subject: Great Bird Art By Audubon. [print this page] John James Audobon, (Apr 1785 to Jan 1851), is one of the world's most famous wildlife artists and is especially well known for his bird prints.
He was born in Haiti, educated in France then moved to America where he became interested in nature. He did an experiment on birds by tying yarn around their legs, proving that they came back to the exact same nests the next year . . . this was the first ever bird-tagging study.
This was the same year (1803) that he began his bird illustrations and by 1819 his intense focus on wildlife art had increased a lot. Although another American artist had already done this, he decided to paint every bird species in America. He traveled the length of the great Mississippi river in order to do this with his assistant, and a gun and painting equipment.
He had to travel to England to get his bird art published because the British had superior printing skills and a great interest in romantic ideas about America including its wildlife.
The first version of his book, called "Birds of America", published in the late 1930's, is probably the greatest picture book ever published and was 26 by 36 inches so that most of the birds could be illustrated (by hand-colored aquatint) life size. This extremely important book was followed by a book to go alongside it, called "Ornithological Biographies" (by Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray), which gave written details of each bird.
His approach was to first shoot the bird. He then mounted it using wire and then painted it. He usually shot more than one hundred birds in a day and was particularly excited when he was able to shoot a rare bird. Later in life he supported wildlife conservation very strongly and spoke intensely against the continued depletion of wildlife and nature in the USA.
Later, in 1942, this book was published in the USA. Still one of the greatest wildlife illustrators who ever lived, Audubon is probably the best-known bird artist ever from America.
