American Flamingo by John James Audubon
Kate Teplova and Natasha Orekhova
“I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could.” This is a quotation by John James Audubon whose engraving “American Flamingo” is one of the best examples of American art work (John James Audubon Quotes). The moment you see it you can`t take your eyes off it, it arrests your attention and makes you spend some time in front of it, observing the depicted bird. And there`s nothing surprising about it. On the one hand it`s done masterfully, the picture itself is flawless. However close you may watch it you won’t be able to spot any instance of negligence or inaccuracy, all the minute details are carefully pictured. On the other hand one can`t but notice that this is not only a work of art, but something closely associated with the study of birds – the parts of bird`s body depicted in the picture above the flamingo itself gives a hint at it. Another interesting feature of the portrayal is the posture of the flamingo. From all the possible postures we can think of the artist chooses one of the most peculiar. It adds to the engraving`s individuality and increases viewer`s interest.
We watched “American Flamingo” and the same questions arose in our minds. Is the engraving a piece of art or a scientific illustration? Was its author an artist or an ornithologist? Why is the posture of the flamingo so unusual? What is the story behind it? Some sort of a research on the artist and his works had to be done to satisfy our curiosity. And it surely was done. Here are some facts about the artist and his works including “American Flamingo” which we find vital for a viewer to be aware of to better understand the idea and purpose of the picture.
John James Audubon is an American painter and naturalist of French origin of the first half of 19-th century. He is best known for “The Birds of North America” (1827-1839), a book consisting of 435 images of birds, which is considered to be his major and most valuable work (Chowder). He was born and educated in France, where he developed his interest for natural environment and as well as the talent for drawing (picturingamerica.neh.gov). At the age of 18 he immigrated to America where he continued his career as an artist and ornithologist. He set himself a task to depict every species of bird of North America and, though it took him quite a long period to collect the information, but his accomplishments in science and in art are impressive. John James Audubon identified 25 species of birds unknown before and 12 subspecies (Chowder). These figures show that he was really an extraordinary scientist. He was also the first to introduce banding birds` legs for identifying their habits and migration. He spent a lot of time in fields gathering information about habits and habitats of the American birds, recording every species he observed. “I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds.” That is how John James Audubon estimated his accomplishments in ornithology and that probably is quite true (John James Audubon Quotes).
“The Birds of America” contains a great variety of birds of the United States. It is interesting, that John James Audubon was determined to have his drawings reproduced life-size, as he had drawn them himself. But he found no support in the United States, there was no publisher willing to provide financial support and print his book life-size. It took him three years to save enough money. In 1826 he set sail for the United Kingdom with 250 of his original illustrations. (Birds of America (book), wikipedia.org.). The book was published between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and London as a series of sections. The work consists of hand-colored, life-size prints, made from engraved plates, which when completed ran to a total of 435 double elephant folio prints (around 39 by 26 inches).
John James Audubon was not just a painter who wanted to draw a beautiful picture, he was a naturalist. He had been traveling around America for many years, observing birds for hours and days. He was interested not only in their looks but in their behavior, interact and the way they moved. He took notes of birds` eating habits and peculiarities of their bodies. It is curious and stunning how far went the artist for realization of his research. For his drawing he, indeed, shoot specimens and wired them and propped into life-like positions as models for his paintings. This was a new approach to the painting of birds.
Audubon`s book The Birds of America is undoubtedly unique, its copy has been sold at auction in London for £6.5m ($10.3m). It stands as one of the greatest achievements in ornithological illustration (Rohrer). Nowadays, this book is highly appreciated, and we can say that in decades and centuries it still will be as popular as it is today and was a century ago.
The picture American Flamingo Audubon painted in 1838. Flamingos always cast a spell over the painter. Audubon saw several flocks of American flamingos in the Florida Keys in 1832, he was anxious to get one species for modeling but he never could bring himself to shoot one. Ever since he wanted to inspect this bird and enlarge his collection. While being in London, he wrote his friend John Bachman, a Lutheran minister in Charleston, South Carolina a letter, asking for specimen. In a letter dated October 31, 1837, he said: "As to flamingos their eggs I fear this is up for me; and this proves to me now that I was a great fool not to have gone to Cuba, or sent a person there expressly..."(princetonaudubon.com)
Flamingo is very beautiful bird that stands out not only for its coloring, but also for its manner of feeding. The bird plunges its head underwater upside down, then with the upper bill of its sickle-shaped beak serving as a dredge and the tongue as a sieve, it scoops small shellfish from the bottom of shallow lagoons. This moment Audubon tried to depict in this picture.
On learning this facts one can`t but admire “American Flamingo” and its author. It took Audubon so much time and effort to implement the idea he had in mind so that now we should enjoy his beautiful pictures and scientists could use the information he was gathering for so long. Now that we know the story behind the picture we understand it better, admiring the enormous amount of work that was done by the author to create it. And we hope that with its help we made another step towards better understanding American culture and, to some extent, American science.
Works Cited
Chowder, Ken «John James Audubon .» pbs.org, 25 July 2007. Web. 1 May 2011.
“John James Audubon.” wikipedia.org, wikipedia, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
“John James Audubon.” nga.go. National Gallery of Art, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
“John James Audubon Quotes.” brainyquote.com, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
Rohrer, Finlo “Audubon's Birds of America: The world's most expensive book.” bbc.co.uk., BBC, 8 Dec. 2010, Web. 1 May 2011.
“Birds of America (book).” wikipedia.org, wikipedia, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
princetonaudubon.com, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
“John James Audubon.” web4.audubon.org, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
“John James Audubon [1785–1851],American Flamingo, 1838” picturingamerica.neh.gov,
n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.
