robinson's The Birds of the Malay Peninsula (1929–76).[3] He completed 600 hand-coloured plates for twelve volumes of The Birds of Australia (1910–27) by Gregory Macalister Mathews. Grönvold subsequently provided numerous illustrations for Mathews' The Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands … (1928) and A Supplement to The Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands … (1936) – some of the last publications that were issued with hand-coloured plates.[2]
Such was his contributions to bird art that a Mirafra lark was named for him in 1930. Grönvold died at Bedford in 1940. He was survived by his wife Josefine, and daughter Elsa, who had become a skilled portrait painter.
(1858 in Præstö - Bedford 1940). Zwei Kolibris auf Ästen. Aquarell 1911. Ca. 13,5 x 20 cm. Unt. re. sign. u. dat. Unter Passep. u. Glas gerahmt (nicht ausgerahmt). D
Henrik Gronvold (1858-1940) Three sheets of studies of birds of Great Britain signed 'H. Gronvold' (lower right), pen and ink and watercolour heightened with white, on paper 38.5 x 38.5cm (unframed) Discolour to sheets, some tears and worming to edges, tear to centre of sheet but without loss, tape marks to edges
GRONVOLD, Henrik (Danish 1858-1940) (10) Ten Framed Bird Illustrations Chestnut-faced owl, lesser rifle-bird, yellow-billed kingfisher, white-tailed kingfisher, rose-crowned fruit-pigeon, large blue coot, tawny frogmouth, rainbow and noisy pitta, spur-winged plover, and a wonga wonga. Published by Witherby & Co. Colour Lithograph (10) 48x40cm each (frame)
GRONVOLD - Terns (Pair, Black & Roseate) 1. GRONVOLD, Henrik (DANISH, 1858-1940). "Hydrochelidon Nigra (Black Tern)". Pencil and watercolor heightened with gouache, some with touches of gum Arabic on paper. Signed lower left: "H Gronvold". Prepared for Plate XI W.H.Hudson and L. Gardiner, Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds (1923). 1922-1923. 6 1/16" x 6 3/4" sheet. Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 17 March 1999, lot 149, private collector. WITH 2 . GRONVOLD, Henrik (DANISH, 1858-1940). "Sterna Dougalli (Roseate Tern)". Pencil and watercolor heightened with gouache, some with touches of gum Arabic on paper. Signed lower right: "H Gronvold". Prepared for Plate XX W. H. Hudson and L. Gardiner, Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds (1923). 1922-1923. 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" sheet. Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 17 March 1999, lot 149, private collector. ----------------- "This most aerial and elegant bird of the sea and inland waters was once excessively abundant in the fen country, where it bred annually, and has been lost to us as a summer resident almost within the memory of men still living. "Blue Darr" was its local name in the Norfolk Broads district; in Lincolnshire it was called "Carr-Swallow" and "Carr-Crow." Turner (Historia Avium , 1548) spoke of its excessive clamour during the breeding season, which was enough to deafen those who lived near the lakes and marshes it frequented. Pennant, describing the East Fen, visited by him in 1769, speaks of the Black Tern in great flocks, almost deafening one with their clamour. Richard Lubbock, about 1818, wrote, ?it breeds in myriads at Upton,? near Acle, Norfolk. It ceased to breed in that county about 1835, from what cause is not accurately known. In 1832 it was still breeding in immense numbers in Crowland Wash, Lincolnshire. In 1853 some birds returned, and two or three nests were found in Hockwold Fen. In 1858 a solitary pair bred at Sutton, Norfolk, laying two eggs, which were taken and the birds shot. Thus ends the story of the Black Tern as a British resident species. Every year on its migration it comes to Cheshire and to Cornwall, and is not uncommonly seen at that time on the Kentish coast; but the few that revisit our shores stay not to breed. The "great clamour" is a thing of the past. Many of us would now gladly submit to be deafened by it. "There is another small bird of this kind called Stern in local dialect, which is so like the sea Lari that it seems to differ from them only in size and colour; for it is a Larus, though smaller than the sea Lari, and blacker. Throughout the whole summer at which time it breeds, it makes such an unconscionable noise that by its unrestrained clamour it almost deafens those who live near lakes and marshes. This I certainly believe to be the bird whose vile garrulity gave rise to the proverb Larus parlavit. It is almost always flying over lakes and swamps, never at rest, but always open-mouthed for prey." Turner's Hisioria Avium. "The Black Tern was a regular spring visitor to England before drainage had done away with most of the fens and wet marshes to which it used to resort for breeding purposes; but even in Norfolk the last eggs on record were taken as long ago as 1858, though early in the century the nests of the "Blue Darr," as the bird was called, might have been found in hundreds on the alder-swamps." Saunders's Manual. "The pretty little Black Tern is now, alas, only a visitor to the British Islands during spring and autumn migration. Half a century ago it bred every season in considerable numbers on Romney Marsh in Kent, on many of the Norfolk Broads, and in some of the Lincolnshire fens. It is not known to have remained to build its nest in this country for the last five-and-twenty years; incessant