Les Pigeons is a collection of illustrations of varieties of pigeon by the French ornithological artist Pauline Knip.
A talented artist who had exhibited her watercolours in Paris in the early nineteenth century, Knip was employed by the Dutch naturalist Coenraad Jacob Temminck to produce paintings of pigeons for an extensive natural history of these and other gamebirds (such as chickens, pheasants and peafowl) between 1808 and 1811.
Temminck’s book was being published in Paris, but as he was resident in the Netherlands, he enlisted Knip to take responsibility for the supervision of the engraving, colouring and printing of the plates.
In 1811, Knip altered the ninth and later parts of the work and began to publish copies under her own name with Temminck listed below in much smaller type, implying that he was a contributor. She also removed his introduction and added her own dedication to her friend, the Empress Marie Louise, the second wife of he Emperor Napoleon. The explanatory text in the second volume was supplied by the French naturalist Florent Prévost.
On the book's publication, Knip's efforts earned her a position as natural history painter to the empress and a large stipend.
However, Temminck was completely unaware of what had happened in Paris. Knip had sent him unaltered copies of the book and he remained ignorant of the situation until a visit to the city in 1812. Determined to publicise what he believed was plagiarism, Temminck found little support in the press, who were unwilling to smear the name of a close friend of the empress and he was forced to give up his efforts, resorting to explaining the situation in his 1815 edition of the history, this time printed in Amsterdam.