Greater White-fronted Goose — engraving

"Greater White-fronted Goose".

Technique, Material: Chromolithograph / Paper
Artist: Archibald Thorburn,  Engraver: 
Date, Publisher: Lith. Highest Approved Partnership of I. N. Kushnerev and Co., Moscow.
Size: 25,5x16 cm.

The Greater White-fronted Goose (Latin: Anser albifrons, Gmel.) is a large waterfowl species of the duck family, closely related to the Greylag Goose but distinguished by darker coloration and the characteristic white patch surrounding the bill, from which it derives its name. The Latin name Anser albifrons comes from the Latin albus — white, and frons — forehead, directly referring to the species' key identifying feature. The species was first described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748–1804) , a professor of medicine in Göttingen who completed the 13th edition of Carl Linnaeus' famous "Systema Naturae" and described numerous new species.

Body length ranges from 64–86 cm, wingspan 130–165 cm, and weight 1.9–3.3 kg. Plumage is greyish-brown, with the breast and belly marked with black spots and bars (especially prominent in adults), earning the goose the colloquial name "specklebelly" in North America . The bill is pinkish-orange, and the legs are bright orange. A distinctive white patch surrounds the base of the bill, which is absent or weakly expressed in juvenile birds.

The Greater White-fronted Goose is a migratory bird with an extensive range across the Northern Hemisphere. It breeds in the tundra and forest-tundra of Eurasia and North America, wintering much farther south — in Western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea region, the southern United States, China, and Japan. It feeds primarily on plant matter — shoots, leaves, seeds, and agricultural crops in fields.

The scale 1/4 is indicated on the sheet. In this series of ornithological chromolithographs, this fraction denotes the ratio of the depicted size to the bird's actual size. This means the bird in the illustration is shown at a scale of one-quarter (1:4) of its natural size. 

The Artist
The drawing for this chromolithograph was created by the eminent British animal painter Archibald Thorburn (1860–1935) , recognized as a classic master of ornithological illustration. The son of a miniature painter to Queen Victoria, Thorburn developed his unique style combining scientific accuracy with artistic expressiveness and meticulously rendered natural backgrounds. He gained worldwide fame for his 268 watercolors for Lord Lilford's monumental work "Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands" (1885–1898), as well as illustrations for numerous books on birds and hunting.

The Publisher
This lithograph was printed by the printing house of the I. N. Kushnerev and Co. Partnership in Moscow. The enterprise was founded in 1869 by Ivan Nikolayevich Kushnerev, becoming one of the largest printing enterprises in the Russian Empire by the end of the 19th century . The Partnership's status as "Highest Approved" meant its charter had been personally approved by the Emperor — a mark of exceptional trust and supreme quality. The printing house was renowned for its first-class execution of illustrated publications, including multi-colored chromolithographs.