Longmont, CO.- The Longmont Museum is proud to present an exhibition of 64 prints from Audubon’s first edition “The Birds of America”, plus four large animal prints from his later Imperial Quadrupeds edition and prints from later editions and several of Audubon’s contemporaries. This exhibition also features several original oil paintings by Audubon, as well as personal belongings such as the silver cup presented to his engraver upon completion of the publication of volume two of “The Birds of America.” The Longmont Museum will be showing “John J. Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist” from June 4 through September 18. This nationally traveling exhibition presents a selection of rare and valuable Audubon works of art and artifacts.
The exhibit includes original Audubon oil paintings, letters, rare books, photographs, personal items and over sixty of the original hand colored Double Elephant Folio engravings from “The Birds of America”, selected from the collection and archives of the John James Audubon Museum, Henderson, Kentucky. After Colorado, the exhibition can be seen at it’s final stop, the Mobile Museum of Art in Alabama in october.
John James Audubon (1785-1851) is known today for his remarkable work “The Birds of America”. He led a complex life, starting as the illegitimate child of a French sea captain in what is now Haiti, traveling to France and then to Pennsylvania to start anew after the French revolution, and embarking on a lifelong study of birds and other animals that would eventually bring him fame and fortune. A chance encounter with ornithologist Alexander Wilson in 1810 led Audubon to embark on a vast project, a life-sized color folio of all the birds of North America. His project would take 28 years to come to fruition. He spent 16 years studying and drawing birds, pioneering a lifelike portrayal of them, unlike the stiff and awkward bird portraits of his contemporaries.
Unable to find a publisher in the U.S., he traveled to England, and after a strike halted work at his first engraver, began a partnership with the English engraver Robert Havell Jr. In June of 1838, his magnum opus, “The Birds of America,” was published to wide acclaim. Audubon’s “The Birds of America” is a remarkable artistic and printing achievement. The completed first edition consists of four volumes containing 435 individual hand-colored plates showing 1,065 birds. Each volume weighed 50 pounds, and fewer than 200 sets were produced originally. Audubon’s legacy is remarkable. By drawing attention to the majesty of the birds and mammals of North America, he inspired a conservation movement. The Audubon Society was founded in his honor, and his name remains synonymous with conservation and bird preservation to this day.
The Longmont Museum was founded in 1936 as part of the St. Vrain Historical Society. In 1940, the first exhibits opened to the public in the carriage house at the Callahan House. The Museum soon outgrew that space, and, in 1954, moved to the basement of the Memorial Building in Roosevelt Park. In 1954, the Pioneer Museum was informally separated from the St. Vrain Historical Society. This change was made official with the incorporation of the Longmont Museum, Inc., on October 4, 1961. In 1970, the Museum changed from a private, nonprofit organization to a department of the City of Longmont. Shortly after that, the Museum moved again, this time to a converted Sorenson garage at 3rd and Kimbark. The new space opened its doors on September 13, 1970. In 1973, the garage was torn down and the Museum moved to a converted City warehouse and garage at 375 Kimbark Street. In November 1999, Longmont voters approved $5 million in a bond issue to build a new museum and cultural center. The bond issue was approved by over 77 percent of voters. The Longmont Museum & Cultural Center was further enhanced by an anonymous $1 million gift. Now located at 400 Quail Road, just east of Main Street in south Longmont, the Longmont Museum & Cultural Center invites visitors to come and see their regularly changing exhibits, experience their education programs, and enjoy the views from the Longs Peak Room tower. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.ci.longmont.co.us/museum