Электронная книга: John James Audubon «Audubon and his Journals, Volume 2 (of 2)»
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Книга | Описание | Год | Цена | Тип книги |
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Audubon and his Journals, Volume 1 (of 2) | — Public Domain, электронная книга Подробнее... | электронная книга | ||
A Synopsis of the Birds of North America | — Public Domain, электронная книга Подробнее... | электронная книга |
John James Audubon
Infobox Person
name = John James Audubon
image_size = 150px
caption =
birth_date =
birth_place =
death_date = Dda|1851|1|27|1785|4|26
death_place =
occupation = Naturalist, Painter, Ornithologist
spouse = Lucy Bakewell (Audubon)
John James Audubon (
Early life
Audubon was born in
From his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds, "I felt an intimacy with them…bordering on frenzy must accompany my steps through life." [Rhodes, 2004, p. 22] His father encouraged his interest in nature, "he would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and the beauty and softness of their plumage. He called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons." [Ford, 1969, p.3] In France during the chaotic and treacherous years of the
In 1803, his father obtained a false passport for him to travel to the United States to avoid conscription in the
Almost from the beginning, Audubon set about to study American birds with the goal of illustrating his findings in a more realistic manner than was common at the time. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 11] He began conducting the first known bird-banding on the continent: he tied yarn to the legs of
Audubon resumed his bird studies upon his return and energetically created his own nature museum, perhaps inspired by the great museum of natural history of
With his father's approval, Audubon sold part of the farm, including the house and mine, but retained some land for investment, after deeming the mining venture as too risky. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 38] He then went to New York to learn the import-export trade with the intention of learning a business that would support his marriage to Lucy. The still skeptical Mr. Bakewell expected a solid career from the "idle" Frenchman before releasing his daughter.
tarting out in business
Shipping goods ahead, he started a
There he frequently turned to hunting and fishing to feed his family, as business was slow. On a prospecting trip downriver with a load of goods, Audubon joined up with
Audubon witnessed the 1811-1812 earthquakes, among the most severe to ever strike the mid-continent. He was galloping on his horse when the horse suddenly stopped, sensing the early vibrations, and Audubon thought a tornado might be approaching. The horse sat down and braced itself and suddenly the land began to sway. When he arrived home he found no major harm had been done but aftershocks continued for months. [Ford, 1969, p.56] Later, in a similar manner, again on horseback, he encountered a tornado, thinking at first that it was another earthquake. Ever the naturalist, he vividly described this force of nature whose "horrible noise resembled the roar of Niagara" and as it retreated "the air was filled with an extremely disagreeable sulphurous odor". [Ford, 1969, p.57]
Though their finances were tenuous and the life more rustic then they had expected, the Audubons started a family. He had two sons: Victor Gifford (1809) and John Woodhouse (1812), and two daughters who died while still infants: Lucy (1815-1817), who lived for two years, and Rose (1819-1820), who lived for nine months. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/audubon_j_timeline.html Timeline to accompany PBS "American Masters" documentary on John James Audubon] ] Both sons would help publish his works later.
During a visit back to Philadelphia in 1812, following the declaration of war with Great Britain by Congress, Audubon gave up his French citizenship and became an American citizen. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 105] On returning home, he discovered that rats had eaten his entire collection of over two hundred drawings. After weeks of depression and insomnia, he took to the field again, determined to re-do his drawings to an even higher standard. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 116]
The
Early ornithological career
After a short stay in Cincinnati where he worked as a naturalist and taxidermist at a museum, Audubon with his gun, paintbox, and assistant Joseph Mason, traveled south on the Mississippi. He had made the commitment to himself to find and paint all the birds of North America for eventual publication. His goal was to surpass the earlier ornithological work of poet-naturalist
Audubon started on an expedition into
Once he was in need of new shoes, and so also was a fellow traveler. Neither had the money to purchase them, but Audubon went to a shoemaker and offered to make portraits of the man in exchange for the new shoes for his traveling companion and himself. The offer was accepted and both men went on their way newly shod
As he roved to nearby towns, Audubon also made charcoal portraits on demand at $5 each and gave drawing lessons. [Streshinsky, 1993, p.102] He took lessons in oil painting technique in 1823 from John Steen, previously a teacher of American landscape and history painter
Audubon returned to Philadelphia in 1824 to seek a publisher for his bird drawings. Though he made the acquaintance of
Birds of America
With his wife's support, Audubon, having just reached his 41st birthday, took his growing collection to England in 1826. He set sail from New Orleans with his portfolio of over 300 drawings to
The British couldn't get enough of his images of backwoods America and its natural attractions, as he toured around England and Scotland. Audubon was lionized as "The American woodsman" and raised enough money to begin publishing his "Birds of America". This monumental work consists of 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of 497 bird species, made from engraved copper plates measuring around 39 by 26 inches. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 403] The work is far from a complete atlas. There are just over 700 North American bird species.
