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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Old Masters > John James Audubon - 1785-1851

Audubon prints count among the most coveted collector pieces in North America. A complete set of the Birds of America in fine condition was sold for more than 3 million dollars at Christie's in New York in 1993. At lifetime, the artist John James Audubon was often plagued by financial troubles and even spent some time in jail because he could not pay his debts.

An Early Passion for Birds and Drawing

John J. Audubon was born on April 26, 1785 in Haiti as the illegitimate son of a French captain and a Creole woman who died six months after giving birth. When John was four years old, his father took him back to Paris in France where he was raised by his legal mother.

As a young kid he liked to observe birds and to draw. John received painting lessons for about six months by Jaques-Louis David, a famous French painter.

In 1803 John and his father went back to the US, where they settled on his father's farm, Mill Grove, in Montgomery County, near Philadelphia. The young Audubon was very interested in ornithology, in drawing and music. He was a handsome guy and adored by the young girls of the community. He spent three happy years without having to work or to worry about life. After a short trip to France he settled in Kentucky where he married a neighbor's daughter.

Birds of America

John Audubon's life became unstable. He went bankrupt and moved from Kentucky to Cincinnati and later to New Orleans. Audubon made a living by painting portraits and by doing a number of odd jobs.

But Audubon had never stopped following his great passion - birds and drawings. By 1820 he began to make watercolors of American birds. He first tried to find a publisher in Philadelphia. But his strange ways to dress and his undiplomatic bluntness made him many enemies. In 1826 Audubon went to England with a folder filled with watercolors and drawings to find backing in Europe and to have his watercolors turned into aquatint engravings.

He was even successful and in 1827 printing of the Birds of America begun in Edinburgh. It was a daring process. John Audubon insisted that the birds should be shown in their original life size. The result was the largest book format possible at that time, 103 by 69 cm, 40 by 27 inches. And to show the big birds like the flamingo in real life size, Audubon depicted them with their heads and necks making funny, twisted downward bends.

The creation of one print was awesome. An aquatint engraving had to be done in this huge format and then each print copy had to be painted by hand. After the first ten plates had been finished, either the Edinburgh printer was a nervous wreck and threw Audubon out or the other way round. In any case, Audubon took a new printer, this time in London.

The work could finally be finished and the first volume Audubon prints appeared. Until 1838 four volumes were published altogether with 435 plates. All four books contained 435 hand-colored plates showing 1,065 different bird species.

And the publications were commercially successful. One complete set cost the enormous amount of 1,000 dollars. John Audubon could sell more than 200 sets. He had always refused to sell single sheets. This is the reasons why Audubon prints are now so rare.

Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

In 1831 John Audubon returned to North America. With his two sons he traveled in the South of the United States, observing and drawing animals. After the success of the publication of the Birds of America, Audubon had new plans for another ambitious project. He wanted to publish a collection of the mammals of North America. In 1845 and 1848 The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America were published in three volumes with 150 hand-colored lithographs. But the planned series could never be finished. On January 27, 1851, John James Audubon died.

Literature source used for this article about Audubon prints:

• Helgard Reichholf-Riehm, "John J. Audubon - Birds of America", published by Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1999, ISBN 3-8228-7032-1

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