Born in Haiti in 1785, then raised in Nantes, France, Audubon took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music. In 1803, he embarked on a voyage to America. He lived on family property near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied, and drew birds. While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, by tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes. n 1826, Audubon was quite literally an overnight success. His life-sized and highly dramatic bird portraits, along with his embellished descriptions of wilderness life, hit just the right note at the height of the Continent’s Romantic era. Audubon later collaborated with the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray on the Ornithological Biographies. John James Audubon's Birds of America is a portal into the natural world. It contains 435 life-sized watercolours of North American birds (Havell edition), all reproduced from hand-engraved plates, and is considered to be the archetype of wildlife illustration.
Product Code: WCMM49
Collection: Americana
Type: Contemporary Art