John James Audubon (April 26, 1785 - January 27,1851)
About John James Audubon and Important Links and References
A self-portrait by Audubon in 1826
Will there be another person like John James Audubon in our lifetime ? Probably not ! Audubon was larger than life, a handsome and a charming immigrant who remained mysterious about his humble origins in Saint Domingue (modern Haiti), a dashing figure, a painter, self-taught scientist, ornithologist, and a writer. He was also an expert hunter, a superb raconteur, didn't hesitate to embellish his background and tell tall tales of his experiences in the wild if he thought it would help him (in his early days before gaining acclaim), an entertaining story teller who was popular as a dinner guest, quite capable of defending himself with a knife when attacked, declared bankruptcy, spent a few days in jail, a skilled dancer and musician, and was very devoted to his wife and children. Audubon distinguished himself in many ways from all the previous ornithologists who painted birds (e.g., British ornithologists Mark Catesby and Alexander Wilson), and in doing so, he displayed his pure genius and natural talent in painting the birds. Audubon decided to paint his birds in their true natural size, thereby necessitating for him to use the double elephant folio size paper (approximately 39 1/2” x 26 1/2”) so that he could fit very large birds such as the White Pelican, American Flamingo and others onto the paper. Whereas all the earlier ornithologists tended to depict the birds in a profile form, and often looking stiff and without any expression, Audubon developed a wiring technique that enabled him, to display birds in their natural form as observed by him in Nature, for the first time. He captured the live drama as it unfolded in front of him (e.g., see the Mocking Bird or Virginian Partridge or Canada Otter). And he surpassed all the earlier ornithologists and naturalists in the way he painted his birds and animals with exquisite detail and colors and sometimes even emotions, often showing the finest details such as the barbs on a bird's feather, or capturing the look of terror and shock in the mocking bird’s eyes under attack by a rattle snake invading its nest, or the terrified partridges being attacked by a juvenile eagle, or the pain and fury of a Canada otter with its paw caught in a cruel steel trap set up by a hunter. Another innovation introduced by Audubon in bird paintings - - wherever he could, he cleverly positioned and painted the birds to display different views and details of the bird's plumage (e.g., see Prothonotary Warbler , Barn Owl or Carolina Parrot). Audubon's unique style in painting the birds (by incorporating all these significant innovations including painting the birds in their natural size) can be viewed as a quantum leap over the prevailing practices in the field of ornithological art at that time. His original watercolor paintings of birds culminated with the publication of the double elephant folio size Havell edition of the Birds of America. Despite the dismissal of his genius work by the Philadelphia art establishment that would have probably discouraged a lesser mortal forever (and in particular by the vicious ridicule of his drawings by the influential George Ord of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia who successfully managed to blackball Audubon from getting any recognition at that time), Audubon persevered with singular determination and focus, and succeeded in producing his magnificent and historic masterpiece of art, "The Birds of America" (BOA). The subscribers to the BOA also received a copy of "Ornithological Biography" in which Audubon described the habits of the birds that he painted (we included a few excerpts of his descriptions of birds in the Havell Edition Birds Gallery). He followed the Birds of America with the publication of the Imperial Folio edition of "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America".
During his stay at the Mill Grove Estate in Pennsylvania, Audubon tried to explore the migratory habits of pewees by tagging individual birds with strings tied to the legs of nestlings before they took off from the nest, thereby pioneering the technique of bird banding. His detailed notes in his Ornithological Biography show his keen observation of the habits of the birds in the wild (we have reproduced some of his observations in the Havell Edition Gallery). Audubon was one of the first to raise alarm about the destruction of bird habitats and the wanton hunting of birds and the potential of this hunting and loss of habitat to cause extinction of some bird species (indeed, some species that were abundant during Audubon’s time are now extinct, such as the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parrot, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and the Great Auk, to mention a few). Even though some modern historians have criticized Audubon for killing several birds needlessly when all he needed was one bird (or a few) for his drawing, let us not forget that Audubon was a perfectionist himself; and so perhaps, it could be argued that may be Audubon needed a large number of birds from which he could select the perfect specimen among them (or may be even a composite) for use in his drawing. And, to quote the Audubon scholar William Souder (see the reference below to his book), "...... field ornithology has in truth changed little since then. Modern ornithologists still collect bird specimens all over the world. They still shoot them with shot guns. Many of these same scientists are both conservationists and avid bird hunters" (i.e., these ornithologists still shoot the birds with shotguns and collect them as specimens despite access to modern high-tech equipment like the high-powered zoom-lens cameras, video cameras etc., to capture the bird images). The National Audubon Society was named after John James Audubon, as well as many parks and streets in our country. For Audubon’s intriguing biography and his art, the reader is referred to several excellent books written about him by some noted Audubon scholars, as well as documentary videos (see Important Books and Documentaries about Audubon, listed below). While the documentaries are excellent, his personal life story itself is worthy of a full length Hollywood film.
