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1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

openculture.com

31–40 of 54 posts

Re: 1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

#34
post #19

Colors appear to be added by the restoration process. This kills originality of the works. I would prefer to see an artwork as it was created, not "enhanced" in anyway.

The artwork "as it was created" is unavailable. The only options are Rougeoux or the ravages of time.

Re: 1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

#35

I'm assuming it is quite nice, but terrible adverts popping up all over the place and distracting from the overall experience, so I only skimmed through it before I closed the window (on a work computer hence no adblock!) Here's something similar from The Guardian, but without the ads: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/18/natural-...

> but without the ads

Do you subscribe?

I get “accept all stalky ad-tech or subscribe”. Even the subscription is only referred to as “ad lite” not “ad free”.

Re: 1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

#36

I've always admired these sorts of illustrations. Botanical ones too. Please forgive the newb questions, but does this gorgeous illustration style have a name and how was it done (I.e., what is the medium -- some kind of colored ink?)

Natural science illustration returns reasonable results. I think most are done traditionally in some type of watercolors.

Re: 1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

#37
I admire the effort but it's hard to get excited about looking at some ancient illustrations which have been partly filled in by AI. I want to see the work of an actual specific artist, and be briefly transported to the times they lived in.

I have this old book of the Audobon bird illustrations and those are truly incredible. Back in the day there was a public audience for high quality, expensive art prints in books and they spared no expense.

Re: 1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

#38
post #37

I admire the effort but it's hard to get excited about looking at some ancient illustrations which have been partly filled in by AI. I want to see the work of an actual specific artist, and be briefly transported to the times they lived in. I have this old book of the Audobon bird illustrations and those are truly incredible. Back in the day there was a public audience for high quality, expensive art prints in books…

The original scans are also available.

Re: 1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

#40

I've always admired these sorts of illustrations. Botanical ones too. Please forgive the newb questions, but does this gorgeous illustration style have a name and how was it done (I.e., what is the medium -- some kind of colored ink?)

I hate to be a contrarian, but I've always hated them. IMHO, the extra-fancy-style illustrations are just that. Now that we have wildlife photography, these seem to regress and appear much worse (again, IMHO) because they are literally an illustration of reality and not a snapshot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwhVJ7cv9B4&t=36s
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