Gallery: See Audubon's Famous Birds Like Never Before
01carolina-parakeet
The avian visions of John James Audubon, America's finest wildlife artist, are coming to life as never before. On display now through May 19 at the New York Historical Society is the first of three installations in [*Audubon's Aviary: The Complete Flock*](http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/audubons-aviary), the society's unprecedented exhibition of 474 paintings. Most are so-called preparatory watercolors, the drafts Audubon made while working towards *The Birds of America*, the famed series of hand-colored, life-sized engravings that would make his name synonymous with the winged world. The watercolors were purchased by the Society in 1863 from Audubon's wife Lucy, and are usually kept in storage, hidden from light that could disturb their delicate pigments. They've never been gathered in one place for public display. Also on display are some of Audubon's earliest paintings, which were only recently discovered and have never been seen in the United States. As a multimedia bonus, some paintings are accompanied by birdsong recorded -- or, in the case of the extinct Carolina parakeet and ivory-billed woodpecker, reconstructed -- by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. On the following pages, exhibition curator Roberta Olson takes Wired readers on a tour. __Above:__ Carolina Parakeet ----------------- One little-appreciated aspect of Audubon's work is his technical virtuosity, said Olson. "He'd stain, wet the pastels, put the watercolor on top of it, then outline every vein and barbule of a feather," she said. "For the Carolina parakeets, you get the idea of these birds calling out to you and flying in your face. When you turn the watercolor, they sparkle. They are alive." <object data="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/26-Carolina-Parakeet-GP-Parakeet.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF" height="20" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200"><param name="bgcolor" value="FFFFFF"></param><param name="movie" value="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/26-Carolina-Parakeet-GP-Parakeet.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF"></param></object> *Image: Carolina Parakeet (*Conuropsis carolinensis*), Study for Havell pl. 26, ca. 1825. Watercolor, graphite, pastel, gouache, and black ink with scraping and selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 29 3/4 x 21 1/4 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
02northern-mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird -------------------- Apart from giving viewers a richer sense of the birds, the exhibition's audio is intended to emphasize "just how cinematic Audubon was," said Olson. "His birds are not just posed in pharaonic profile. They're moving." <object data="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/21-Northern-Mockingbird-Mimus-polyglottos.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF" height="20" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200"><param name="bgcolor" value="FFFFFF"></param><param name="movie" value="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/21-Northern-Mockingbird-Mimus-polyglottos.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF"></param></object> *Image: Northern Mockingbird (*Mimus polyglottos*), Study for Havell pl. 21, ca. 1825. Watercolor, graphite, pastel, black chalk, gouache, and black ink with touches of scratching out and selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 29 3/4 x 20 7/8 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
03great-egret
Great Egret ----------- *Image: Great Egret (*Ardea alba*), 1821. Watercolor, graphite, pastel, gouache, white lead pigment, black ink, and black chalk with selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 37 7/16 x 25 9/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
04yellow-breasted-chat
Yellow-breasted Chat -------------------- *Image: Yellow-Breasted Chat (*Icteria virens*), Study for Havell pl. 137, 1829. Watercolor, graphite, pastel, black chalk, gouache, white lead pigment, and black ink with selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 29 5/16 x 21 1/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
05great-crested-flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher ------------------------ Audubon's style is so historically influential that it's easy to overlook how conceptually adventurous it was in his day, when stiffly-posed taxonomic illustrations and depictions of dead game were customary. "He wanted to tell stories," Olson said. "He wanted his birds to live." *Image: Great Crested Flycatcher (*Myiarchus crinitus*), Study for Havell pl. 129, ca. 1824. Watercolor, graphite, pastel, and black chalk with touches of black ink and gouache, and selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 18 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
06hoopoe
Hoopoe ------ Audubon painted this hoopoe in 1805, just two years after emigrating from France at the age of eighteen. It was discovered in the 1990s at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle in La Rochelle, France. In it, Audubon is not yet working with watercolor, but experimenting with graphite and pastels. "He chose pastel at the beginning. They were out of favor at the time, but he liked the fact that it had the texture of feathers," Olson said. *Image: Hoopoe (*Huppe fasciée*), 1805–06. Pastel and graphite on paper; 11 13/16 x 7 7/8 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
