The Rewarding Reception of the Ornithographical Oeuvre

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n Hardly had the Havells begun work on Audubon’s Birdsnof America, than it dawned on the author that, of course, the Havells wouldnneed to be paid. Audubon fell back on what he always did in such circumstancesn– he improvised.

J J Audubon – The Entrapped Otter

nThe plan was to paint copies of his popular picture, ThenEntrapped Otter, and hawk them around the various galleries and shops ofnLondon’s East End, and he sold seven copies of the subject, together withncopies of other works. Then, Dame Fortune smiled upon him, when Sir ThomasnLawrence, the renowned and celebrated society portraitist, called on him at hisnstudio and inquired about the price of the works he saw there.

J J Audubon – English Pheasants Surprised by a Spanish Dog

nHe departed andnreturned later with two friends, who both bought paintings for twenty andnfifteen pounds respectively. Lawrence was back later with more friends, andnmore paintings were bought for seven, ten and thirty-five pounds, leavingnAudubon with more than enough to cover the five pounds he had borrowed fornpainting materials and to pay the Havells the sixty pounds they billed Audubonntwo days later. It was a close escape, but the great work continued.

Advertisement for Havell and Son

nHe was notnout of the woods however. Subscribers cancelled their subscriptions, othersncomplained that all the birds looked alike and that the work was an out and outnswindle, agents appointed to collect the subscription money forgot to do so,nother forgot to deliver the prints, some of the prints from Lizars broughtncomplaints of poor quality and had to be replaced. Audubon took one of Havell’sncolourists to task about the quality of his work and told him to improve ornface dismissal, whereupon the rest of the colourists went out on strike innsupport of their colleague, and it was several days before they could benenticed back to work.

J J Audubon – Golden Eagle

nIn spite of all this, Audubon entered 1828 with hisnfinances in the black, confidence in his heart and hopes for the future in hisnbreast. He was still travelling incessantly, selling subscriptions andnpaintings en route, and crossed the Channel, raising more subscriptionsnand meeting the foremost French scientists and naturalists; the great BaronnCuvier declared the work to be the

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n“…most magnificent monument which has yetnbeen erected to ornithology.”

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Baron Cuvier

nAudubon secured subscriptions from KingnCharles X, the Duke of Orleans, and swelled with pride when François Gerard,nthe famous portraitist, seized his hand and cried,

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n“Mr. Audubon, you are thenking of ornithological painters. We are all children in France and Europe. Whonwould have expected such things from the woods of America?”

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nThe trip tonFrance cost him forty pounds and only raised thirteen subscriptions, but thenincrease in prestige and reputation he felt had been well worth the investment.nHe returned to London and left the publication to the Havells, in whom he hadnnow confidence, with Children as his English representative, and decided tonreturn to America.

W H Holmes – Portrait of James Audubon

nOn April 1^st 1829, he boarded the packet-ship Columbia,nout of Portsmouth for New York, paying thirty pounds for his passage. Onnarrival back in America, he paused to exhibit his paintings at the Lyceum ofnNatural History, and settled for three weeks at Camden, New Jersey, where henmade some new paintings, before heading for Great Egg Harbour, and then tonMauch Chunk, where he concentrated on smaller woodland warblers, finches andnflycatchers.

J J Audubon – Common Buzzard

nIn October, he turned south, pausing in Louisville to visit hisntwo sons before hastening to Louisiana, where he was reunited with Lucy. Beforenlong, he was on the road again, this time with his wife by his side, and innApril 1830 they boarded the Pacific in New York and embarked for London. Afterna short stay, the pair left for Edinburgh, where Audubon began work on the textnfor Birds of America, in what eventually became known as OrnithologicalnBiography (also called the Biography of Birds), a massivenfive-volume effort amounting to over three thousand pages.

J J Audubon – Ornithological Biography – 1831

nIn a brilliant piecenof recruitment, Audubon collaborated with a young Scots naturalist, JamesnMacGillivray, who was employed to revise and correct his text, at two guineasnper sixteen sheets. The two rose before dawn and worked late into the night,nwriting the first volume in a mere three months, with Mrs Audubon copying thentext ready to be shipped to America, thereby securing the copyright. Unable tonfind a publisher, Audubon paid for the publication out of his own pocket, thenfirst volume printed under the imprint of Adam Black, the subsequent four bynAdam and Charles Black.

Page from Audubon’s Journal

nWhen the work was completed, the Audubons travellednsouth, through Newcastle, York, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, and then tonLondon; Audubon relates in his Journal that they,

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n“… travelled on that extraordinary road,ncalled the railway, at the rate of 24 miles an hour.”

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nAfter a brief visitnto Paris, they boarded a ship back to New York, and Mrs Audubon went on tonLouisville, to visit her sons, whist John began plans to go to Florida, tonpaint the birds there.

J J Audubon – The Birds of America -Vol 1

nOn the same day they arrived in New York, the LondonnLiterary Gazette published a notice of the death of the famousnornithologist, Alexander Wilson. Immediately, letters were sent to the editor, pointingnout that Wilson the ornithologist had, in fact, been dead for eighteen years. Anred-faced editor printed an apology, of course he had not meant Wilson, he hadnintended to write Audubon. More letters to the editor. What sort of annewspaperman was he, to resurrect a man that had been dead for eighteen years,nonly to kill him, and then kill another man who was, as all that knew him,nhale, hearty and just arrived back in America from England?

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nTomorrow – Audubon alive after all.

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