£5m birds book show winging its way to city

A VOLUME from an £5 million work created by one of the world's greatest wildlife artists is set to go on display as part of a summer exhibition in the Capital.

Birds of a Feather: Audubon's Adventures in Edinburgh tells the story of 19th-century American artist and adventurer John James Audubon and his links with Scotland.

The first ten plates of a copy of Audubon's Birds of America, which sold for $8.8m (4.8m) at auction in 2000, were engraved in Edinburgh by William Home Lizars following his arrival in the city in 1826.

A complete volume of the book has been loaned to the National Library of Scotland by Renfrewshire Council. It will be on display throughout the exhibition, along with life-sized plates from the book, which are on loan from the National Museums of Scotland.

Audubon, whose portrait hangs in the White House, is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest wildlife artists. The book, which took 12 years to complete, comprises four volumes featuring a total of 435 plates, depicting 1065 life-like illustrations of 489 species.

The NLS exhibition invites visitors to step back in time to a Georgian drawing room, to learn how the production of the world-famous book started in Edinburgh, and to meet seven influential figures who Audubon encountered, including Sir Walter Scott, Lizars, William MacGillivray and Robert Knox.

The exhibition also offers an insight into the painstaking engraving work that enabled Audubon's glorious illustrations to be reproduced to the highest standards possible in the 1820s.

Birds of a Feather, which runs until October 15, will be formally opened by Patricia Ferguson MSP, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport on July 4, which also marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the library's George IV Bridge building.

Senior curator Graham Hogg said: "Audubon arrived in Britain for the first time in 1826 and had a portfolio of bird paintings he wanted to get published. He couldn't get it published in the USA and so came to Britain.

"His initial thought was to go to London but he heard so much about Edinburgh being the Athens of the North, while Sir Walter Scott was one of his heroes and he wanted to see him and get letters of introduction to members of London society. He arrived in late October 1826 and immediately fell in love with the city and much preferred it to some of the industrial cities of England.

"Edinburgh was in its golden age at that time and he was entering a sort of village of very eminent, distinguished people. He said they were the 'most discerning people in the world' in a letter to his wife and that, if he could make it here, he could make it anywhere, like New York today."

City culture leader Councillor Ricky Henderson said the book would be a fascinating summer attraction for the Capital.

He said: "Edinburgh has influenced many world-renowned figures and it is good to recognise the achievements of someone such as Audubon."

HOW AVOIDING THE ARMY TRIGGERED A FASCINATION WITH WILDLIFE

BORN in Haiti in 1785, John James Audubon was the son of a French merchant/sea captain and a chambermaid, who died in a slave uprising shortly after her son's birth.

Raised by his stepmother and father in the French countryside, he developed a love of wildlife, especially birds, and sketching.

Aged 18, Audubon was sent across the Atlantic to Pennsylvania to avoid conscription in Napoleon's army and to manage family farm property. He married Lucy Bakewell in 1808.

Aged 35, Audubon embarked on The Birds of America, producing 435 hand-coloured engravings. He arrived in Britain for the first time in 1826. While in Edinburgh, London and Paris, he developed a noble and royal patronage and a host of subscribers. In 1840, he embarked on a new project - The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. By the time he set off on a journey up the Missouri River to collect information and images of mammals, he had drawn 61 species. He died in 1851.