A copy of the double elephant folio set (the Lord Hesketh set) of the Birds of America by Audubon sold at Sotheby’s Auction in London in December 2010 for a record breaking $11.5 million !
Trivia tidbit: Did you know there is a connection between John James Audubon and Sherlock Holmes ?
Well, actually, a connection with the actor who played the role of Sherlock Holmes - - the owner of this gallery had noticed, one night in the year 2010 while watching a B&W Sherlock Holmes movie on the TV, that the character of Sherlock Holmes was played by an actor named Mr. Basil Rathbone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1939_film_series)). His last name immediately caught the owner's attention because, in 1826, after leaving New Orleans with his stack of watercolor paintings and arriving in Britain on a ship, Audubon visited a Richard Rathbone in Liverpool/England with whom he became good friends, and even honored him by naming a warbler after him (Rathbone Warbler, Havell Plate #65. Also see Plate 89 in the Bien edition section). After some digging, this is what he found - - Richard Rathbone's (1788-1860) elder brother William Rathbone V (1787-1868) was the great grand father of Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) who made a name for himself by playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1940's era movies. There you have it !
Trivia tidbit: Plate 357 - American Magpie - - watercolor paintings.
There are at least two known watercolor paintings of the American Magpie (Havell Plate 357) by John James Audubon in existence -- one in the New-York Historical Society Audubon Gallery, and one in the collection of one of the finest Art Museums in the Nation, viz., the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) in Alabama. After a careful comparison of the Havell engraved image with these two watercolor paintings, the owner of this gallery concluded in 2007 that the painting at the Birmingham Museum of Art was most likely used by Robert Havell for his engraving. The painting in the New-York Historical Society collection appears to be a variant with slight a difference in the placement of tree branch w.r.t. the birds.
John James Audubon Biography:
https://www.biography.com/scientist/john-james-audubon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon
John James Audubon Timeline:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/john-james-audubon-career-timeline/107/
Some Important Books about Audubon and His Art:
(1) Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for “The Birds of America", by Roberta J. M. Olson, published by the Skira Rizzoli Publications, Inc and New-York Historical Society, 2012.
(2) John James Audubon / The Making of An American, by Richard Rhodes, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2004.
(3) Under a Wild Sky / John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of America, by William Souder, North Point Press, New York, 2004.
(4) Audubon Art Prints / A Collector’s Guide to Every Edition, by Bill Steiner, University of South Carolina press, 2003.
(5) Audubon’s Great National Work / The Royal Octavo Edition of the Birds of America, by Ron Tyler, University of Texas press, Austin, 1993.
(6) A Guide to Audubon’s Birds of America, by Susanne M. Low, William Reese Co & Donald A. Heald, New Haven and New York, 2002.
(7) The Double Elephant Folio / The Story of Audubon’s Birds of America, by Waldemar H. Fries, Zenaida Publishing, Inc., Amherst, MA, 2006.
(8) John James Audubon / Writings & Drawings, by Christoph Irmscher (Editor), The Library of America, 1999.
(9) The Imperial Collection of Audubon Animals / The Quadrupeds of North America. Original Text by John James Audubon, F.R.S., and Rev. John Bachman, D.D., Edited and with new text by Victor H. Cahalane. Bonanza Books, New York, 1967
(10) A Summer of Birds / John James Audubon at Oakley House, by Danny Heitman, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 2008.
