Audubon, John James.

One of the most famous of all wildlife artists, particularly well known for his paintings of birds. Audubon was born in Haiti, educated in Paris, then escaped conscription during the Napoleonic Wars by moving to America. In 1803, living near Philadelphia, he became interested in nature, and conducted the first known bird-tagging study, tying yarn around the legs of Eastern Phoebes thus determining that they were returning to the same nesting sites each year. In the same year he began his artistic study of birds.

Despite its early success, his general store business went bankrupt in 1819 which encouraged him to focus more on his wildlife art. He travelled down the Mississippi with his gun, paintbox and assistant, determined to paint all the birds of America (which had already been done by another artist, Alexander Wilson (click here to see some of his illustrations), but Audobons later version became far more popular).

Audubon's artistic method was to first shoot the bird, then wire-mount it showing a lifelike posture then to paint it in its natural habitat. He would often shoot more than a hundred birds a day, and was especially excited to shoot rare birds. Later in life he spoke out about the depletion of flora and fauna and his name became associated with wildlife conservation.

Audubon initially had difficulty in publishing his bird paintings, due both to lack of interest and lack of technical skills necessary to reproduce his images well enough in America, and had to earn a living painting portraits. He travelled to England, where people of the Romantic era were avidly seeking images of a romanticised view of back-woods America, where he found a capable publisher for his dramatic life-size bird paintings collected together as "Birds of America", initially published using hand-colored aquatints 39 by 26 inches in size, and often regarded as the greatest picture book ever published. King George IV was among those who greatly appreciated Audobon's wildlife art.

This successful publication of "Birds of America" in the late 1930's was followed by the companion volume "Ornithological Biographies", giving the life history of each bird illustrated, written by William MacGillivray a Scottish ornithologist. His "Birds of America" was finally published in the States in 1942. His final work, completed posthumously (finished by his son) was "Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America".

For more details of his life, including two portraits of him, click here for the Wikipedia page.

For another biography of Audubon's life, click here for the Audubon society "about Audobon" page.

Click here for an online version of the complete illustrations of "Birds of America" (Audubon Society).

(click on an image to zoom in)

300 more artworks by Audubon.

click here to go back to the wildlife art by artist, index.