Audubon, John James (b. Jean Jacques ?Fougere)

(1785–1851) painter, naturalist; born in Les Cayes, Haiti. The illegitimate son of a French sea captain and merchant, Jean Audubon, and a Creole woman, he was taken to France and legally adopted by Audubon and his wife (1794). He began drawing birds as a teenager (but few now accept his claim that he studied under the great David in Paris). In 1803 he moved to his father's estate near Philadelphia, where he spent his time hunting, experimenting with birds (he is credited with the first banding of wild birds in America), and also drawing the birds he hunted. After convincing her father that he could support her, in 1808 he married Lucy Bakewell; but soon he was going bankrupt operating stores and other business enterprises in Kentucky while he pursued his two real passions: observing and drawing wildlife. To make his finished paintings—for which he used a mix of pastel, watercolor, tempera and, later, oils—he would shoot or trap birds and other wildlife (or sometimes buy dead specimens in the market); at home he set them in lifelike poses by passing wires through the animals. Audubon moved to New Orleans in 1821, and Lucy soon was providing much of their income by tutoring, while Audubon contributed some by doing portraits and teaching art. Determined to publish his bird paintings in a large format, he was advised to go to Europe to find skilled engravers; he went to Great Britain (1826) where, in addition to lining up subscribers, he eventually obtained the help of master engraver Robert Havell, Jr. The great "double elephant" folio edition of The Birds of America (4 vols., 1827–38), with hand-colored engravings, enjoyed immediate success; the text was published separately (5 vols., 1831–39) as Ornithological Biography. He returned to America (1829–30 and 1831–34) to continue his search for as many species of birds as he could find. He went back to Europe (1834–39), and then settled permanently in the U.S.A. He issued a smaller edition of The Birds of America (1840–44), and with the naturalist John Bachman, worked almost until his death on The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (3 vols., 1845–54). Although criticized for certain scientific and artistic failings, Audubon's work still engages people with its dramatic and detailed images of wildlife.