Discover Audubon’s Birds: A Visual Delight

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Have you ever seen a book so beautiful and incredible that it doesn’t seem possible for a person to make it? That’s how you’ll feel when you see John James Audubon’s Birds of America. It’s not a regular book but a true masterpiece of art and nature observation.

This amazing book has life-size pictures of birds from all over America, painted with bright colors and in natural poses. You know what? Audubon did much more than just paint bird pictures. He spent over 12 years exploring the wilderness, watching birds up close, and carefully painting them in perfect detail.

Table of Contents

Audubon’s Wild Adventures

Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785. As a young man in France and America, he fell in love with nature. His biggest dream was to create a book with paintings of every single bird species in North America. To make this dream happen, he went on daring journeys:

Traveled through thick forests, muddy swamps, huge prairies, and rugged mountains
Climbed tall trees and dangerous cliffs to watch birds’ nests up close
Studied how each bird species looked, moved, and behaved in the wild
When he collected bird specimens, he used tiny gunshot pellets to avoid damaging feathers
He then carefully positioned the birds using wires to paint them in realistic poses

The Masterpiece Is Created

After years of adventuring outdoors, Audubon completed his life’s greatest work – the famous Birds of America with 435 hand-colored prints showing 497 bird species. But these were no ordinary bird illustrations. They were extremely rare and valuable masterpieces made through a very difficult process:

First, Audubon etched each bird image onto large copper plates with a sharp tool
The plates were covered in ink, and large sheets of paper were pressed onto them
Teams of skilled artists then spent years carefully painting each print by hand
Using bright watercolor paints, they colored every single feather, leaf, and rock
Layer by layer, they captured even the tiniest details to make the scenes look real

Extremely Large Size

What makes Audubon’s illustrations even more amazing is their massive size. The book’s pages were gigantic, measuring about as big as a small coffee table! Audubon made them this large so he could:

Show the true life-sized greatness of huge birds like eagles and swans
Let you see every tiny detail up close, like the piercing look in a bird’s eye
Capture the subtle way the sunlight filtered through feathers

At this enormous size, Audubon did not miss a single small part of nature’s beauty when painting.

A Rare and Precious Book

Making Birds of America was an extremely difficult and expensive project in Audubon’s time:

Only around 200 complete sets were ever made because of the high cost
One set cost over $1,000 back then – that’s over $30,000 in today’s money!
Only aristocrats, elite universities, and libraries could afford to buy a copy

Those original books from the 1800s are now extremely rare and priceless. Complete sets have sold for over $10 million because of their:

Amazing age and the tiny number remaining
Unmatched artistic quality and realistic look
Huge importance for culture and science

That’s why no major museum or library displays their copy all the time. The huge, fragile books are kept stored safely and only shown for a short time to protect them.

A Look At Birds That No Longer Exist

Beyond being great artwork, Birds of America provides an invaluable record of American birds from the early 1800s that we can never recreate. By painting each species perfectly, Audubon:

Froze that moment in time of North American birds forever
Documented over 20 bird species that were unknown until then
Left behind vivid paintings of birds that soon went extinct, like the:

– Passenger pigeon

– Carolina parakeet

– Great auk

Looking at Audubon’s lively illustrations of those lost birds makes you feel very sad about nature’s fragility when humans take too much.

An Unforgettable Experience

If you ever get the rare chance to see the real Birds of America books up close, you must go. It will be an experience you never forget as someone who loves nature, art, or beauty.

You’ll be amazed at studying each huge illustration up close. As you trace the brushwork, every feather looks like it could flutter to life. Suddenly you’ll feel like you’ve traveled back in time to the wild American frontier when these birds roamed freely.

Wrap Up

Looking into Audubon’s detailed reproductions of nature connects you to its true majesty in an intimate way. It’s an encounter with the passion of a true artistic genius that will change how you see humanity’s relationship with the natural world. An experience this special is one you’ll treasure in your heart and mind forever.

Welcome to Arader Books! Within Arader Galleries at 1016 Madison Avenue in New York City, we’re your go-to destination for unique and rare books. Step inside our doors, and you’ll find treasures like “The Birds of America book” which is a true gem you won’t easily find elsewhere.

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