'Great-footed hawk' was the working 19th-century name for the peregrine falcon, and Audubon stages this pair — a male and female, sexed and labeled per his usual convention — at their most characteristic: locked over a duck they've just brought down, wings still raised, one bird's beak still bloodied. Audubon rarely softened predation for a genteel audience; he considered a hunting bird's violence as legitimate a subject as any songbird's domestic scene, and the peregrine's raw speed (still the fastest animal on Earth in a stoop) made it one of his favorite dramatic set-pieces. What to notice: a small grisaille study of a third falcon's head, unfinished and left in pencil at upper right, is a rare glimpse of Audubon's working process bleeding directly into a finished engraved plate — Havell apparently transferred it deliberately, not by mistake.

Maker: John James Audubon (engraved by Robert Havell Jr.)
Date: 1829
Medium of the original: Engraving
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00280

As chosen: 12 x 8 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	12 x 8 in
Outside size	13.6 x 9.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
12 x 8 in	183	Good	Trimmed 3.8%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
10 x 8 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
14 x 11 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
16 x 12 in	127 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
18 x 12 in	122 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
24 x 16 in	91 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 18 in	84 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 20 in	73 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
36 x 24 in	61 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 30 in	50 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
48 x 36 in	42 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
60 x 40 in	36 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 2,200 x 1,524 px, srgb
Tone: Darks 14, lights 249 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0.1% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 16.27