Original Audubon prints offer stunning detail and color, but often come with a painful price tag. Searching our favorites through the JJ Audubon Gallery (pushing $3000), we pulled a few knockoff prints from AllPosters.com (running $37.99), to see the often significant difference in color:






definitely a very significant difference in quality of color. however, whether its a $3400 difference is another issue...
view amt230's profile
Don't call them knockoffs. They're poster prints of the original images. Knockoffs are other artists copying the original work. Having worked a lot with museums, it's often not the fault of the poster manufacturer that the colors aren't as good, as the negatives, etc. provided from the museum/gallery can vary dramatically. I've seen three or four different color variations of the same Van Gogh print from the same source!
view ridge_van_winkle's profile
Yuck, the cheap prints look like crap.
view revolution9's profile
Yes, prints often vary incredibly from the originals- which is why it is hard for me to buy prints right after leaving a show of original works!
However... these are all jpgs being displayed on monitors and may / may not have been color-adjusted in various ways before they were posted to the museum web site or allposters web site. Unless everyone was calibrated, differences noticed on computer images are almost useless. The prints could be identical and their computer images totally different.
view JG's profile
Too bad about the color difference, though they could look very different in person instead of as a jpeg on a computer screen as JG said.
But you guys just gave me a great idea of a Christmas present for my mom! Thanks!
view michpc's profile
In addition, the slightly more expensive giclee prints seem to have much nicer color (at least as far as my monitor can tell!) http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Louisiana-Heron-from-Birds-of-America-Posters_i1588960_.htm
view michpc's profile
JG beat me to it! :)
I once saw an Audubon exhibit and was struck by how modern they can be... their scale is grand, and when framed in a contemporary way, they are crazy modern.
I'm looking for an Audubon eagle print (original or repro) if anyone out there knows of any sources...
There is also another company that specializes in high end repros of Audubons... have to dig up their card. But alas, no eagle...
view patrick (the other one)'s profile
Patrick, You can get your eagle at www.heritageeditions.nl
for a very low price and top quality. They make them with the Teylers Museum.
view giespl's profile