Bird Art by J.J. Audubon
The most famous person in the birding world is John James Audubon. No study on birds by the Artesian Nature Coalition would be complete without an activity devoted to him and his wonderful paintings. That’s why we spent part of a lovely afternoon familiarizing ourselves with his art and his life.
BIRDS OF AMERICA
by John James Audubon
We spent some time becoming familiar with a copy of this important book. The original versions were huge, with 435 life-sized paintings of North American birds, all done in watercolor.
The original book was printed between 1827 and 1838. Nearly 200 years later, you can see the book online and even download high-resolution copies for free! Super wonderful! Just press the button to see them. You can also read Audubon’s writings on each species.
Here’s Presley showing you what the cover looks like so you can find it in your (public library).
"Audubon the Naturalist" Oil painting portrait of John James Audubon by John Woodhouse Audubon and Victor Gifford Audubon, 1848. Photo: American Museum of Natural History Library
John James Audubon got to know hundreds of birds! John James Audubon was a naturalist and artist who traveled throughout the United States in the 1800s painting birds and other animals in the wilderness. His work and his name became famous. Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785 and spent his childhood in France. He came to the United States when he was 18. He did not speak English when he arrived, but he soon learned the language and, in 1812, became a U.S. citizen.
Today, throughout the United States, parks, streets, and buildings are named in honor of him. What did he do to earn such respect? Audubon was fascinated by nature and wildlife— especially by birds—even as a young boy. He combined his love of nature with his skills of drawing and painting.
In America, he quickly fell in love with the vast and beautiful wild places he saw all around him. Audubon carried his paints and his gun into wild and unspoiled forests. He waded into swamps and drifted in small boats down rivers. He became a skillful woodsman and an expert rifleman.
He faced many dangers in the frontier. Wherever he went, Audubon looked for birds. Some of them were unknown to scientists. His travels let him observe North America’s birds in their natural habitats. Audubon believed birds were so exciting that he wanted to paint them as big as life. He insisted on using the biggest paper available to create the book of his bird paintings. The sheets measured a little more than three feet by two feet, and were called “double elephant sheets.”
When it was published, Audubon’s book, The Birds of America, was a great success, first in Europe and then in the United States. It had life-size paintings of 497 species of birds, more than half of the birds found in North America. Today copies are owned by many very wealthy people and large museums. It would cost you more than a million dollars to buy one! But there are copies that people can see in some museums, including the John J. Audubon Center in Audubon, Pennsylvania.
The pdf document of Audubon’s biography we used as a hand-out in our meeting.
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON BIOGRAPHY
The biography above is reprinted from the Audubon Society’s website. You can visit it by clicking here.
To the left is the hand-out at our Artesian Nature Coalition meeting. You can grab a copy of this pdf by clicking on the button below.