Taylor Clark

John James Audubon (1785 – 1851)
John James Audubon was born in Santo Domingo, present-day Haiti, in 1785. He was born the son of Captain Jean Audubon, a French sailor and adventurer. Audubon was raised by his stepmother in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music. In 1803, Audubon’s father sent the eighteen-year-old to America in order to escape Napoleon’s draft. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds.

Mill Grove is where Audubon met his wife, Lucy Bakewell, daughter of William Bakewell. William Bakewell was an Englishman who owned Fatland Ford, an estate adjoining Mill Grove. After their marriage in 1808, they went to Kentucky where the natural beauty and abundant wildlife of the frontier fascinated Audubon. He devoted more time to bird watching and drawing than to his commercial pursuits, which terminated in failure.

In 1820 he and his family, now including two sons, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked for a short while as a taxidermist for the Western Museum, painted pastel portraits and taught drawing. That same year, Audubon ventured down the Mississippi River to the lower Mississippi valley. He had decided to devote his life to portraying the wildlife of North America.

Launching his full-time pursuit of America’s birds in 1820, Audubon began his masterpiece, The Birds of America. For two decades he roamed mountains and valleys, everglades and uplands, and lakes and rivers, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. He was able to capture the shapes, textures, plumage, colors and positions of birds giving his drawings more realism than ever seen before. He painted almost 500 species of the 700 or so regularly occurring North American species. The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled this country several more times in search of birds, and settled in New York City.



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jj audubon biography editions in stock identification		jj audubon / biography John James Audubon (1785 – 1851) John James Audubon was born in Santo Domingo, present-day Haiti, in 1785. He was born the son of Captain Jean Audubon, a French sailor and adventurer. Audubon was raised by his stepmother in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music. In 1803, Audubon’s father sent the eighteen-year-old to America in order to escape Napoleon’s draft. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds. Mill Grove is where Audubon met his wife, Lucy Bakewell, daughter of William Bakewell. William Bakewell was an Englishman who owned Fatland Ford, an estate adjoining Mill Grove. After their marriage in 1808, they went to Kentucky where the natural beauty and abundant wildlife of the frontier fascinated Audubon. He devoted more time to bird watching and drawing than to his commercial pursuits, which terminated in failure. In 1820 he and his family, now including two sons, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked for a short while as a taxidermist for the Western Museum, painted pastel portraits and taught drawing. That same year, Audubon ventured down the Mississippi River to the lower Mississippi valley. He had decided to devote his life to portraying the wildlife of North America. Launching his full-time pursuit of America’s birds in 1820, Audubon began his masterpiece, The Birds of America. For two decades he roamed mountains and valleys, everglades and uplands, and lakes and rivers, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. He was able to capture the shapes, textures, plumage, colors and positions of birds giving his drawings more realism than ever seen before. He painted almost 500 species of the 700 or so regularly occurring North American species. The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled this country several more times in search of birds, and settled in New York City.