persecution, combined with the drainage of marshes, has driven it away, though it still passes our coasts on its way to and from Denmark and Sweden." Seebohm's British Birds. "The Black Tern was dying out as a breeding species in Kent in the early forties and became extinct a few years later. . . In my opinion, if efficient protection could be assured, the Black Tern would once more establish itself as a breeding species, though in the present state of affairs this is highly improbable. Austin (R.S.P.B. Watcher at Dungeness) recollects five or six pairs nesting about twenty-five years ago, but the eggs were all taken for eating, together with those of Gulls and other birds." Ticehurst's Birds of Kent. "Though nearly all its ancient abodes have been drained, and for its purposes sterilised these many years past, not a spring comes but it shows itself in small companies in the eastern counties of England, evidently seeking a breeding-place. All around the coast the diminution in the numbers of the remaining species of Terns within the last 50 years is no less deplorable than demonstrable." Newton's Dictionary of Birds. WITH T"he Roseate Tern was first observed breeding on the small Cumbrae Islands in the Firth of Clyde about the end of the eighteenth century or beginning of the nineteenth, by a Dr. MacDougall of Glasgow; and it was first described in the Supplement of Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary (1812). MacDougall, writes Seebohm, found several of these beautiful birds in company with great numbers of the Common Tern and sent a skin and many interesting particulars respecting the peculiarities and habits of the new species to Colonel Montagu.? It was then found to be breeding in many places on the Scotch, Irish and English coasts, also the Scillies. From that time onwards (attention having been called to it), its diminution began and continued down to the eighties of last century, when it was pronounced extinct as a British breeding species. "It is doubtful," wrote Seebohm in 1884, "whether the Roseate Tern breeds in any part of the British Islands at the present time," though the bird had appeared on the Fames and on the Norfolk coast as recently as 1880. In more recent years one of its old breeding-places on the Lancashire coast has been re-colonised, and there are one or two other small colonies which are maintained by means of special protection. Here the birds will linger until all have been obtained by the collectors, or until?" The Roseate Tern is at once the most beautiful and the most swallow-like of these swallows of the sea, the breast being tinged with a very soft rosy flush, though this faint exquisite hue is seen only with the binoculars or when very near at hand, and the streamers of the tail being very long, some inches longer than the central feathers. The wings are somewhat shorter and narrower than those of the Common or Arctic Tern, but the flight is even more buoyant and graceful. Howard Saunders says that it is " more intolerant of interference " than other Terns; hence many of its old breeding stations have been abandoned owing to egg-collecting. He also attributes the decrease of the species, on the authority of a French naturalist, to the increase of the larger strong-billed Common Tern; but there is little need to cast about for any such explanation. The two birds had probably nested on the same ground, or in close neighbourhood, for many years before Montagu's time, though it is unlikely that their numbers were ever great. Mr. Bickerton who, in The Home Life of the Terns , describes a breeding site and the behaviour of the birds, tells us that he found them preferring to associate themselves with the Common Tern rather than with the Arctic, though also preferring to nest in solitary pairs and nearer to the edge of the cliff than the ground selected by their relations. They were, he points out, never numerous, because the British shore is on the further northern fringe of their breeding range; therefore comparatively few reach our islands on the annual migration. When Mr. Bickerton came to exhibit his lantern slides of the bird at a meeting of the British Ornithological Club in 1909, Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant wrote: "I hope you will not give the locality of the Roseate Terns, as once the spot is generally known it will be hard to keep exterminators off." Since such localities have been known, whether on the Cum-braes or Fames, or the Scillies, or in Ireland, it has been indeed not hard, but impossible, to keep exterminators off. Some few years ago a well-known private collector offered a couple of the eggs, or a couple of clutches of eggs, to the British Museum (Natural History) as a joint gift from himself and the owner of the place where they were taken. It was a piece of unexampled generosity no doubt. But it turned out that these eggs had been illegally taken, since they were protected by the law, that a watcher was employed to guard them, that the visitor, though citing the landowner's name, was unknown to him and had been warned not to take the eggs, and that the landowner knew nothing about the whole business, from nesting-ground to museum, until after the event. "Formerly a tolerably common summer visitor to several localities in our Islands, has become of late years a decidedly rare British bird." Lilford's Birds of the British Islands.