Some Documentaries about Audubon:
John James Audubon: THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, Arts America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQijoWmzvTo
John James Audubon: The Birds of America (1985) A National Gallery of Art Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa7975N_jYc
Audubon’s Birds of America, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElD_Qx_lPls
The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. John James Audubon & John Bachman. Peter Harrington, London,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5peJmx2API
The Audubon Film:
http://www.audubonthefilm.com/
Some Major Audubon Historical Sites:
(1) John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, PA
Mill Grove was the first home of John James Audubon in America. He was 18 years old. He also met his future wife, Lucy Bakewell, in an estate adjoining Mill Grove.
https://johnjames.audubon.org/node/5266/explore-museum
(2) Audubon Museum and Nature Center, Henderson, KY
Audubon spent a few years in Henderson, KY (then a frontier village). The Museum has a collection of Audubon's personal belongings, as well as a copy of the 4 volume set of the Birds of America on display.
https://friendsofaudubon.org/museum-nature-center/
(3) Oakley Plantation House, St Francisville, LA
Audubon spent about four months at the Oakley Plantation House near St. Francisville, Louisiana. He painted anywhere between 23 to 32 of the bird images while working there (tutoring Eliza Pirrie, the teenage daughter of Mrs. Lucy Pirrie, the owner of the plantation). The Visitor Center has a display of several original Havell edition prints in an adjacent theater.
https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/historic-sites/audubon-state-historic-site/index
(4) Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, 155 & Broadway, Manhattan, New York
The final resting place for the great naturalist John James Audubon is located in the Trinity Church cemetery. He passed away on January 27, 1851 at the age of 65. His immediately family members were also buried at the same site after they passed away.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6102721/john-james-audubon
New-York Historical Society, Museum and Library:
In 1863, Lucy Bakewell Audubon, who by then already lost her beloved husband John James Audubon and her two sons (Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse) was financially strapped and struggling to support her grand children. The advent of the Civil War in 1860 destroyed the plans for the successful completion of the Bien edition of the Birds of America, and contributed to the financial ruin of the Audubon family, further exasperated by the premature deaths of Audubons' two sons in 1860 (Victor Gifford) and 1862 (John Woodhouse). Out of desperation to support her family and discharge financial debts (including debts incurred for the production of the Bien edition), Lucy Audubon sold all of the original watercolor paintings of her husband to the New-York Historical Society for a paltry sum of $4,000. This meager amount was mainly a reflection of the harsh reality of life during the American Civil War which was raging on all around at that time and made it very hard for the Society to raise funds for the purchase of art. These original watercolors by John James Audubon are priceless and are considered a National Treasure. They can be viewed at the New-York Historical Society Museum Gallery. Also see the book listed above : Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for “The Birds of America", by Roberta J. M. Olson.
https://www.nyhistory.org/
National Audubon Society:
In 1886 George Grinnel (a student of Lucy Bakewell Audubon) founded the Audubon Society of New York, the forerunner of the National Audubon Society dedicated to the protection of birds and their habitat. The National Audubon Society currently has 23 state programs, 41 Audubon Nature Centers, and nearly 500 local chapters. The Society published the Abbeville Edition of the Birds of America in 1985 to commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the birth of the great naturalist and artist, as well as the Volair Edition of Audubon's Octavo Birds and Quadrupeds in 1978. More recently, it has collaborated with Gitler &_____ Gallery to create the Audubon Mural Project in New York City to bring attention to climate-threatened birds.
