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DESCRIPTION:
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Born in Haiti, John James Audubon spent his youth in France, where he studied for a time under Jacques Louis David. Returning to America in 1803, he embarked upon a series of ill-fated ventures as a farmer, merchant, and portrait painter. Yet none of these occupations engaged Audubon as much as his avocation: the search for birds and the studies and drawings that he made to record his discoveries and observations. A tireless entrepreneur, Audubon devoted himself to an unprecedented project, becoming the first to attempt the seemingly insurmountable task of documenting all the bird life of North America. This task grew out of a genuine and passionate interest in his subjects, and Audubon determined not only to complete a project that no one else had undertaken, but to approach it in an entirely innovative manner. His style and his persona were much like the notion of America itself: ambitious, animated, larger than life. The artist's tireless efforts and remarkable talent culminated in the publication in London of his 435-plate Birds of America (1827-1838), undoubtedly the greatest work on birds ever produced. The celebration of this quintessentially American work, and the enterprising, talented artist who created it, has grown steadily since the time of its publication.
The “Scarlet Ibis” is a lively and engaging composition from this seminal work, and this particular example is in excellent condition with full margins and bright original color. Audubon recorded seeing just three scarlet ibises during his travels in the southeastern U.S., on July 3, 1821, at Bayou Sara in Louisiana. He wrote, "They were traveling in a line, in the manner of the white ibis, above the tops of the trees." Yet this brightly colored bird sparked his interest, and he worked from examples encountered elsewhere to complete this image (set, nonetheless, in the Southeast). The vivid coloring of the mature male of the species, set next to the young, shows the amazing transition the bird makes over the course of its growth. The young male is mainly light brown, although some feathers have begun to show a reddish tinge. The adult, in contrast, stands out with such vibrant clarity that he appears to jump off the page. He dominates the image in other ways, as well-arching his beak over the younger bird's head, and in fact, over everything else in the composition. Audubon opted to make the background very subtle, probably because the scarlet ibis itself is so innately dramatic that no embellishments were thought necessary. There is no discernible horizon separating the calm, hazy blue lakes and silhouetted clouds in the sky, providing an atmospheric, quiet setting for the animated, striking bird.
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