So, technically, this isn’t a giraffe family. The males tend to wander a lot and only subadult males tend to hang around with the females and their calves. But, I think it’s just more interesting to call it a giraffe family and so what if this giraffe drawing doesn’t represent real life.
The way this vintage drawing is composed, it looks like we have a large male giraffe in the foreground nibbling on the leaves of a tree. In the background we have a second giraffe that appears smaller and is also eating leaves from a tree. A third giraffe, drawn a bit smaller yet, is sitting on the ground at the feet of the second. The entire scene is of the African plain rather than a zoo or the one of the artist’s imagination.
It’s a great historical animal print and this giraffe drawing will hopefully be quite useful for someone. The way it is drawn, you could fairly easily isolate the giraffe in the foreground to create a totally new image for yourself. It is from The Illustrated Magazine of Art, Volume 4 which was issued in 1854.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
