London, July 1st 1828.
My dear Sir.—
I have been expecting to have the pleasure of seeing you for upwards of a week, having mentioned in your last note that you intended spending a couple of days in London before the end of June.—When are you coming?—the beautifull lamb came quite safe and is now on the canvas (in efigy) for ages to come—I bought a superb Golden Eagle from Mr. Cross that also has helped to fill it —— [Here apparently some words have been deleted, and it is impossible to read them.] I long to shew them to you.—I have finished the picture of the Turkeys, and painted a white headed eagle—in fact I have worked from 4 every morning untill dark—but the best news I have to tell is; that I have received 4 letters from my wife, one dated 2nd of May, all well—but not quite settled about coming before the end of summer. I have changed quarters and am now at 79 Newman Street Oxford Street, in Mr. Havell's house where I have taken 3 rooms and feel more comfortable although I have not the little piece of ground to walk on.—I imagine the country to be now quite beautifull and had I time to spare would walk out to see you Mrs S & the dear little folks at Tittenhanger Green.—I received a visit on Saturday last of the whole of Lord Milton's family who after complimenting the author of the "Birds of America" very kindly subscribed for two copies of the work.—I have mended my pen—I should have sent the Blackwood magazine to you, but I so much expected to see you here that it is yet on my table, and will keep it untill you come.—All my exertions to procure live grouses have been abortive here—I have written to Scotland to a friend and perhaps will have some soon.—The 8th number is now printing and colouring and will be out this month—the 9th is began.—If you are hungry or thirsty when you come to town please make for my [here a word is omitted], and I will try to manage matters in this way.—May I ask what you are doing?—I saw Dr Fraill's [Traill's] son a few days ago—he inquired after your son and family.—I expect a copy of Loudon's magazine this evening. I feel anxious to see what sort of a cut the Doves make, as well as the birds of Washington.—
With sincerest regards & esteem to yourself and Lady—
I am yours most truly
John J. Audubon.
79 Newman Street,
Oxford Street.
London Thursday July 1828.
My dear Mr Swainson,
Although your last note said that you knew not when I should have the pleasure of seeing you in town, I have hoped every morning to see you that day.—When will you come?—There is a talk of my picture of the Eagle and the Lamb going to her Majesty, Sir Walter Waller has been written to on the subject and every thing is in train to lead poor I like a lamb to Windsor Castle!—I am told the picture is a grand one but you, my dear Sir, have not said so! When you come I will show you 13 grouses pretty fairly grouped on one canvas, with seven pheasants with a Fox on another, etc. etc. I have worked hard this month from 4 p.m. untill 7 a.m. [sic] every day—I regretted that your brother did not come to see me—I have a great desire to see you but I cannot at present leave town.—My 8th No. is just out.—The 9th & 10th are engraving.—I have sent word to my son to land [?] & bring some skins for you & perhaps you may have a rare assortment bye and bye.—I hope your Lady and dear Children are all quite well Pray remember me kindly to them.——I wish to name a bird after you in the 1st No. of 1829 & wish you to choose a name.
Believe yours ever and truly obliged
J. J. Audubon
79 Newman Street,
Oxford Street.
By the 9th of August eight pictures had been begun, but none was finished, and the number of his subscribers had fallen to seventy. At about this time Captain Basil Hall[359] returned from his journey through the United States, and brought direct news from Victor Audubon, who was then at Louisville, from Dr. Richard Harlan and Thomas Sully, to all of whom the naturalist's letters had been delivered the previous year. Towards the end of the month Audubon received the following note from the secretary of the Zoölogical Society, N. A. Vigors, who was also anxious to obtain from him an article for his Journal:
Bruter Ct
Aug. 23, 1828.
My dear Sir:—
I hope you do not forget your promise of giving us a paper for the Zoölogical Journal. We should be much gratified by having your name with us: and, if possible, should wish to have whatever you may favour us with within the next ten days. I have been but a few hours in town, and shall leave town again tomorrow for a few days, or I should have called upon you to speak personally upon the subject. I believe I have already mentioned, that we are in the habit of remunerating those of our correspondents who wish for payment for their labours, at a rate not exceeding £10.10.0 per sheet.
A letter from you in answer will reach me, if sent to Bruter Ct: before Wednesday on which day a parcel will be forwarded to me from thence.
Believe me my dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
N: A: Vigors.
[Addressed]
J. J. Audubon Esq.,
69 Great Russell St.;
Bloomsbury.
[Readdressed]
Newman Street,
Oxford Street
Audubon refused this request, saying that "no money can pay for abuse," and this time he did not retract.
Without immediate prospect of seeing his family, for neither Mrs. Audubon nor her sons were enthusiastic over the proposal that they should go to England, the naturalist was momentarily depressed; he turned to Swainson for advice, at the same time suggesting that they visit Paris together. Audubon wrote in his journal for August 16, 1828, that he had invited Swainson to accompany him to France, whither his friend had expressed a desire to go when the subject had been broached at Tyttenhanger; on the 25th of that month he added: "I do not expect much benefit by this trip, but I shall be glad to see what may be done." The letter just referred to follows:
London, Wednesday Augt. 13, 1828.
