John Audubon

1. John Audubon By Cara Brewer

2. John was born in Les Cayes, Haiti and died in Manhattan, New York American artist and ornithologist (one who studies birds) John James Audubon was a leading natural history artist who made drawings of birds directly from nature. He is mainly remembered for his Birds of America series.

3. Life/ history

4. John James Audubon was born. He was the son of Jean Audubon, a French adventurer, and son of Mademoiselle Rabin, about whom little is known except that she died soon after her son's birth.Audubon was an illegitimate child, meaning that his father was not married to his mother. In 1789 Audubon went with his father and a half sister to France, where they joined his father's wife.This selfless woman lovingly raised John and also his half-sister as her own children. She was 58 years old and provided education and nurtured the children throughout their childhood.

5. When he was a boy he enjoyed wandering through the woods, collecting things from nature, and watching the birds. He began to draw pictures of birds and animals.  When John was eighteen years old his father either sent him or went with him to America. He was afraid the boy was going to be drafted into Napoleon's army, and he wanted to get him to a safer place.

6. America

7. Upon arriving in America the young man changed his name to John James which sounded more like an American name. His father had set up some businesses and purchased Mill Grove farm near Philadelphia for him to oversee.He continued to draw. He taught himself through trial and error specializing in birds.

8. Marriage /children

9. In 1808, Audubon married Lucy Bakewell They had two sons: Victor Gifford (1809–1860) and John Woodhouse Audubon (1812–1862); and two daughters who died while young: Lucy at two years and Rose died at nine months. Both sons would help publish their father's works. Lucy, a teacher and governess, was able to support herself and their two sons while Audubon pursued his dream of publishing a book of drawings of birds.

10. His Art

11. At one point early in his career he left 200 of his bird drawings with a friend. When he returned several months later he discovered that a pair of rats had shredded his pictures to make a nest and raised a family in the box. The only thing to do was start over. This is what he did, even making improvements, and within three years his bird portfolio was full again. John was a it mad he shot, killed, stuffed and positioned very animal so he could paint it or them.

13. Finally

14. John’s main goal in life was to be the first to document very bird in the USA and he did, and he was the first person to tag birds and flow them by tying colour string around small birds legs and then tracking them.

15. Audubon during this period suffered a stroke, and he was also in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease. He died four months before his 66th birthday. Lucy lived another twelve years and tried her best to support the families of their sons who had died. After her husband's death she started a school and one of her students loved birds just as Audubon had. George Grinnell later started the Audubon Society.

16. Alzheimer's disease progressive mental disease the effects the brain causes memory lost or disorientation