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Audubon
exhibit nests in
Grand Rapids
By Joseph Cabadas
The name Audubon is linked to the study of birds much
like Webster is linked to dictionaries, Edison to
electricity or Ford to cars.
John James Audubon was a pioneer in the 19th century when
he decided to create and publish his full color, life-size drawings
of American birds. His work and appeal still resonates with the
public today.
Offering the public a unique opportunity to see 30 of
Audubon’s 435 hand-colored prints, the Grand Rapids Art
Museum (GRAM) is hosting the “Birds of America: Audubon
Prints from Shelburne Museum” on an extended show until Aug.
14.
The exhibit includes historical highlights of Audubon, a video
presentation of all his original watercolor studies, an etching
demonstration display and hand-coloring activities.
“Audubon is one of the three greatest American artists of the
19th century,” said Richard Axsom, GRAM senior curator of
prints and photographs. “What Audubon did was revolutionary.
In Birds of America, he was the first artist to paint birds full scale
and to present them in their natural habitat and in natural action.
Although that sounds like what one would do, at the time it was
very radical. The ornithological
illustrations before Audubon’s time
were like mug shots showing frontal
and profile, but not necessarily in a
landscape and not in any action.”
The public became excited about
how Audubon vividly portrayed the
birds’ plumage and physical
characteristics along with backgrounds
that showed recognizable landscapes
and city scenes. His name and appeal
survives thanks to the ubiquitous
Audubon societies, bird stamps and
calendars.
Living in Haiti, plus France and a
family farm in Pennsylvania when he
was young, Audubon was the son of a
French sea captain and a Creole
mother. He was fascinated by birds at a
38 DAC NEWS JULY 2011
John James Audubon’s “Herring Gull...View of the
Entrance into St. Augustine” (plate CCXCI; 1831).
Courtesy Shelburne Museum.
John James Audubon’s “Carolina Turtle Dove” (plate XVIII; 1827).
Courtesy Shelburne Museum.
young age and by the 1820s decided to document all the
American birds that he could. It became a 17-year-long project
as he traveled up and down the East Coast from Labrador in the
north to Florida’s Key West in the south, the hinterlands such as
Kentucky, or along the Ohio River, down the Mississippi and
the Mississippi Delta.
In his travels, Audubon had to kill some
of the specimens he wanted to illustrate,
wire them into action poses and create the
drawings almost on the spot because the
colors of the feathers began to fade within
hours of the birds’ deaths.
Using the largest printing paper available
at the time, he turned to engraver Robert
Havell of England which resulted in a
creation of a subscription-based series of
books of hand-colored engravings that
wasn’t finished until 1838.
“Every two months subscribers would
get five prints in a packet,” Axsom said.
“When he was done, the (435) prints were
bound into four volumes… Not only were
the engravings expensive, but so was the
complete set. In 1938, Birds of America
(the Havell edition) sold for $1,000.”