Birds of America

at Compton Verney – Sat 1 July – Sun 1 October

There is no disputing that Birds of America by John James Audubon (1785 – 1851) is one of the world`s most famous, largest & valuable rare books. What is in question is the artists credibility. There appears to have been many questions asked about his scientific validity, accusations that he fabricated several species of bird & incorrectly identified others. He had no academic or scientific background. Born on what is today the island of Haiti, as an illegitimate son of a chambermaid & a French sea captain, he spent much of his early life in France, earning his living by painting portraits & teaching portraiture.

He moved to the USA to avoid fighting for Napolean and came up with an audacious plan to complete a pictorial record of all of the bird species of North America. Unable to find a publisher in America he travelled to the United Kingdom & secured an engraver & publisher in London to help him complete his mission.

It must be recorded that he was a controversial figure, he profited from the slave trade & killed many birds in pursuing his dream of illustrating the plates for the book. He was a prolific hunter and would twist the dead frames of larger birds to fit the frame, sometimes contorting their bodies in unnatural poses as life size illustrations.

What is not in question is that is how Birds of America came to influence natural sciences, Audubon is credited with being the first person to have ringed birds & the exhibition provides a wide selection of letters, books, manuscripts, photography, projections & film to show what we have learnt from this controversial figure & his magnum opus.

The plates are indeed large & the detail in the artwork impressive, but I find them very stylised & romantic, the painting of the birds sometimes in unnatural and uncharacteristic poses. Nevertheless, the story of the creation of the book over almost twelve years is fascinating & intriguing. To see so many of the prints together is a rare sight & I could not fail to appreciate the huge amount of work & artistic skill and endeavour it would have taken to produce such a monumental piece of ornithological literature & artwork.