GRONVOLD, Henrik (DANISH, 1858-1940). "Grus Cinerea (Common Crane)". Pencil and watercolor heightened with gouache, some with touches of gum Arabic on paper. Signed "H. Gronvold". Inscribed with notes to the publisher. Prepared for Plate II W.H.Hudson and L. Gardiner, Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds (1923). 1922-1923. 7 1/4" x 5 1/8" sheet. Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 17 March 1999, lot 149, private collector. "The Crane remained with us down to the time when people wrote about British Birds, the times of Turner, Willughby, and others. Turner (1544) says, "Cranes breed in England in marshy places, I myself have very often seen their pipers," pipers being the name given to the young birds. It was once common, and continued to resort to our shores in considerable numbers down to nearly the end of the seventeenth century. It was abundant in Ireland, we know, in the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. When it ceased to breed is not certain. In the sixteenth century it was, with other large game birds, Heron, Bittern, Spoonbill, Bustard, etc., protected by Act of Parliament. This was a wise law, that gave protection to egg as well as bird, but in the case of this species it was of no avail. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Account of the Birds found in Norfolk, tells us that ?Cranes are often found here in hard winters, especially about the champain and fieldy parts. ... It seems they have been more plentiful, for in a bill of fare when the Mayor entertained the Duke of Norfolk I meet with Cranes in a dish. This feast is supposed to be one which was given in June 1663. Willughby, in 1676, says : "They come to us often in England, and in the ten counties, in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, there are great flocks of them." As to whether or no they bred at that time he says, "I cannot certainly determine, either from my own knowledge or from the relation of any credible person." At the present day the Crane is a rare visitor, a lost wanderer from happier realms. The resonant, far-sounding cry of this noble bird, one of the most fascinating sounds of wild nature, especially when several individuals, as their custom is, unite their voices in a chorus, will probably never be heard again in England, except from rare stragglers or from captives in an enclosure. Occasional visitations we have; there was a great and notable one in the spring of 1869; but the birds are always shot on appearance. Mr. H. E. Forrest records in his Fauna of Shropshire that one was shot on the Herefordshire border in 1859 by a farmer who, finding it described in the books as a "common" Crane, gave the body to his waggoner, who cooked and ate it. A writer in British Birds (Vol. II.) states that a female bird shot in Anglesey by a gamekeeper in May 1908, showed no sign of having been in captivity and was stuffed and placed in Chester Museum where "it forms an extremely interesting addition to the local collection." The shooting of a rare visitor or of an escaped bird from a private aviary, represents the only way in which additions are made to the British avi-fauna to-day. With the Crane's figure we are perhaps more familiar than with that of any other large species, and will be so as long as we continue to import decorative hangings, screens and pictures by the million from Japan. To that artistic people the Crane is pre-eminent among birds for its beauty and stately grace as is the chrysanthemum among flowers. "An Act passed in 1534 fixed a close time from May 31st to August 1st, during which wild fowl might be taken by certain methods, and by certain persons, under a penalty of a year's imprisonment and a fine of 4d. A heavier fine was imposed on stealers of eggs, amounting to as much as 8d. for the eggs of Shoveller Duck, Heron, or Bittern, and 2od. for that of Bustard or Crane. Mr. T. Southwell, writing in Archceologia,Vol. XXXVI., quotes from the sixteenth-century list of presents sent to William More of Loseley by Mr. Bolan out of Marshland in Norfolk, nine cranes, nine swans, and six bitterns, with a large number of other wild fowl." "Notwithstanding the protection afforded it by sundry Acts of Parliament it has long since ceased from breeding in this country. Sir. T. Browne (ob. 1682) speaks of it as being found in the open parts of Norfolk in winter. In Ray's time it was only known as occurring in the same season in large flocks in the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire; and though mention is made of Cranes' eggs and young in the fen-laws passed by a court held at Revesby in 1780, this was most likely but the formal repetition of an older edict, for in 1768 Pennant wrote that after the strictest inquiry he found the inhabitants of those counties to be wholly unacquainted with the bird, and hence concluded that it had forsaken our island. The Crane, however, no doubt then appeared in Britain, as it does now, at uncertain intervals and in unwonted places, showing that the examples occurring here (which usually meet with the hostile reception commonly accorded to strange visitors) have strayed from the migrating band whose movements have been remarked from almost the earliest ages. Newton, Dictionary of Birds."
