藝術家约翰•詹姆斯•奥杜邦 (1785-1851) 生平簡歷

出生地: Les Cayes (Haiti)

死亡地点: NYC

职业: Wild life painter

教育: with Jacques-Louis David, France; John Stein in Natchez, MS

展出: NAD

会员: NAD (Honorary Member, Professional, 1833)

工作: New York Hist. Soc.; MMA; Denver Art Mus.; Boston Mus. FA; Univ. Liverpool; National Gallery Art; Univ. Kentucky Art Mus.

评论: America's foremost painter of birds, best known for his series Birds of America. He was brought up in revolutionary France (having been taken there in 1789), but settled in the U.S. (in the Philadelphia region) about 1803. As a young boy he collected, stuffed, and drew birds. He continued this pursuit when he moved to Kentucky (c. 1807) but did not practice it as a profession until after years of struggle in the retail business. From 1807 to 1819 he owned a store in Kentucky, first in Louisville and later in Henderson. The panic of 1819, however, forced him out of business and he decided to earn his living through portrait painting, moving his family to Cincinnati (c.1820) where he made crayon portraits and also taught drawing. It was at this time that he decided to undertake the recording in watercolor of every species of the North American bird; and from this point until his death he devoted himself to painting and writing about the birds and mammals of America. He visited New Orleans and the surrounding area in 1821-22, gathering bird specimens for his drawings, while his assistant Joseph Robert Mason (see entry) collected local flowers and plants to be used for the backgrounds (which were later drawn by Mason). In March of 1822, the two left New Orleans for Natchez (MS), where Audubon taught briefly and reportedly learned to paint in oils from John Stein (see entry), an itinerant from Pennsylvania. After 1826, Audubon traveled to Great Britain in order to raise subscription money and find engravers and publishers for his project. Birds of America was subsequently published between 1828 and 1838, with the help of Scottish engraver William Home Lizars (for the early part of the series) and English engraver Robert Havell, Jr. Audubon had returned to the United States several times during those years, visiting Florida in the winter of 1831-32 in order to add that region's bird and plant life to his monumental project (for this trip he was accompanied by his assistant George Lehman who recorded scenery to be used as background). After the completion of Birds of America Audubon began work on a companion series Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America which was subsequently published between 1845 and 1848. He was assisted on this work by his sons, John Woodhouse Audubon and Victor Gifford Audubon, as well as Maria Martin, an artist who had also assisted him in his earlier work.

来源: G&W; Among the many works on Audubon is Herrick's Audubon the Artist (1917), a two-volume life with an extensive bibliography. Other sources include: Graves, Dictionary; Cowdrey, NAD; Alabama Dep't of Archives and History; NYCD 1843-49; McDermott, Likeness by Audubon;" Flexner, The Light of Distant Skies, biblio. More recently, see Baigell; Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists; Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 2: 74, 88, 92, 113, 119, 162, 180, 207; Peggy and Harold Samuels, 12-13; Jones and Weber, The Kentucky Painter from the Frontier Era to the Great War, 40 (w/repros.) "

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