Audubon, John Woodhouse, 1812-1862

John James Audubon (1785-1851), known as the American Woodsman, is a legend as a naturalist and bird artist. He was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds in America, but his unique technique of depicting his subjects dramatically contributed to his renown. His technique of painting freshly killed specimens surrounded by their natural habitats added a wealth of knowledge to the emerging discipline of ornithology in the nineteenth century.

Audubon was born April 26, 1785 in Santo Domingo (now Haiti) to a French naval captain, Jean Audubon, and his mistress, Jeanne Rabine. Formally adopted in 1794, Jean-Jacques Fougere Audubon was raised by the Captain's wife, Anne Moynet Audubon, and lived in France till 1803. In that year, Audubon came to America to escape conscription into Napoleon's army. He oversaw his father's farm, Mill Grove, in Pennsylvania, twenty-four miles northwest of Philadelphia. In these happy days, hunting, fishing, drawing and music completely occupied the naturalist. It was at this time, that he developed his technique for passing wires through freshly killed birds to fix them in characteristic poses on which he based his life-like sketches.

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