Biography of John James Audubon

Encyclopedic bird watching

26 April 1785 27 January 1851 John James Audubon was born in Les Cayes, a French colony of Santo Domingo, on day 26 April 1785, where his father was head of a sugar plantation. John is the illegitimate son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, French naval officer and privateer; the mother's (father's lover) Jeanne Rabin, Maid recently arrived from France. When the little one has only a few months, the mother dies as a result of tropical diseases. The father had two children of mixed race, had her housekeeper mulatta, Sanitte. During the American Revolution, Father Jean Audubon is imprisoned by the British Empire. After his release, helping the American cause. A slave rebellion in Santo Domingo in 1788 convinced Jean Audubon to sell his business and returned to France with French infant son and daughter mixed race, very nice. The boy is brought up to her father and stepmother Anne Moynet Audubon in Nantes, France, which formally adopt both children in 1794. The boy is named Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon. When Audubon at age 18 in the United States, 1803, embarks for the immigration changes its name to John James Audubon. From his earliest days of life is found in Audubon a particular affinity for birds. His father encourages his interest in nature. In France grows during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and its consequences. He plays the flute and violin, learn to ride, fence and to dance. It is a great Walker and lover of walks in the Woods, where she often returns with natural curiosities, including bird eggs and nests: start documenting with precise designs these life forms that meets. The father wanted to see him become a sailor: at twelve Audubon attends a military school. He soon discovers his susceptibility to seasickness and aversion to navigation. After failing the admission test, Audubon abandons the path of naval career to return to focus on birds. In 1803 the father gets a false passport so that the child may travel to the United States to avoid conscription during the Napoleonic wars. Audubon contracted yellow fever upon arrival in New York City. Care, language and lives thanks to the proceeds of the sale of his father's sugar plantation. He moved to Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, where his father hoped the areas rich in lead may become a basis for a commercial development and a source of livelihood for her son. But John James is interested in exploring the natural world around him. Is preparing to study American birds with the aim to illustrate his findings in a more realistic way than most artists. After a few years John James Audubon marries Lucy, daughter of a neighbor. Audubon continues its studies on birds and creates a natural museum, perhaps inspired by the great natural history museum created by Charles Willson Peale in Philadelphia. In a short time become very skilled in preparing samples, models and taxidermist. After a brief stay in Cincinnati where he works as a naturalist and expert on taxidermy in a Museum, Audubon travels to South Mississippi. His personal goal is to find and paint all the birds of North America to a possible later publication. Its aim is to overcome the previous work of Ornithology of the poet-naturalist Alexander Wilson. Also hiring several hunters because they collect samples for him, Audubon realized his ambitious project. With the valuable support of his wife, in 1826 at the age of 41 years, Audubon part from New Orleans to Liverpool in England with over 300 drawings. His work was enthusiastically received, so collect sufficient funds to begin publishing "Birds of America", a monumental work composed of 435 hand-colored plates in poster size of 497 bird species, made from engraved copper plates of various sizes depending on the size of the image. The work is based on more than fourteen years of field observations. Even King George IV declares himself a big fan of John James Audubon and his book. After the first manifestations of problems of senility in 1848, John James Audubon died on 27 January 1851 in New York City, in her family's home.
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