Returning to the original paintings of John James Audubon and not the proliferation of cheap prints, brings us directly back to his highly personal method and approach- and to the most intimate aspects of his artistic labors. On several occasions he claimed that as a youth he had studies in Paris with Jacques Louis David, who was the virtual dictator of French art during the days of the Directory and Napoleon’s empire; and there is little reason to doubt that he did. However, it remains true that over the years he developed his talent largely by his own constant and dogged determination to improve his performances.
—Audubon was obsessed with painting his birds, like the blue jays as they seem in nature.—click image for source…
Audubon’s earliest efforts were largely drawn in pencil and pastel, but in his mature work he combined these with water color, ink, oil, and even egg white- anything that would enable him better to simulate the sheen, textures, and colors of his feathered subjects. Each of his birds was drawn to actual size. It was his practice to wire freshly killed specimens in lifelike attitudes against a firm background rules into squares and to draw off the likeness on similarly squared paper.
—Most people are familiar with Audubon’s work because they have seen his paintings of birds on greeting cards, in books, or on calendars. His Birds of America revolutionized bird illustration, as he portrayed them life-sized and in their natural habitat. Audubon’s images include six birds that are now extinct.
A complete set was bound in four volumes and comprised 435 prints, depicting 1,065 birds of 497 species. Each print, measuring 27 by 40 inches, was made from an engraved (etched) plate. Approximately 175 sets were printed, but over the years, many of the volumes had been dismantled so that prints could be sold individually to collectors. Only 120 complete sets exist. —click image for source…
Audubon’s method gave a measure of control to his draftsmanship that could have resulted in mechanical and artificial constructions, but instead the finished results usually gave him an illusion of spontaneity in the re-creation of the living bird because Audubon’s mind’s eye brimmed with keen observations of the creatures in all their winged freedom. No other artist of his time was so sensitively and passionately concerned with these aspects of the American scene.
—Title:
Artist:
Location:
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SKU:
Rose Breasted Grosbeak 1806
John James Audubon
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington USA
unknown
AJJ-4434—click image for source…
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