Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Happy Birthday John James Audubon

Sotheby's auction house worker Mary Engleheart with the book

It's John James Audubon's birthday today, and I decided to do a special post as a tribute to him and his stunning works of art.

He was well known for his gorgeous paintings of birds and famous for "The Birds of America" book that contains 435 illustrations of a wide variety of birds. The book is considered to be one of the most expensive books which was sold at $11.5 million in 2010. There are only 100 copies in the world and each book measures more than 3 ft by 2 ft (shown above) because Audubon wanted to paint the birds life size.



I dug some more and found that all of his 435 paintings can be viewed on-line at the Digital Research Library of the University of Pittsburgh, click here. Isn't that cool! You can zoom in on the images to cherish the steady brush strokes and never-before-seen detail.




Like to know some more? Minniesland.com is a website dedicated to Audubon's work. You'll find lots of interesting information on his work, books and can also buy prints from their massive collection of some very rare prints. To own a copy of "Birds of America with the complete collection of 435 illustrations click here.

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