https://www.audubon.org/
©2019 antiqueaudubon.com, All Rights Reserved
During his stay at the Mill Grove Estate in Pennsylvania, Audubon tried to explore the migratory habits of pewees by tagging individual birds with strings tied to the legs of nestlings before they took off from the nest, thereby pioneering the technique of bird banding. His detailed notes in his Ornithological Biography show his keen observation of the habits of the birds in the wild (we have reproduced some of his observations in the Havell Edition Gallery). Audubon was one of the first to raise alarm about the destruction of bird habitats and the wanton hunting of birds and the potential of this hunting and loss of habitat to cause extinction of some bird species (indeed, some species that were abundant during Audubon’s time are now extinct, such as the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parrot, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and the Great Auk, to mention a few). Even though some modern historians have criticized Audubon for killing several birds needlessly when all he needed was one bird (or a few) for his drawing, let us not forget that Audubon was a perfectionist himself; and so perhaps, it could be argued that may be Audubon needed a large number of birds from which he could select the perfect specimen among them (or may be even a composite) for use in his drawing. And, to quote the Audubon scholar William Souder (see the reference below to his book), "...... field ornithology has in truth changed little since then. Modern ornithologists still collect bird specimens all over the world. They still shoot them with shot guns. Many of these same scientists are both conservationists and avid bird hunters" (i.e., these ornithologists still shoot the birds with shotguns and collect them as specimens despite access to modern high-tech equipment like the high-powered zoom-lens cameras, video cameras etc., to capture the bird images). The National Audubon Society was named after John James Audubon, as well as many parks and streets in our country. For Audubon’s intriguing biography and his art, the reader is referred to several excellent books written about him by some noted Audubon scholars, as well as documentary videos (see Important Books and Documentaries about Audubon, listed below). While the documentaries are excellent, his personal life story itself is worthy of a full length Hollywood film.
A copy of the double elephant folio set (the Lord Hesketh set) of the Birds of America by Audubon sold at Sotheby’s Auction in London in December 2010 for a record breaking $11.5 million !
Trivia tidbit: Did you know there is a connection between John James Audubon and Sherlock Holmes ?
Well, actually, a connection with the actor who played the role of Sherlock Holmes - - the owner of this gallery had noticed, one night in the year 2010 while watching a B&W Sherlock Holmes movie on the TV, that the character of Sherlock Holmes was played by an actor named Mr. Basil Rathbone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1939_film_series)). His last name immediately caught the owner's attention because, in 1826, after leaving New Orleans with his stack of watercolor paintings and arriving in Britain on a ship, Audubon visited a Richard Rathbone in Liverpool/England with whom he became good friends, and even honored him by naming a warbler after him (Rathbone Warbler, Havell Plate #65. Also see Plate 89 in the Bien edition section). After some digging, this is what he found - - Richard Rathbone's (1788-1860) elder brother William Rathbone V (1787-1868) was the great grand father of Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) who made a name for himself by playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1940's era movies. There you have it !
Trivia tidbit: Plate 357 - American Magpie - - watercolor paintings.
There are at least two known watercolor paintings of the American Magpie (Havell Plate 357) by John James Audubon in existence -- one in the New-York Historical Society Audubon Gallery, and one in the collection of one of the finest Art Museums in the Nation, viz., the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) in Alabama. After a careful comparison of the Havell engraved image with these two watercolor paintings, the owner of this gallery concluded in 2007 that the painting at the Birmingham Museum of Art was most likely used by Robert Havell for his engraving. The painting in the New-York Historical Society collection appears to be a variant with slight a difference in the placement of tree branch w.r.t. the birds.
John James Audubon Biography:
https://www.biography.com/scientist/john-james-audubon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon
John James Audubon Timeline:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/john-james-audubon-career-timeline/107/
Some Important Books about Audubon and His Art:
(1) Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for “The Birds of America", by Roberta J. M. Olson, published by the Skira Rizzoli Publications, Inc and New-York Historical Society, 2012.
(2) John James Audubon / The Making of An American, by Richard Rhodes, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2004.
(3) Under a Wild Sky / John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of America, by William Souder, North Point Press, New York, 2004.
(4) Audubon Art Prints / A Collector’s Guide to Every Edition, by Bill Steiner, University of South Carolina press, 2003.
(5) Audubon’s Great National Work / The Royal Octavo Edition of the Birds of America, by Ron Tyler, University of Texas press, Austin, 1993.
(6) A Guide to Audubon’s Birds of America, by Susanne M. Low, William Reese Co & Donald A. Heald, New Haven and New York, 2002.
