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Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 7
Lesson 5: Realism in the United States- Becoming a city: daily life in 1820, Brooklyn
- John Wesley Jarvis, Black Hawk and His Son Whirling Thunder
- Mount, Bargaining for a Horse
- John James Audubon, The Wild Turkey
- Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits
- Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico
- Before the Civil War, the Mexican-American War as prelude
- Face to face with the voters: Bingham's Country Politician
- Frederic Church, The Natural Bridge, Virginia
- Blythe, Justice
- Martyr or murderer? Hovenden's The Last Moments of John Brown
- The Civil War: putting Liberty front and center
- Johnson, A Ride for Liberty -- The Fugitive Slaves
- Mending America, women and the Civil War
- Cotton, oil, and the economics of history
- Eakins, The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull)
- Heroes of modern surgery: Eakins' Dr. Gross and Dr. Agnew
- Eakins, The Gross Clinic
- The U.S. Civil War, sharpshooters, and Winslow Homer
- Winslow Homer, Army Teamsters
- Winslow Homer, Taking Sunflower to Teacher
- Homer, The Life Line
- Homer, The Fog Warning (Halibut Fishing)
- Homer, Northeaster
- Winslow Homer, Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba
- Brown, View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
- The closing of the frontier and The Fall of the Cowboy
- The Radical Floriography of Sarah Mapps Douglass
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John James Audubon, The Wild Turkey
John James Audubon's "The Wild Turkey" is a vibrant painting showing a turkey in its natural habitat. Audubon's work is known for its realistic depiction of birds and their environments. This painting helps us understand the importance of nature and wildlife in American culture during the 19th century. Created by Smarthistory.
Want to join the conversation?
- An owner of slaves, a supporter of white supremacy, a killer of birds, and a brilliant artist. We are all, aren't we, mixtures of good and bad, bad and good, like Pickles, the Fire Cat ?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Steven] We're in the Gilcrease
Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and we're looking at a large
oil painting of a turkey by John James Audubon. - [Laura] You'll see
his name associated with especially bird conservation, but with conservation causes in many different respects today. That legacy stems from what
he most famously produced, "Birds of North America," which was a set of 435
prints of birds drawn to life that was published between 1827 and 1838. He also was working on a "Quadrupeds of North America" portfolio toward the end of his life, but birds were clearly his passion. - [Steven] And by drawn to life, we mean birds that are drawn life-size. - [Laura] The largest
birds, such as the turkey, take up this entire
40-inch-tall piece of paper. - [Steven] And the
image of the wild turkey was the first plate in the
"Birds of North America," his life's work. - [Laura] According to Audubon, the turkey was one of the
most interesting birds indigenous to the United States. For many Europeans who were coming to what is now the United States, turkeys were early on seen
as a symbol of the Americas. - [Steven] Our conversation has veered to his famous print series, but it's important to remember
this is an oil painting. - [Laura] Audubon
created this oil painting 20 years after his original watercolor of the American turkey. This is a young male turkey, and you can tell that because he's got a protuberance
coming out of his forehead. Looks like a unicorn horn. This is called a snood. And on an older bird, it would be draped over his beak. It'd be a lot longer. This bird also has a breast beard, the long feathers coming out of his chest that resemble a horse's tail. And then he's got leg spurs, a sort of back claw
coming off of his legs. The turkey has a distinct
sense of personality. He's looking back over his shoulder as though he is looking for a predator, as he is also striding forward. In the background, you
can see a canebrake, which is a bamboo-like grass that grows in the Southeast. And behind that, there's
a series of storm clouds coming in over the horizon that give you a sense for the humidity that you might feel in Louisiana. - [Steven] I'm struck by
the notion of a painting of this great wild bird. It isn't a portrait, and it's not entirely a
scientific illustration. - [Laura] This work is influenced by European portrait traditions, the vertical orientation, the hint of a landscape background. - [Steven] But at the same time, Audubon wants to get all
of the details right. One of the most important
audiences for Audubon are other scientists. - [Laura] He's wanting to
get the proportions correct, the colors of the feathers, the appearance of the feet and the claws, the markings of the bird's head. - [Steven] But while there
is this scientific aspect to the image, it is also individualized. Look at that face. - [Laura] I think he's inviting viewers to empathize with this bird, that he's feeling a bit of shock. He's got that wide-open, yellow eye. His beak is slightly parted. - [Steven] We think that
Audubon would go into the wild, would find his subject, would shoot it, bring it back, and quickly wire it to reanimate it so that it seemed as if it was alive, and then would begin
his sketches from life. - [Laura] When Audubon was
first working on his sketches for "Birds of North America," this is before the advent of photography, so he can't shoot a photograph
of this bird to study later. And while we think of
bird conservation today as based around watching birds, in this era Audubon was shooting birds. And this was the only way that he could have a bird stay
still so he could paint it. - [Steven] Audubon is
known for positioning birds in movement, in action, even showing sometimes the birds hunting. - [Laura] Other wildlife
artists in this era often show animals in a static way, almost as though they
are taxidermic mounts, but Audubon is interested
in capturing a sense of life from the animals that he paints. - [Steven] Audubon is
coming out of a period where nature was seen as inexhaustible. - [Laura] He wasn't so
much of a conservationist. Again, that sense hadn't
come to the forefront yet. But what he did contribute
was an awareness of wildlife in North America. His "Birds of North America" portfolio changed the way, and maybe the appreciation
that Americans felt for their wildlife. - [Steven] The artist Audubon did represent himself as the
quintessential American hunter, but his background is more complicated. - [Laura] Audubon was
born in what is now Haiti, and it's possible that his mother was of mixed-race ancestry. Audubon was sent to France
where his father was from. He was raised there, and then moved to America when he was 18 in the early 1800's. He lived in several different places and had several failed business ventures. But one of the things we know today as we're reassessing figures like Audubon, he also enslaved people
in the United States. And beyond that, he specifically spoke
out against emancipation and held views that
today we would describe as clearly white supremacist. - [Steven] What do we do with this legacy, a man who is the namesake
for American conservation, but also enslaved people? - [Laura] Some of the organizations today that are named for John James Audubon are grappling with his legacy. One example is the Audubon Society, which was founded 50
years after his death. They have started being frank
about all sides of his past, and what a complicated figure he was. (jazzy piano music)