Audubon: Early Drawings

by John James Audubon, Richard Rhodes (Introduction), Scott V. Edwards (Editor)

In 1805, Jean Jacques Audubon was a twenty-year-old itinerant Frenchman of ignoble birth and indifferent education who had fled revolutionary violence in Haiti and then France to take refuge in frontier America. Ten years later, John James Audubon was an American citizen, entrepreneur, and family man whose fervent desire to “become acquainted with nature” had led him to reinvent himself as a naturalist and artist whose study of birds would soon earn him international acclaim. The drawings he made during this crucial decade―sold to Audubon’s friend and patron Edward Harris to help fund his masterwork The Birds of America , and now held by Harvard’s Houghton Library and Museum of Comparative Zoology―are published together here for the first time in large format and full color. In these 116 portraits of species collected in America and in Europe we see Audubon inventing his ingenious methods of posing and depicting his subjects, and we trace his development into a scientist and an artist who could proudly sign his artworks “drawn from Nature.” The drawings also serve as a record of the birds found in Europe and the Eastern United States in the early nineteenth century, some now rare or extinct.

The drawings are enhanced by an essay on the sources of Audubon’s art by his biographer, Richard Rhodes; transcription of Audubon’s own annotations to the drawings, including information on when and where the specimens were collected; ornithological commentary by Scott V. Edwards, along with reflections on Audubon as scientist; and an account of the history of the Harris collection by Leslie A. Morris.

Splendid in their own right, these drawings also illuminate the self-invention of one of the most important figures in American natural history. They will delight all those interested in American art, nature, birds, and the life and times of John James Audubon.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2008

About the author

Such volumes as The Birds of America (1827-1838) collect naturalistic detail and artistic sensibility of noted engravings of Haitian-born ornithologist John James Audubon.

This able French painter expansively studied to document all types, and his illustrations depicted habitats. People consider his finest major work, a color-plate book, entitled and ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species.

After 1819, Audubon went bankrupt, and people threw him into jail for debt. He drew portraits, particularly death-bed sketches, which country folk greatly esteemed before photography, to earn the little money. He wrote, "[M]y heart was sorely heavy, for scarcely had I enough to keep my dear ones alive; and yet through these dark days I was being led to the development of the talents I loved."

Audubon made some excursions west, where he expected to record species that he missed, but his health began to fail. In 1848, he manifested signs of senility, his "noble mind in ruins." He died at his family home. People buried body of Audubon close to the location of his home at 155th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, city of New York. An imposing monument honors him at the cemetery, the center of the heritage rose district.

Influence of Audubon on history reached far. His high standards inspired nearly all later works. Charles Darwin quoted Audubon three times in On the Origin of Species and also in later works. Despite some errors in field observations, he made a significant contribution to the understanding of anatomy and behavior. People still consider the greatest examples of book. Audubon discovered 25 new species and 12 new subspecies.

In recognition of his contributions, people elected him to the royal society of Edinburgh and the Linnaeans.

The open homestead of mill grove in Audubon, Pennsylvania, contains a museum, presenting and including all his major works, to the public.

The museum at state park in Henderson, Kentucky houses many of his original watercolors, oils, and personal memorabilia.

In 1905, people incorporated and named the national Audubon society in his honor. Its mission "is to conserve and restore ecosystems, focusing on birds..."

The postal service of the United States honored him with a 22¢ great series stamp.

On 6 December 2010, auction of Sotheby sold a copy for $11.5 million, the second highest price for a single printed book.

On 26 April 2011, Google displayed a special doodle on its global homepage to celebrate his 226th birthday.

Named:

Audubon park in New Jersey. He drew many street signs in Audubon Park.
Audubon, Pennsylvania, also has the Audubon sanctuary. Most of the streets in this small town are named that he drew.
Audubon Elementary School, Audubon, Pennsylvania
The Audubon Institute, a family of museums, parks and other organizations in New Orleans, eight of which bear the Audubon name.
The Audubon Park and country club in Louisville, Kentucky is in the area of his former general store.
Several towns and Audubon County, Iowa.
In Louisiana, John James Audubon Bridge (Mississippi River); Audubon Park & Zoo, New Orleans.
The northbound span of the Bi-State Vietnam Gold Star Bridges was originally named the Audubon Memorial Bridge.
John James Audubon State Park and the Audubon Museum (located within the park) in Henderson, Kentucky.
Audubon Parkway, also in Kentucky, is a limited-access highway connecting Henderson with Owensboro, Kentucky.
Rue Jean-Jacques Audubon in Nantes and Rue Audubon in Paris.

Reviews

[Michal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these life-sized drawings and the simple paragraphs that accompany each illustration.