(7) The Double Elephant Folio / The Story of Audubon’s Birds of America, by Waldemar H. Fries, Zenaida Publishing, Inc., Amherst, MA, 2006.
(8) John James Audubon / Writings & Drawings, by Christoph Irmscher (Editor), The Library of America, 1999.
(9) The Imperial Collection of Audubon Animals / The Quadrupeds of North America. Original Text by John James Audubon, F.R.S., and Rev. John Bachman, D.D., Edited and with new text by Victor H. Cahalane. Bonanza Books, New York, 1967
(10) A Summer of Birds / John James Audubon at Oakley House, by Danny Heitman, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 2008.
Some Documentaries about Audubon:
John James Audubon: THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, Arts America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQijoWmzvTo
John James Audubon: The Birds of America (1985) A National Gallery of Art Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa7975N_jYc
Audubon’s Birds of America, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElD_Qx_lPls
The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. John James Audubon & John Bachman. Peter Harrington, London,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5peJmx2API
The Audubon Film:
http://www.audubonthefilm.com/
Some Major Audubon Historical Sites:
(1) John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, PA
Mill Grove was the first home of John James Audubon in America. He was 18 years old. He also met his future wife, Lucy Bakewell, in an estate adjoining Mill Grove.
https://johnjames.audubon.org/node/5266/explore-museum
(2) Audubon Museum and Nature Center, Henderson, KY
Audubon spent a few years in Henderson, KY (then a frontier village). The Museum has a collection of Audubon's personal belongings, as well as a copy of the 4 volume set of the Birds of America on display.
https://friendsofaudubon.org/museum-nature-center/
(3) Oakley Plantation House, St Francisville, LA
Audubon spent about four months at the Oakley Plantation House near St. Francisville, Louisiana. He painted anywhere between 23 to 32 of the bird images while working there (tutoring Eliza Pirrie, the teenage daughter of Mrs. Lucy Pirrie, the owner of the plantation). The Visitor Center has a display of several original Havell edition prints in an adjacent theater.
https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/historic-sites/audubon-state-historic-site/index
(4) Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, 155 & Broadway, Manhattan, New York
The final resting place for the great naturalist John James Audubon is located in the Trinity Church cemetery. He passed away on January 27, 1851 at the age of 65. His immediately family members were also buried at the same site after they passed away.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6102721/john-james-audubon
New-York Historical Society, Museum and Library:
In 1863, Lucy Bakewell Audubon, who by then already lost her beloved husband John James Audubon and her two sons (Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse) was financially strapped and struggling to support her grand children. The advent of the Civil War in 1860 destroyed the plans for the successful completion of the Bien edition of the Birds of America, and contributed to the financial ruin of the Audubon family, further exasperated by the premature deaths of Audubons' two sons in 1860 (Victor Gifford) and 1862 (John Woodhouse). Out of desperation to support her family and discharge financial debts (including debts incurred for the production of the Bien edition), Lucy Audubon sold all of the original watercolor paintings of her husband to the New-York Historical Society for a paltry sum of $4,000. This meager amount was mainly a reflection of the harsh reality of life during the American Civil War which was raging on all around at that time and made it very hard for the Society to raise funds for the purchase of art. These original watercolors by John James Audubon are priceless and are considered a National Treasure. They can be viewed at the New-York Historical Society Museum Gallery. Also see the book listed above : Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for “The Birds of America", by Roberta J. M. Olson.
https://www.nyhistory.org/
National Audubon Society:
In 1886 George Grinnel (a student of Lucy Bakewell Audubon) founded the Audubon Society of New York, the forerunner of the National Audubon Society dedicated to the protection of birds and their habitat. The National Audubon Society currently has 23 state programs, 41 Audubon Nature Centers, and nearly 500 local chapters. The Society published the Abbeville Edition of the Birds of America in 1985 to commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the birth of the great naturalist and artist, as well as the Volair Edition of Audubon's Octavo Birds and Quadrupeds in 1978. More recently, it has collaborated with Gitler &_____ Gallery to create the Audubon Mural Project in New York City to bring attention to climate-threatened birds.
https://www.audubon.org/
©2019 antiqueaudubon.com, All Rights Reserved