Audubon
Life and Art in the American Wilderness
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- 19,99 €
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- 19,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
In 1803, an eighteen-year-old West Indies–born Frenchman arrived in New York City, fleeing Napoleon’s conscription. His work would become inextricably entwined with the new world he so proudly adopted in his motto “America, my country.”
Inspired by the primeval forests and the vast flocks of birds that thrived in them, Audubon spent the next several decades of his life painstakingly documenting the birds of the American wilderness. He traveled the back roads and bayous, searching out and studying the birds that were his pastime and passion. He spent long, silent hours observing them in the wild. He was no amateur ornithologist; rather, he drew his birds from life, and his work always carried the line “drawn from nature by J. J. Audubon.”
Accompanied by his wife, Lucy, and their two sons, Audubon was able to challenge the world’s expectations and win. The story of this loving family’s long, profound struggle is as poignant and as relevant today as it was in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
Combining meticulous scholarship with the dramatic life story of a naturalist and pioneer, Audubon reexamines the artist's journals and letters to tell the story of Audubon's quest, the origins of the American spirit, and the sacrifice that resulted in one of the world's greatest bodies of art: The Birds of America.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
To escape conscription into the French Army, John James Audubon (1785-1851) fled to Philadelphia in 1803. There he married Lucy Bakewell, daughter of a large, prosperous Quaker family. As they moved West to seek their fortune, Audubon was entranced by the wilderness; in 1820 he started to implement his plan of depicting every indigenous bird on canvas. Streshinsky ( The Shores of Paradise ) has written a scintillating biography, a richly detailed story of romance, separation and struggle. After a succession of business failures, the Audubons drifted to New Orleans and Natchez, Miss., where he earned money drawing portraits and Lucy taught school to plantation families. In 1826 Audubon, carrying letters of introduction, took his portfolio abroad and established himself in England and on the Continent as a brilliant portrayer of birds. In her solid and satisfying biography, Streshinsky gives a lively account of that period. Photos.