GRONVOLD, Henrik (DANISH, 1858-1940). "Pelicanus Onocrotalus (Great White or Roseate Pelican)". Pencil and watercolor heightened with gouache, some with touches of gum Arabic on card. Signed lower right: "H Gronvold". Prepared for Plate I W.H.Hudson and L. Gardiner, Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds (1923) 1922-1923. 6 7/8" x 5 1/2" card. Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 17 March 1999, lot 149, private collector. "Of birds which have ceased to rank as British species, the Pelican and Common Crane come first in the order of time. Judging from bones found at Glastonbury both were common birds in the Romano-British period. Beyond this we have no record of the Pelican's existence in Great Britain, and when it vanished we do not know. It inhabits South and East Europe, and has occurred in Denmark and France, ranging further north than the other European Pelican, P. crispus. A great white bird, frequenting the sea-coast and the marshes, it was probably killed for food by the men of the lake villages and of other marshy districts, and disappeared before days of civilization. "With Drayton's picture in my mind and many old memories of immense congregations of Wild Fowl in the lakes and marshes of a distant region, witnessed in my early years but nevermore to be seen, I could reconstruct the past. ... It was early morning in early spring; at all events the geese had not gone yet, but were continually flying by overhead, flock succeeding flock, filling the world with their clangor. I watched the sky rather than the earth, feasting my eyes on the spectacle of great soaring birds. Buzzard and Kite and Marsh Harrier soared in wide circles above me, raining down their wild shrill cries. Other and greater birds were there as well, and greatest of all the Pelican, one of the large birds on which the marshmen lived, but doomed to vanish and be forgotten as a British species long ages before Drayton lived. . . . Then a new sound was heard from some distant spot, perhaps a mile away, a great chorus of wild ringing jubilant cries, echoing and re-echoing all over the illimitable watery expanse; and I knew it was the Crane, the Giant Crane that hath a trumpet sound . "Adventures Among Birds, Chap. XX., The Lake Village.
(Danish, 1858-1940), grisaille watercolor and wash on paper, signed l.r. Overall: 19"h x 26-1/2"w Sight: 15"h x 22-1/2"w Provenance: Property from the Collection of Winston and C.Z. Guest
HENRIK GRONVOLD Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Kingfisher colour lithograph printed text on margin one 29.5 x 20.5cm PROVENANCE The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Melbourne
These two volumes are from the work entitled The Birds of South America [with] Illustrations of the Game Birds and Water Fowl of South America. There are 38 hand-colored lithographs by Henrik Gronvold and one double-page color map. The work was authored by Wyndham Brabourne. The work was published in London by R. H. Porter, John Weldon, Taylor and Francis between 1913 and 1917.
Henrik Gronvold (1858-1940), Birds of Great Britain and Ireland lithographs. To include Brambling Plate 83 of two birds. Signed lower right H. Gronvold. Matted and framed under glass. The other Lapland Bunting Plate 90 of two birds.Signed lower right H. Gronvold. Matted and framed under glass. Both have certificate of authenticity to back. Both measures approximately14" in height by 16-1/2" in width. All sales are subject to Bremo Auctions Terms & Conditions. Please review before bidding.
Henrik Gronvold (1858-1940), Birds of Great Britain and Ireland lithographs. To include Brambling Plate 83 of two birds. Signed lower right H. Gronvold. Matted and framed under glass. The other Lapland Bunting Plate 90 of two birds.Signed lower right H. Gronvold. Matted and framed under glass. Both have certificate of authenticity to back. Both measures approximately14" in height by 16-1/2" in width.
