Bird watching has always been a hobby or activity humans have partaken in since the earliest of times, to sit back and enjoy natures wonders and beauty and also to relax from the everyday stress. Birds are one animal that has no boundaries; for instance they can walk on land, swim and fly. Birds are not bound to the limits we as humans have put on ourselves, unjustly; they are free to fly and explore the world from above. When birds fly, they look down and see land and mountains and water; they don’t see state lines. That’s something we as humans have tried to replicate and why we find the grace and beauty of a bird so mezmerizing and relaxing.
For one man, this thinking turned out to be something he never dreamed of and would never see the full results of his labor; but his work lives on today and stands as the most revered art of birds in catalog form ever.
John Audubon
In April 1785, a man born of French-American blood would forever change birding as we know it, his work would set the world standard of birding and the art of aviary drawings. That man is none other than John James Audubon.
Like most people in the early 1780s he grew up in a humble environment, his father was a French naval officer and privateer, his mom, a chambermaid from Louisiana. He was born in St. Domigue, Haiti, which is now known as Les Cayes. He was an illegitimate child of his father, which upon the death of his mom, his father took John and his sister back to France after being imprisoned by the British during the American Revolution.
In 1789, Jean adopted John and named him Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon. In 1803 at the age of 18, Jean-Jacques boarded an immigrant ship to the new United States Of America, and changed his name to John. Despite the new life he would have, his father sent him here to avoid the Napoleonic Wars, and obtained a false passport to get him here. Upon arrival in New York, John caught yellow fever and was quarrantined. His start in America was already on a bad foot, but John would make wine out of the grapes he was given.
John moved to his father’s sugar plantation just a few miles of Valley Forge, which he considered paradise. It was there that he honed in the love he had for hunting, fishing and birds. He set out to study birds in more detail, and use his artistic genius to capture a more realistic portrayal of these species he studies, than other artists have in the past.
The Legacy
John was a master artist, he would set out across the United States studying birds in their natural habitat.
He would carry around this portfolio which contained his amazing photos. He would then name and catalog each species in this sketch pad. His portraits of these species were amazingly lifelike and portrayed the life and unconfined spirit of each bird.
His work captivated people for years to come, they grew more and more interested in birds, and bird watching. His prints were not worth much financially while he was alive, but in death, his prints became very valuable. Today his art can be seen in reference books, museums, on decorative plates and kitchenware, and many other places. If you happen to have an original drawing, you are sitting on a small fortune.
John’s drawings inspired so many people that the National Audubon Society was created in hopes to protect our natural wildlife from birds all the way across the board. They wanted to preserve the habitat to look just like his drawings and keep this great planet the same way it was then, for generations to come.
The Audubon Society today has become more of an environmental activist group, fighting to keep our forests, preserve the wildlife and speak on behalf of the habitat which can’t speak for itself. They have chapters in every single state of the country, and some world wide. It’s a wonderful organization with tons of bird watching and naturists from around the world, with one common interest, the love of nature.
If you would like to see some of John Audubon’s work, you can, just go to the National Audubon Society’s web site www.audubon.org/nas and there you will find a link to John’s amazing life like catalog of his work.
John Audubon died in 1851 but even 158 years later his work is still one of the most talked about in history. John’s art which inspires grew into an empire that still portrays his ideals and values keeping him alive today in spirit. When ever you see a bird or nature, there you will find John Audubon.
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You write “John was a master artist, he would set out across the United States studying birds in their natural habitat. In lieu of shooting these animals, he would hunt them in a different way, by sight, then capture them on paper without ever hurting one animal in the process.”
I don’t know if you actually are pulling this information from something you read or if you are simply painting him with a very rosy brush, but this is COMPLETELY untrue. Audubon killed hundreds upon hundreds of birds on nearly a daily basis for study. When he went to paint, he wired them into those distorted poses. As a matter of fact, he himself wrote in his journal that if he were only able to kill 100 of a particular species in one day, he considered that a bad day.
john james painting was so nice i what to have one to hang one one my wall .