John James Audubon
John James Audubon (1785-1851), while not the first person to attempt to paint and describe the birds of America, was, for half a century, the young country's dominant wildlife artist. His Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists are measured.
John James Audubon, born in Santo Domingo (now Haiti) in 1785, was raised by his stepmother in Nantes, France, where he took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music. In the summer months, the young Audubon lived in Couëron, not a stones throw from the Loire and its marshes. In 1803, at the age of 18, Audubon was sent to America. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia) from 1803-1806. While at Mill Grove, John James Audubon conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America and developed his unique style of wildlife painting. Mill Grove is now the Mill Grove Audubon Center. This led to Pennsylvania birdwatching growth in the area and expanded across the country.
Audubon's expertise as ornithologist, artist, and author came from countless hours in the field and the studio, rather than from formal studies. His years spent traveling, painting, and studying the birds of a young America culminated in the production of Birds of America, samples of which can be found in this guide book and on this website.
John James Audubon made one final trip West in 1843, the basis for his final work of mammals, the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, completed by his sons due to Audubon's failing health. The Quadruped presented many frontier mammals never before seen or depicted.
John James Audubon is often credited with creating an audience for natural history. His engaging narrative style, together with his glorious pictures, made the subject accessible as both art and science to a wide following.
