ANNOUNCING

Audubon's Fifty Best

Watercolors

The New-York Historical Society Edition

The New-York Historical Society Edition–Audubon’s Fifty Best Watercolors

Among his many attributes,  John James Audubon was an American frontiersman, consummate naturalist and explorer, entrepreneur, publisher and writer. Most significantly, he was one of the greatest nineteenth-century artists whose legacy is his celebrated The Birds of America (1827–38). Another achievement of this mostly self-taught, highly original artist is the set of elegantly composed watercolors on which the hand-colored engravings of The Birds of America were based. The watercolors, recognized during his lifetime as a major accomplishment in American art and an unparalleled document of natural history, were purchased by the New-York Historical Society in 1863 from the artist’s then penniless widow, Lucy Audubon.

The watercolors for The Birds of America convey the immediacy of Audubon’s field observations, deftly drawn and painted from nature. It is as if we are there together with him in the pristine forests along the American frontier witnessing the unfolding drama before him. They are not static, taxonomic representations of birds, but an innovative expression depicting the story of nature’s complex interrelationship between animals and their natural habitat. To tell this story, Audubon recreates through technical mastery of his media the subtle, beautiful colors, graceful forms, and contrasting textures found in nature. He captures these elusive nuances, the very essence and beauty of nature, while at the same time achieving his goal of systematically cataloguing the birds of America.

Watercolor was the best medium for quickly rendering his subject, but Audubon also added other media to achieve the verisimilitude he sought. The underdrawing was usually first recorded in graphite. He frequently used pastel, gouache, glazes and varnishes, even touches of oil paint, to add matte and gloss surfaces to the picture and develop details of the composition. Yet, the watercolors also functioned as working drawings. He made studied alterations to some of the watercolors over time to further develop the images prior to engraving them. Collage was also employed for this purpose.

Born in Saint-Dominique (present day Haiti) in 1785, Audubon was the illegitimate son of Captain Jean Audubon, a merchant, and Jeanne Rabin, a French chambermaid. His mother died within months of his birth. Three years later a slave rebellion prompted the elder Audubon to send his young son by ship to his native home near Nantes, France. Throughout his childhood, he freely roamed the verdant countryside near his home, gathering specimens, observing and drawing them. To avoid conscription into Napoleon’s army, Jean Audubon sent his only son and heir in 1803 to the United States to manage his property at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia. Here Audubon developed a method by which he could draw birds as if they were alive. Using wire and board, he found he could “compose” a bird specimen into a lifelike posture not only to meticulously record its features, but also to vividly capture it as he had witnessed it alive in its habitat.

At this time he also met and wooed Lucy Bakewell, the daughter of an English gentlemen. In 1805, Audubon returned to France to ask his father’s consent to marry her and to sort out their business affairs. In 1808 they were finally married. During the ensuing years, Audubon attempted several unsuccessful business ventures. By 1819 he was bankrupt. He then made a fateful decision. “On that day the world was with me as if a blank, and my heart was sorely heavy, for scarcely had I enough to keep my dear ones alive; and yet through these dark days I was being led to the development of the talents I loved.” Acting upon his gifts as a naturalist and artist, he initiated The Birds of America. The watercolors for The Birds of America, which Audubon painted primarily from 1820 to 1838, bear witness to his passion for his subject and the arduous expeditions he made from Labrador to Florida and westward beyond the Mississippi River in order to depict the birds he sought to study and paint.

Audubon’s Fifty Best Watercolors offers collectors the unique opportunity to own a virtual actual size replica in printed form of one of these historic originals. the New-York Historical Society Edition of Audubon’s watercolors is limited to 200 sets, which coincides with the same number of folios that Audubon produced for the original Havell Edition of hand-colored engravings. The prints in the New-York Historical Society Edition are recreations of Audubon’s watercolors that were made prior to publication of the double-elephant folio engravings of The Birds of America. Each image is individually sized to match the exact dimensions of the original painting. Printed with watercolors on imported archival English watercolor paper, these prints directly capture the artist’s hand and fundamental vision, unlike any publication before. This is a first edition printing of Audubon’s watercolors and will assume an important position among the collectible editions of Audubon’s work.

Individual prints start at $2,500

Complete sets of 50 prints $47,500

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