They Should Make a Movie About...

John James Audubon. Talk about an interesting life. So we were learning about American watercolors in class the other day, and I was struck by the adventures this man had.

Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785. He was the illegitimate child of a French sea captain and a Spanish-Creole. When his mother died in a slave revolt, luckily John's father did the right thing and took care of his child. John was raised by his stepmother, who apparently loved him, and formally adopted him.

Audubon went to Paris to attend school. He attended a naval academy, which must have been where he first learned to draw and paint. Watercolors were actually important in the military back then, because they were the best and most easily transportable medium for soldier-surveyors to take and draw their maps with. Audubon claims to have studied art with David, but that is probably just talk. He may have seen some paintings by David, and been inspired by them, but who isn't?

So then the Napoleonic Wars break out and Audubon flees to America with a false passport, to avoid conscription, but he comes down with yellow fever and has to be nursed back to health by Quakers, who teach him their dialect. He ends up in Pennsylvania, where his passion for natural history and birds in particular becomes evident. Apparently, he was the first person to band birds' legs to study their habits.

The handsome young Frenchman falls in love with the girl next door, lovely Lucy, and they marry in 1808. But Lucy soon finds that her new husband either has bad luck or no business sense, or perhaps he is just more interested in art and nature than making money. At any rate, his debts catch up with him and he is sent to debtors prison. It is up to Lucy to raise the money to bail him out, which she does, and he valiantly resolves to make money from his passions for art and the natural world.

You wonder what Lucy must have been thinking as her husband set off down the Mississippi River armed with paints, gun, and camping supplies, vowing to paint every bird in America, and recreate them in a book that will make him rich and famous. Meanwhile, she took her children and found work as a teacher on a Southern plantation.

Audubon probably didn't befriend Daniel Boone, as he claimed, but he did paint the birds of America--so well that he did become famous. It's ironic that he killed thousands of birds to pose them and paint them, yet it is those masterfully naturalistic images that led to the formation of the Audubon Society after his death, which seeks to preserve the lives of birds. Audubon made gorgeous watercolor paintings of every bird species he could find, and when he was done (and with the financial support of his wife), he traveled to England to find a publisher for his book.

In England, he was considered a rustic but romantic backwoodsman, and so became a popular figure. Soon he met Robert Havell, a brilliant engraver and printer, who partnered with Audubon to create "Birds of America" which has been called the most beautiful picture book in the world. It consisted of hand-printed and hand-colored (women did the painting of these prints) life-sized images of hundreds of American bird species, available bound in volumes, or in loose sheets. This secured his fame, and he was able to meet the king and become a fellow of London's Royal Society. Then, back to America, where, with the sales of his book extremely good, and more projects in the works, he was finally able to buy a house and support his long-suffering family.

It's easy for us to look back at Audubon's life now and say that he was a genius artist with an amazing vision, but can you imagine living that life? Or being Lucy, not knowing what the future would hold for you and your children, and your husband off in the wilderness...painting birds? It would take more courage than I have, and someone should make a movie.