A letter from the Editor

Dear Friends: A Biographical Note about John James Audubon

In Pennsylvania, a beautiful state…, my father, in his desire to prove my friend through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful "plantation," refreshed during the summer heat by the waters of the Schuylkill River, and traversed by a creek named Perkioming. Its fine woodlands, its extensive acres, its fields crowned with evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil. It was there that I commenced my simple and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the future as if the world had been made for me. – John James Audubon

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America as we learned in last month’s Studio News. Audubon was influenced by Mark Catesby’s work (1682-1749). But it was Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), who actually has the distinction of being the first to attempt ornithological illustration. John James Audubon was, however, America’s dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed Wilson’s work and is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists are measured. Today, the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over.

Audubon was born in Santo Domingo, the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and his French mistress. Early on, he was raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Audubon, in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music. In 1803, at the age of 18, he was sent to America where he lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia. While there, he met and married Lucy Bakewell. During this period, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year.

Audubon was a successful businessman. He did at the same time, however, amass a large portfolio of bird drawings between 1803 and 1819. So after hard times hit and a brief stint in jail for bankruptcy, Audubon set off in 1820 to depict America’s avifauna, with nothing but his gun, artist’s materials, and a young assistant.

Floating down the Mississippi, he lived a rugged hand-to-mouth existence in the South while his wife earned money as a tutor to wealthy plantation families. In 1826 he sailed with his partly finished collection to England. "The American Woodsman" was literally an overnight success. His life-size, highly dramatic bird portraits, along with his embellished descriptions of wilderness life, hit just the right note at the height of the Continent’s Romantic era. Audubon found a printer for the Birds of America, first in Edinburgh, then London, and later collaborated with the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray on the Ornithological Biographies – life histories of each of the species in the work.

The evolution of Audubon's art is unwittingly documented by Northern Goshawk and Cooper's Hawk, part of which was completed in 1809, part in 1830. The Cooper's hawk in the lower right and the adult Northern Goshawk in the upper left, drawn early in the artist's career, appear in stiff profile, consistent with the stylized manner of Wilson and others. The lively pose of the immature goshawk perched at the top, created after several decades of firsthand observation, reflects Audubon's mature style.

The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled this country several more times in search of birds, and settled in New York City. He made one more trip out West in 1843, the basis for his final work of mammals, the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was largely completed by his sons, Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse. Audubon died at age 65 and was buried in the Trinity Cemetery at 155th Street and Broadway in New York City.

Audubon’s story is one of triumph over adversity; his accomplishment is destined for the ages. He epitomizes the spirit of young America, when the wilderness was limitless and unknown. He was a person of legendary strength, a keen observer of birds and nature. His work is our legacy of awareness and one that continues to remind us of America’s precious and fragile resources.

God bless. OM

Bibliographical Notes:
http://www.audubon.org/nas/jja.html
http://www.haleysteele.com/jjaudubon/life/bio.cfm

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• Audubon, John James. The 1826 Journal. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, c1967. Main QL31 .A9 A24.
• Audubon, John James. Audubon Watercolors and Drawings. [Utica? : s.n., 1965] Main ND1839 .A9 D94 1965.
• Audubon, John James. The Watercolors for The Birds of America. New York, NY: Villard Books: New-York Historical Society, c1993. Main folio & Pub QL681 .A97 1993.
• Bay, J. Christian. Copy of the MSS, Alphabetical Index to The Birds of America, by John James Audubon. 1911. Main QL674 .A93 1911.
• Clement, Roland C. The Living World of Audubon. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1974. Main QL674 .C53.
• Sotheby’s. The Library of H. Bradley Martin: John James Audubon, Magnificent Books and Manuscripts. New York, NY: Sotheby's, [1989]. Main Z997 .M37 S68 1989.