Acquarelli. Henrik Gronvold. Gruppo di 3 acquarelli colorati di uccelli. 1858-1940 3 acquarelli colorati, arricchiti di gomma arabica, su cartoncino, di 155x240 ca. cadauno, Un disegno firmato in basso a matita. Naturalista e artista danese, Henrik Gronvold, 1858-1940, e' conosciuto per le sue illustrazioni di uccelli. Splendido disegnatore, interpreto' il naturalismo anche attraverso le sue spedizioni alle isole Savage. Ha illustrato uccelli e uova e ha disegnato specie non conosciute di diverse parti del mondo.
Acquarelli. Henrik Gronvold. Gruppo di 4 acquarelli colorati di uccelli. 1858-1940 4 acquarelli colorati, arricchiti di gomma arabica, su cartoncino, di 155x240 ca. cadauno, Un disegno firmato in basso a matita. Naturalista e artista danese, Henrik Gronvold, 1858-1940, e' conosciuto per le sue illustrazioni di uccelli. Splendido disegnatore, interpreto' il naturalismo anche attraverso le sue spedizioni alle isole Savage. Ha illustrato uccelli e uova e ha disegnato specie non conosciute di diverse parti del mondo.
Acquarelli. Henrik Gronvold. Gruppo di 4 acquarelli colorati di uccelli. 1858-1940 4 acquarelli colorati, arricchiti di gomma arabica, su cartoncino, di 155x240 ca. cadauno, Un disegno firmato in basso a matita. Naturalista e artista danese, Henrik Gronvold, 1858-1940, e' conosciuto per le sue illustrazioni di uccelli. Splendido disegnatore, interpreto' il naturalismo anche attraverso le sue spedizioni alle isole Savage. Ha illustrato uccelli e uova e ha disegnato specie non conosciute di diverse parti del mondo.
Acquarelli. Henrik Gronvold. Gruppo di 4 acquarelli colorati di uccelli. 1858-1940 4 acquarelli colorati, arricchiti di gomma arabica, su cartoncino, di 155x240 ca. cadauno, Un disegno firmato in basso a matita. Naturalista e artista danese, Henrik Gronvold, 1858-1940, e' conosciuto per le sue illustrazioni di uccelli. Splendido disegnatore, interpreto' il naturalismo anche attraverso le sue spedizioni alle isole Savage. Ha illustrato uccelli e uova e ha disegnato specie non conosciute di diverse parti del mondo.
GRONVOLD, Henrik (Danish, 1858-1940). PELICANUS ONOCROTALUS (GREAT WHITE OR ROSEATE PELICAN). Prepared for W.H.Hudson and L. Gardiner, Rare, Vanishing and Lost British Birds (1923). Pencil and watercolor heightened with gouache, some with touches of gum Arabic on card. Signed: H Gronvold l.r. c. 1922-1923. 6 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches sheet
(lot of 10) Naturalist hand-colored prints, by H. Goodchild (England, active late 19th c.) and H. Gronvold (Henrik Gronvold, Denmark,1858-1940) for "Avicultural Magazine," highlights include: (1) "The Purple Sugar Bird," sight: 6.5"h, 4.5"w, overall: 10.5"h, 8.5"w, (1) "Bouquet's Amazon," sight: 4.5"h, 6.5"w, overall: 9.5"h, 12.5"w, (1) "Ross's Tourocou," sight: 5.25"h, 8.5"w, overall: 9.5"h, 12.5"w, (1) "Black-cheeked Love Bird," sight: 6.5"h, 4.5"w, overall: 10.5"h, 8.5"w; one frame lacking glass, 13lbs total**Provenance: From the estate of James Dolan Jr. (1937-2017), Director of Collections at the San Diego Zoo until 2002** Start Price: $80.00
HENRIK GRONVOLD (Danish, 1858-1940) (LOCATION SYDNEY OFFICE - all enquiries phone 02 9362 9045) Hieracoglaux Occidentalis (Western Winking Owl) lithograph 35 x 25cm (sheet size) PROVENANCE: Antique Print and Map Room, Sydney Private collection, Sydney OTHER NOTES: Plate 264 from ''The Birds of Australia'' by Gregory Mathews, illustrated by Henrik Grönvold, published by Witherby and Co. (12 volumes between 1910-1927) (accompanied by text pages from book)