07northern-bobwhite
Northern Bobwhite ----------------- The engravings in *Birds of America* were not printed all at once, but delivered to subscribers in batches of five -- one large-sized illustration, such as this depiction of northern bobwhites attacked by a red-shouldered hawk, one medium-sized, and three small -- between 1827 and 1838. That unusual method of distribution, something like a 19th-century Kickstarter arrangement, was a product of Audubon's economic circumstances. Remembered now as a great artist, Audubon when he started the project was a down-on-his-luck former shopkeeper and portrait-painter, an immigrant who loved birds and dreamed of making life-sized paintings of every species in his new homeland, but didn't have the money. To make this possible, Audubon became as devoted a marketer and self-promoter as he was an artist. "He self-financed this whole enterprise. Had no institutional backing," said Olson. "He went out and did it." For several years he toured England, charming potential investors and playing up his frontier background. Said Olson, "He'd be dressed in buckskin and bear grease, and would be the command performance after dinner parties." *Image: Northern Bobwhite (*Colinus virginianus*) and Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), Study for Havell pl. 76, ca. 1825. Watercolor, pastel, graphite, black ink, oil, gouache, black chalk, collage, and outlining with a stylus, with selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 25 13/16 x 39 3/8 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
08snowy-owl
Snowy Owl --------- Like the northern bobwhite, this snowy owl originally came as a large-sized print nearly 40 inches high, using what was known as double-elephant-folio paper. It was the largest format available in the early 19th century, and added considerably to Audubon's costs, but he insisted on using it. His life-sized ambitions couldn't be realized on anything smaller. *Image: nowy Owl (*Bubo scandiacus*), Study for Havell pl. 121, 1829 Watercolor, graphite, pastel, and black ink with touches of glazing on paper, laid on card; 38 x 25 11/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
09tufted-titmouse
Tufted Titmouse --------------- <object data="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/39-Tufted-Titmouse-Baeolophus-bicolor.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF" height="20" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200"><param name="bgcolor" value="FFFFFF"></param><param name="movie" value="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/39-Tufted-Titmouse-Baeolophus-bicolor.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF"></param></object> *Image: Tufted Titmouse (*Baeolophus bicolor*), Study for Havell pl. 39, 1822. Watercolor, graphite, gouache, and black ink with touches of black chalk and glazing on paper, laid on card; 18 5/8 x 11 11/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
10tree-swallow
Tree Swallow ------------ Audubon's experimentalism is underappreciated; largely self-taught as a painter, he "always pushed the envelope in his media," Olson said. Images like this now seem classical, but they predated the collage techniques of Picasso and Braques by nearly a century. *Image: Tree Swallow (*Tachycineta bicolor*), Study for Havell pl. 98; sketches of an egg and a feather, 1824. Watercolor, graphite, gouache, pastel, black chalk, and black ink with selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 18 15/16 x 11 13/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
11barn-owl
Barn Owl -------- Another of Audubon's early paintings discovered in La Rochelle, the pose of this barn owl presages his mature work's extremely realistic depictions, at which he arrived through extensive field observations. As much as any naturalist, Audubon came to know the birds. "He was a frontiersman, but he wanted to be considered a scientist, too," Olson said. *Image: Barn Owl, 1803–05. Pastel and graphite on paper; 35 7/8 x 14 3/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
12turkey-vulture
Turkey Vulture -------------- *Image: Turkey Vulture (*Cathartes aura*), 1820. Pastel, watercolor, graphite, black ink, and black chalk with touches of gouache on two sheets of paper, laid on card; 18 11/16 x 18 5/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
13southern-cassowary
Southern Cassowary ------------------ Like the Carolina parakeet, this cassowary is part of Harvard University's collection of Audubon's early paintings. *Image: Head of a Southern Cassowary, 1812. Pastel and graphite on paper; 21 5/8 x 16 15/16 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
14american-goldfinch
American Goldfinch ------------------ <object data="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/33-American-Goldfinch-Spinus-tristis.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF" height="20" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200"><param name="bgcolor" value="FFFFFF"></param><param name="movie" value="http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/wp-content/plugins/dewplayer-flash-mp3-player/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/03/33-American-Goldfinch-Spinus-tristis.mp3&bgcolor=FFFFFF"></param></object> *Image: American Goldfinch (*Spinus tristis*), Study for Havell pl. 33, 1824. Watercolor, graphite, gouache, and black ink with touches of pastel and selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 18 9/16 x 11 3/4 in. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.*
