John
James
Audubon
(1785-1851)
was
not
the
first
person
to
attempt
to
paint
and
describe
all
the
birds
of
America,
but
for
half
a
century
he
was
the
young
country’s
dominant
wildlife
artist.
His
seminal
Birds
of
America,
a
collection
of
435
life-size
prints,
is
still
a
standard
against
which
20th
and
21st
century
bird
artists
are
measured.
Audubon
was
born
in
Saint
Domingue
(now
Haiti),
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...
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birds,
nature,
drawing,
and
music.
In
1803,
at
the
age
of
18,
he
was
sent
to
America,
in
part
to
escape
conscription
into
the
Emperor
Napoleon’s
army.
He
lived
on
the
family-owned
estate
at
Mill
Grove,
near
Philadelphia,
where
he
hunted,
studied,
and
drew
birds,
and
met
his
wife,
Lucy
Bakewell.
While
there,
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
spent
more
than
a
decade
as
a
businessman,
eventually
traveling
down
the
Ohio
River
to
western
Kentucky—then
the
frontier—and
setting
up
a
dry-goods
store
in
Henderson.
He
continued
to
draw
birds
as
a
hobby,
amassing
an
impressive
portfolio.
While
in
Kentucky,
Lucy
gave
birth
to
two
sons,
Victor
Gifford
and
John
Woodhouse,
as
well
as
a
daughter
who
died
in
infancy.
Audubon
was
quite
successful
in
business
for
a
while,
but
hard
times
hit,
and
in
1819
he
was
briefly
jailed
for
bankruptcy.
With
no
other
prospects,
Audubon
set
off
on
his
epic
quest
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
Lucy
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
last
print
was
issued
in
1838,
by
which
time
Audubon
had
achieved
fame
and
a
modest
degree
of
comfort, traveled
the
country
several
more
times
in
search
of
birds,
and
settled
in
New
York
City. Audubon’s
story
is
one
of
triumph
over
adversity;
his
accomplishment
is
destined
for
the
ages.
He
encapsulates
the
spirit
of
young
America,
when
the
wilderness
was
limitless
and
beguiling.
He
was
a
person
of
legendary
strength
and
endurance,
as
well
as
a
keen
observer
of
birds
and
nature.
- National
Audubon
Society
