The Flickr Birdsofamerica Image Generatr

John Audubon painting

Water color study by John Audubon of Florida Scrub-Jay for plate 87 of Birds of America. Seen at New York Historical Society.

MichaelLeePicsNYC.com

Follow me on Instagram

Art prints available here

Seen at Huntington Library and Gardens

MichaelLeePicsNYC.com

Follow me on Instagram

Art prints available here

Pitangus sulphuratus, comumente conhecido como bem-te-vi, é uma ave passeriforme da família dos tiranídeos

A most delightful scene as a mother and her young daughters enjoy a show of the art of John James Audubon at the St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts.

John James Audubon was enchanted by these birds, labelling them as the ‘Caroline Pigeon’ in his Birds of America compendium. Mourning doves are daily visitors to our back garden, feeding on the birdseed that my wife puts out and splashing around in the bird bath (if our resident sparrows aren’t in prior occupation).

Finely detailed plumage in Audubon’s portrait of the Common Raven. In ‘Birds of America’, he bewailed that farmers were too ready to shoot these large birds, regarding them unfairly as pests.

Famously portrayed by John James Audubon in his monumental ‘Birds of America’, this is a taxidermy copy of a species that was hunted to extinction during the 19th century. The last captive survivor died in 1918.

Latterly known as the Carolina Parakeet, this was North America’s only native parrot species. At the time Audubon painted them, their numbers were fast diminishing. Farmers deemed them to be pests, while hunters valued the parakeets for their plumage. The parakeets’ habit of feeding in large, noisy flocks made it easy to shoot them by the hundred. Loss of habitat as forests were cleared to make way for agriculture further impacted populations. By 1910, the Carolina Parakeet was extinct in the wild and the last surviving captive bird died in 1918.

As portrayed by John James Audubon (1785-1851).

John James Audubon’s depiction of the barn owl is one of the better-known illustrations from his ‘Birds of America’ prints. One is holding a dead ground squirrel - Audubon did not flinch from showing nature red in tooth and claw.

I yesterday visited the St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition devoted to John James Audubon and his seminal work, ‘Birds of America’. This exhibition is being held in conjunction with National Museums Scotland, which holds a large collection of Audubon’s prints that were published between 1827 and 1838.

Audubon labelled this print, ‘Fish Hawk’, these days better known as an Osprey. In Britain, the Osprey came perilously close to extinction, but it is commonplace in Florida. I regularly encounter ospreys when crossing the Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay. They perch atop the lamp-standards, keeping an eye for prey in the waters below.

As portrayed by John James Audubon in his volume, ‘The Birds of America’. He recorded the species in Louisiana. We have them nesting in the eaves of our own Florida home. They are thriving, very vocal and are comfortable in the close proximity of humans.

The exhibition of John James Audubon’s prints from his ‘Birds of America’ volumes at the St. Pete Museum if Fine Arts also highlights work undertaken by his contemporaries and predecessors. The works displayed includes this work published in the 18th century by the English artist, Mark Catesby (1683-1749). Between 1731 and 1743, his depiction of American fauna and flora were published in the volume, ‘The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and Bahamas’. Here he depicts an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, today extremely rare and possibly extinct.

Superb exhibition currently on at the St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts, held in conjunction with Museums Scotland, which has loaned prints of Audubon’s seminal ‘Birds of America’ from its collection.

Audubon faced a struggle to get American publishers interested in his body of work, so he crossed the Atlantic in a quest for patronage. Landing in Liverpool, he met with some early success, but he found himself lionised when he reached Edinburgh - not least because of his exotic appearance to members of Edinburgh’s learned society. That success gave Audubon added leverage when he returned to the United States.

Cleaned and Corrected. A panel illustrating 3 portrait format plates from a collection of high resolution scans of the original double elephant folio edition.

Cleaned and Corrected. A panel illustrating 3 portrait format plates from a collection of high resolution scans of the original double elephant folio edition.

Cleaned and Corrected. A panel illustrating 3 portrait format plates from a collection of high resolution scans of the original double elephant folio edition.