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John James Audubon - French-American Naturalist

John James Audubon (1785-1851) meticulously painted, catalogued, and described many North America bird species in the late eighteen century. Born with an affinity towards birds, he devoted much of his life to the all aspects of them including their nests, eggs, habitat, and pictural depiction at a very high artistic standard. Our collection of patterns contains a wide selection taken from a voluminous collection of his drawings. You'll find geese, flamingos, teals, eagles, pelicans, herons, and buzzards. There are also a few non-bird patterns including a deer and a hare.

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was a French American wildlife artist. He was a keen hunter and observer of the natural world and the great wildernesses. His work captured the spirit of the American Frontier and his method of painting and describing the birds of North America set the standard for future generations of bird artists.

Audubon was born in Haiti, at that time a French colony called Saint Domingue. His father was a French sea captain and adventurer who owned a sugar plantation on the island. His mother, Jeanne Rabin, was his father’s mistress, and died shortly after he was born. Audubon’s father took his son and infant daughter to France, where the children were lovingly raised by their stepmother, Audubon senior’s legal wife. The children were legally adopted by the Audubons in 1789.

Growing up in the French countryside around Nantes, the young Audubon began to draw the wildlife and natural scenes around him. He was accomplished and played several musical instruments. He learned to hunt and fish, and to love nature, preferring to spend life in the open air. He was even dropped out of naval school in favor of exploring the countryside.

In 1803, when Audubon was 18 years old, his father sent him to America to avoid conscription into Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. He went to Mill Grove, the family estate in Pennsylvania. For three years, Audubon was free to do what he loved best – hunt, fish, collect specimens and draw wildlife. He started studying the birds of America and developed an innovative technique of wiring the bodies of dead birds in order to position them in realistic poses so that he could produce natural, lifelike sketches.

In 1759 While living at Mill Grove, Audubon fell in love with Lucy Bakewell, a neighbor. Lucy’s father was not keen on letting his daughter marry a man with few solid prospects and the couple were engaged for five years before they finally married in 1808. They would have two sons, Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse.

Following his marriage, Audubon sold part of the Mill Grove estate and moved to the frontier town of Louisville, Kentucky to set up a general store. But business was tough and Audubon was more interested in drawing birds than in trade. After his business failed, Audubon moved in 1810 to Henderson, Kentucky where he went into partnership with his brother-in-law. Audubon flourished there for a while, but the business failed again in 1819, leaving him bankrupt. This marked the end of his business ventures.

With no means of supporting himself and his family, Audubon eked out a living by producing charcoal portraits at $5 each, working as a taxidermist in a Cincinnati museum, and at other odd jobs. During this period, Lucy became the main breadwinner and supported the family by working as a governess to the children of a rich plantation owner. Later, she opened a school for girls.

In 1820, at the age of 35, Audubon decided to turn his love of painting birds into a livelihood and began documenting the birds of America with a view to publishing his works. He set out for Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida with nothing but his paintbox, his gun and his assistant, and spent the next four years painting and documenting the wildlife.

By 1824 Audubon felt he had produced enough bird studies to begin publishing and took his portfolio to Philadelphia to find a publisher. But bitter arguments and vested interests of rivals blocked his path and in 1826 he set sail for Great Britain to try his luck there. He landed in Liverpool with a portfolio of 300 bird studies and a few letters of introduction.

In Britain, Audubon met with immediate success. An enthusiastic public was waiting to snap up his life-size watercolor and crayon bird portraits. He found a publisher, and toured the country in search of subscriptions to his monumental work, Birds of America. The publication was produced in installments with each installment financed by subscriptions to the previous one. It took eleven years for the entire volume to appear. He also produced the Ornithological Biography, a five-volume study containing detailed descriptions of the birds in the illustrated Birds of America.

Audubon returned to the United States in 1839 and bought an estate on the Hudson River. He prepared a small-format edition of Birds of America for sale in the United States and devoted the next few years to illustrating large bird species, such as the gyrfalcon.

But Audubon’s health was failing and in early January 1851 he suffered a stroke. He was left paralyzed and in pain. He died at the end of January that year.

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