The story of John James Audubon is a dramatic and surprising one. Not an American himself, he saw more of the North American continent than virtually anyone, and in time he came to stand for America—the America of wilderness and wild things. But his life is emblematic of far more. Audubon was a self-taught artist and a self-made man whose life was rife with action and contradiction. He played the debonair European when he visited the American frontier, and then the wild woodsman in the drawing rooms of Europe. He was a faithful husband and a shameless flirt, a failed merchant who single-handedly conceived and created the largest and most beautiful book of the 19th century. He was praised by royalty, shunned by his in-laws and black-balled—three times—by the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. He was jailed for bankruptcy. He dined at the White House, the guest of Andrew Jackson.

As an artist and a naturalist his achievements are monumental. The Birds of America—an astonishing collection of 435 life-size prints—was the largest book printed in the 19th century. Audubon was not only the artist; he was the writer, publisher and promoter. The man who had failed at selling penny nails in the backwoods of Kentucky discovered that he could sell an unfinished folio for a thousand dollars in the finest homes in Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, London and Paris. His early subscribers included the kings of England and France, and the final list would boast over 200 of the richest and most recognizable names on either side of the Atlantic.

Audubon continued to work, creating a smaller folio of birds, and embarking on a major study of mammals. This book, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of America, was only half-done in 1846, when he turned the work over to his son. His eyesight was failing, as was his mind. He passed the last two years of his life in silence, recognizing no one. When he died, in 1851, his wife sold a goodly portion of his original drawings and prints to the New-York Historical Society for four dollars a piece.

John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature was broadcast on the critically-acclaimed PBS series, American Masters, on Wednesday, July 25, 2007, at 9:00PM. . A production of Thirteen/WNET New York and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc., it is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the W.P. Carey Foundation and Roswell Eldridge, M.D.

Editors' Choice Selection, ALA's Booklist 

CINE Golden Eagle

Silver Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

Best Environmental Art Film, EarthVision International Environmental Film Festival

Best of Festival List, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival

Merit Award, International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula

Honorable Mention, Montana CINE

Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital

Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival

Links

American Masters WNET
Distributor -- Bullfrog Films
The Audubon Octavos

© 2006 Educational Broadcasting Corporation and
Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc.

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