The pages were organized for artistic effect and contrasting interest, as if the reader is taking a visual tour. (Some critics thought he should have organized the plates in Linnaean order as befitting a "serious" ornithological treatise.) [Rhodes, 2004, p. 303] The first and perhaps most famous plate is the Wild Turkey, which had been
The actual cost of printing the entire work was $115,640 (over $2,000,000 today), all paid for from subscriptions, exhibitions, oil painting commissions, and animal skins he hunted and sold. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 403] Audubon's great work was a remarkable accomplishment. It took over 14 years of field observations and drawings, plus his single-handed management and promotion of the project to make it a success. A reviewer wrote, "All anxieties and fears which overshadowed his work in its beginning had passed away. The prophecies of kind but overprudent friends, who did not understand his self-sustaining energy, had proved untrue; the malicious hope of his enemies, for even the gentle lover of nature has enemies, had been disappointed; he had secured a commanding place in the respect and gratitude of men." [Streshinsky, 1993, p.328]
Each color was applied by a colorist in assembly line fashion (over fifty were hired for the work). [Rhodes, 2004, p. 273, 389] This original edition was engraved in
Audubon sold oil-painted copies of the drawings to make extra money and to further increase interest in the book. He also had his portrait painted by John Syme, who clothed the naturalist in frontier clothes, and the painting appeared at the entrance of the exhibitions and added to Audubon's rustic image (the painting currently hangs in the
Even King George IV was an avid fan of Audubon and a subscriber. Audubon was elected a fellow of
Later career
Audubon returned to America in 1829 to complete more drawing for his magnum opus. He also hunted animals and shipped the valued skins to British friends. At last, he was reunited with his family and after settling her business affairs, Lucy accompanied him back to England. Audubon found out that during his absence he had lost some subscribers due to the uneven quality in the coloring of the plates and that others were arrears in their payments. His engraver mended the situation of the plates and Audubon reassured subscribers, but a few begged off to which he responded, "The Birds of America will then raise in value as much as they are now depreciated by certain fools and envious persons". [Rhodes, 2004, p. 392]
He followed his "Birds of America" up with a companion work, "Ornithological Biographies", life histories of each species written with Scottish ornithologist
During the 1830s, Audubon continued making expeditions in North America with his customary energy and determination. During a trip to
In 1839, Audubon returned to America with his family having finished the "Ornithological Biography". He bought an estate on the
He made some excursions out West where he hoped to record all the Western species he was missing but his health began to fail. He manifested signs of senility in 1848, his "noble mind in ruins". [Streshinsky, 1993, p.361] He died at his family home on
His final work was on
Art and methods
Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot to prevent them from being torn to pieces. He then used fixed wires to prop them up into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists of first preparing and stuffing the specimens into a rigid pose. When working on a major specimen, like an eagle, he would spend up to four 15 hour days, preparing, studying, and drawing it. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 375] His paintings of birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat and often caught them in motion, especially feeding or hunting. This was in stark contrast with the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as
He worked primarily with watercolor early on, then added colored chalk or pastel to add softness to feathers, especially those of owls and herons. [Rhodes, 2004, p. 163] He would employ multiple layers of watercoloring, and sometimes use
Legacy
Audubon's influence on ornithology and natural history was enormous. Nearly all later ornithological works were inspired by his artistry and his high standards.
