Friday, October 7, 2022

In the Footsteps of Audubon

Here as promised is a review of a book due for release on November 1st 2022 - In the Footsteps of Audubon by Denis Clavreul. This is a Princeton publication. 


Denis Clavreul is a French watercolourist, wildlife artist, and biologist whose celebrated works have been exhibited around the world. He is the author and illustrator of many books, including Dreaming of Africa and Pour une Loire vivante (That the Loire may live). 

John James Audubon (1785 - 1851) is held in such high regard as a naturalist/ornithologist/painter and author that he is known simply by the surname of Audubon. 

Everyone knows of Audubon, not least me. Audubon’s stunning, stylistic, painstakingly detailed and dramatic drawings became a major inspiration in my early days of discovering birds. 

Audubon’s own journey began in France over two hundred years ago with his childhood in France and an early affinity for birds and natural history in its many forms. In 1803 his father obtained a false passport so that Jean-Jacques Audubon could go to the United States to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Wars. At eighteen years old Jean-Jacques boarded a ship and changed his name to the anglicised form John James Audubon. 

As a young man Audubon travelled the Americas where he learned the crafts that would eventually make him famous. The book traces one such journey via Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana, Las Floridas (Florida), Labrador, Missouri and to the end of the journey in New York City. In those days the population of the young United States was around five million people. There were no paved roads, no automobiles, no electric lights, no cameras or binoculars, and no widely available books about birds. 

Throughout the journey the young Audubon practiced and perfected his artistic skills and became a self-taught ornithologist of repute. His pictorial record - The Birds of America, 1827 and 1838, stands as a colossal achievement in American art that will never be bettered. 

Birds of America

“In the Footsteps” follows the same route that Audubon took through the States of America with a chapter devoted to each leg of a journey some 200 years before. 

Two hundred and fifty of Clavreul’s deceptively modest, often impressionistic sketches and watercolours of birds, animals, people, plants and landscapes appear throughout the pages where they mingle with revealing selections from Audubon’s journals and a number of his paintings e.g. the simply stunning Great Egret, the Crested Caracaras or the Gannets. 
 

 “The weather was fine; all around me was as fresh and blooming as if it had just issued from the bosom of Nature. Although well moccasined, I moved slowly along attracted by the brilliancy of the flowers, and the gambols of the fawns along their dams, to all appearance as thoughtless of danger as I felt myself.” 

Audubon’s words make a knowing and comfortable juxtaposition of words and images that fit with Clavreul’s easy, relaxed style of descriptive writing. I felt that my journey through America and Audubon’s past was made all the better by being in the company of an agreeable, knowledgeable and sympathetic companion. 

Along the journey there are people who live with nature, many of them passionately engaged in preserving it. We encounter bird banders in Louisiana, devoted birders in Central Park, Florida & Quebec and ranchers in Missouri; just a few of the locations where Clavreul’s delightful sketches and paintings bring words and history to life. We see the natural world as Audubon saw it but with eyes and ideas of today. 

“The Night Hawks were skimming over and around me, attracted by the buzzing wings of beetles which form their food, and the distant howling of wolves gave me some hope that I should soon arrive at the skirts of some woodlands.” 

I must mention that the book is translated from the original French into English. The translator Martha Le Cars deserves a special mention for the sensitive, seamless and highly readable result. 

In the Footsteps of Audubon, a book in landscape format, will probably not appeal to the average birder. However, I am certain it is one that will find a home with students of bird and natural history art, travellers, writers, and indeed anyone who simply loves books for the joy they bring in these troubled times. 

I thoroughly recommend it as one that would make a thoughtful gift for a young aspiring writer or artist, someone in the mould of young John James perhaps? 

This is a book that I quickly grew to love and one I would like to keep but with bulging bookshelves I am stuck for space. However I have a better, more useful idea. I will donate this delightful book to my granddaughter’s school though their art department, where I hope it will become a tool for talk, discussion and projects, perhaps even an inspiration to one or more budding artists or writers. 


$39.95 / £30.00 
ISBN: 9780691237688 
Published: Nov 1, 2022 
Copyright: 2022 
Pages: 256 
Size: 11.75 x 9.5 in. 
Illustrations: 272 colour 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.


10 comments:

Lowcarb team member said...

That is lovely to donate this book to your grand-daughters school.

All the best Jan

eileeninmd said...

Hello,
A wonderful review, it is nice you are donating the book to your granddaughter's school. I hope the students all enjoy this book too.
The illustrations are beautiful. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend.

Breathtaking said...

Hello Phil, :=)

What a delightful review, but like you, my bookshelves overflow with the many books upon them. The water-coloured illustrations painted by the gifted artist Clavreul are undeniably beautiful, and the excerpts from the book are immediately appealing. I am sure your kind gesture of gifting this book to your Grandchilds school will be very much appreciated.
All the best.

Andree said...

I think I like Clavruel's illustrations better than Audubon's. Don't hate, please. It sounds like a marvelous book. I would enjoy reading about the nation back then.

Anni said...

The author is living my dream!! Both art and traveling with birds. I would be the first to pull the book from your grands' library at school. I am in awe.

Thank you so much for this post and linking in!!

Breathtaking said...

Hi Phil :=) In response to your comment, I only drink white wine with my meals, a gin and tonic at 6-oopm and sometimes a ruby red port after dinner. The Medronho Brandy is too strong for me. I would rather have an L30 and 4 brandy or a Napolean brandy a much smoother alcohol drink. Apparently, you can buy a Medronho Brandy from a specialized dealer in the UK, if you have the inclination to do so. I know you were only teasing in your comment. :=) After reading Anni's comment, I would like to add that if the book appears in our local library, I would be first in line to read it.

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

How sweet of you to donate this book to the school. What a wonderful book to have in the library. I know I would love it but maybe looking at it and passing it on is a good idea! Enjoy your week ahead!

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

From your post I think this book will become a classic for those who love nature and birds. Thanks for the information - the review was wonderful.

NCSue said...

My grandmother had several Audobon prints. I wonder where they got to? I'd love to have them just for the wonderful memories I had of learning about nature from her!
Thanks for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2022/10/tile-and-wood-work-at-sancar-turkish.html

Veronica Lee said...

How nice of you to donate to the school!

It looks like an amazing book.

Happy Tuesday, Phil!

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