Despite the enormous flocks he saw in his times, in his journals Audubon warned of the dangers that threatened including over-hunting and loss of habitat. Several species he recorded are now extinct including the Carolina Parakeet, the Passenger Pigeon, the Labrador Duck, and the Great Auk.
The
Several towns and one county (in Iowa) also bear his name. The John James Audubon Parkway in
His homestead Mill Grove in Audubon, PA is open to the public and contains a museum presenting all his major works including "Birds of America".
In
In Natchez, Mississippi there is a gallery and, at one time, there was a tableau in the Natchez Pageant dedicated to him.
In Louisiana,
In
There is also an
Notes
References
*Burroughs, J. (1902). "John James Audubon". Boston: Small, Maynard & company. OCLC|648935
*Ford, Alice (1969). "Audubon By Himself". Garden City NY: The Natural History Press
*Fulton, Maurice G. (1917). "Southern Life in Southern Literature; selections of representative prose and poetry". Boston, New York [etc.] : Ginn and Co. OCLC|1496258 [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0766146243&id=VR3RlmT521QC&printsec=frontcover view online here]
* Punke, Michael (2007). "Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West". Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978 0 06 089782 6
*Rhodes, Richard (2004). "John James Audubon: The Making of American". New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41412-6
*Streshinsky, Shirley (1993). "Audubon: Life and Art in the American Wilderness". New York: Villard Books, ISBN 0-679-40859-2
Bibliography
Posthumous collections
* John James Audubon, "Writings & Drawings" (Christoph Irmscher, ed.) ( [http://www.loa.org The Library of America] , 1999) ISBN 978-1-88301168-0
* John James Audubon, "The Audubon Reader" (Richard Rhodes, ed.) (Everyman Library, 2006) ISBN 1-4000-4369-7
*Audubon: Early Drawings (Richard Rhodes, Scott V. Edwards, Leslie A. Morris) ( [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/AUDAUD.html Harvard University Press] and Houghton Library 2008) ISBN978-0-674-03102-9
External links
* American Philosophical Society exhibition: [http://www.amphilsoc.org/exhibitions/undaunted.html Undaunted: Five American Explorers, 1760-2007]
* Audubon biography from [http://www.audubon.org/nas/jja.html National Audubon Society]
* The Audubon House Gallery for [http://www.audubonhouse.org Audubon Art]
* [http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html "Birds of America"] Online version from an 1840 "First Octavo Edition" of Audubon's complete seven volume text, and presents Audubon's images and original text descriptions
* Guide to identifying [http://www.audubon-prints.com Audubon prints]
* John James Audubon - The birds of America. [http://www.mcq.org/audubon/catalogue/intro-catalogue-menu.html Catalog of the 435 plates]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/audubon_j_STUB.html John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature] , "PBS",
* Full text of the biography " [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/7404 John James Audubon] " by
* [http://www.archive.org/details/lifejohnjamesaud00auduiala Life of John James Audubon (1869) (full book)]
* James Audubon State Park [http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/recparks/au/ site]
* [http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=288 Large Collection of Paintings by Audubon]
* [http://www.mcq.org/audubon/menu.html Harmony] A multimedia site combining the original engravings of birds with excerpts of music, literary texts and poetry
* [http://www.audubon.org National Audubon Society]
* National Gallery of Art: [http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/auduboninfo.shtm Audubon's Dream Realized: Selections from "The Birds of America"] (exhibition no longer on view)
* National Gallery of Art: [http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/birdsam/birdsam-main1.html Selections from John James Audubon's "The Birds of America" (1826-1838)]
* [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Olivier_Combelles Pierre-Olivier Combelles] , naturalist, author, French specialist of Audubon in Labrador
* The R.W. Norton Art Gallery: [http://www.rwnaf.org/john_james_audubon.html John James Audubon's Biography]
ee also
*
Persondata
NAME=Audubon, John James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Rabine, Jean (birth name); Audubon, Jean-Jacques Fougere (French)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Ornithologist, naturalist, and painter
DATE OF BIRTH=birth date|1785|4|26|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=death date|1851|1|27|mf=y
PLACE OF DEATH=
Источник: John James Audubon
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