My dear Mr. Swainson,
I reached my lodging in great comfort by the side of your amiable Docr Davie two hours and a half after we shook hands—I wish I might say as much of my Journey through Life.—I have had sad news from my dear wife this morning, she has positively abandoned her coming to England for some indefinite time, indeed she says that she looks anxiously for the day when tired myself of this country I will return to mine and live although a humbler (Public) Life, a much happier one—her letter has not raised my already despondent spirits in somethings and at the very instant I am writing to you it may perhaps be well that no instrument is at hand with which a woeful sin might be committed—I have laid aside brushes, thoughts of painting and all except the ties of friendship—I am miserable just now and you must excuse so unpleasant a letter—Would you go to Paris with me? I could go with you any day that you would be please to mention, I will remain there as long and no longer than may suit your callings—I will go with you to Rome or anywhere, where something may be done for either of our advantage and to drive off my very great uncomfortableness of thoughts—My two sons are also very much against coming to England, a land they say where neither freedom or simplicity of habits exist and altogether uncongenial to their mode of life.—What am I to do? As a man of the World and a man possessed of strong unprejudiced understanding I wish that you would advise me.—But now on your account I will change the subject—I called on Newman two days ago & to the following enquiries he gave me yesterday the following answers
What the price of
| ½ doz best Pure Lake | dowards [?] | answer | 12/— |
| ½ doz best Carmin | " | " | 20/— |
| ½ doz best UltraMarine | " | " | 84/— |
| ½ doz best Vermillion | " | " | 6/— |
| ½ doz best Terra di Verona | " | " | 4/— |
As I thought the above prices enormous I have declined advising chalks for you & will await your advent.—
Should you not feel inclined to go to France at present which by the bye is the very best season on account of seeing the vintage etc. etc.—please write to me so or come to town which would be still more agreeable & talk the matter over as I think I would persuade you to absent yourself for a month or so—I hope your kind lady continues quite well & your Dear Little ones—
Believe me yours most sincerely
John J. Audubon.
Please write by return of Post—
79 Newman Street
Oxford Street.
On this journey to Paris Audubon was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Swainson and an American artist, named Parker, who had been at work on a portrait of the naturalist in oils. For Audubon it was mainly a canvassing tour; Parker hoped to obtain orders for portraits, and Swainson, new ornithological material at the great museum in the Jardin des Plantes, for a work upon which he was then engaged.[360]
The party set out on the 1st of September, traveling by way of Dover and Boulogne, and reached Paris on Thursday, September 4. They alighted at the Messagerie Royale, Rue des Victoires, and, after looking up lodgings, went at once to the Jardin des Plantes to pay their respects to Cuvier. The Museum of Natural History was closed, but they knocked and asked for the Baron. "He was in," said Audubon, in the journal of his Paris experience,
but, we were told, too busy to be seen. Being determined to look at the great man, we waited, knocked again, and with a certain degree of firmness sent in our names. The messenger returned, bowed, and led the way up stairs, where in a minute Monsieur the Baron, like an excellent good man, came to us; he had heard of my friend Swainson and greeted him as he deserves to be greeted; he was polite and kind to me, though my name had never made its way to his ears. I looked at him, and here follows the result: age about sixty-five; size corpulent, five feet five, English measure; head large; face wrinkled and brownish; eyes gray, brilliant and sparkling; nose aquiline, large and red; mouth large, with good lips; teeth few, blunted by age, excepting one on the lower jaw, measuring nearly three-quarters of an inch square.[361]
They were immediately invited to dine on the following Saturday at six o'clock, and later saw Cuvier at his home, at his Museum, and at the Academy of Sciences, over which he presided.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire pleased Audubon greatly and proved to him by his conversation that he understood perfectly the difference between the French and the English. The Duke of Orleans, who then occupied the Palais Royal, seemed to him the finest physical type of man he had ever met. "He had my book brought up," said the naturalist, "and helped me untie the strings and arrange the table, and began by saying that he felt great pleasure in subscribing to the work of an American, for he had been most kindly received in the United States and should never forget it." When the plate of the Baltimore Orioles was held up to view, the Duke exclaimed: "This surpasses all I have seen, and I am not astonished now at the eulogiums of M. Redouté." He conversed in both English and French, had much to say of American cities and rivers, and added: "You are a great nation, a wonderful nation." The Duke wrote his name in Audubon's subscription book, promised to try to enlist a number of the crowned heads of Europe in his behalf, and gave him besides a number of orders for pictures of animals.
Audubon had already made friends with the veteran painter of flowers, Pierre Joseph Redouté, and when it was proposed that they should exchange works, the "Raphael of Flowers" consented, gave Audubon at once nine numbers of his Belles Fleurs, and promised to send "Les Roses."
During this visit of eight weeks Parker painted portraits of both Cuvier and Redouté; Swainson worked steadily at the Museum, where Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire gave him the use of his private study; while Audubon, for the most part, was driving from post to pillar in his not altogether successful efforts to extend his subscription list. As already intimated, his greatest success in Paris was in winning the friendship and endorsement of Cuvier, who reported upon his work at a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences held on September 22.[362] Audubon has related how on this occasion he had an appointment to meet the Baron in the library of the Institute at precisely half past one o'clock; he waited; the hall filled, and the clock ticked on, but the great savant did not appear. Finally, said Audubon, after an hour had passed, "all at once I heard his voice, and saw him advancing, very warm and apparently fatigued. He met me with many apologies, and said, 'Come with me'; and as we walked along, he explaining all the time why he had been late, while his hand drove a pencil with great rapidity, and he told me that he was actually now writing the report on my work!"[363] Cuvier's published report, which was extremely laudatory, showed little signs of haste. After speaking of Audubon's talents and accomplishments he said:
The execution of these plates, so remarkable for their size, seems to us equally successful in the drawing, the engraving, and coloring, and though it may be difficult to represent relief in a colored print with as much effect as in painting proper, this is no disadvantage in works on natural history; naturalists prefer the true color of objects to those accidental shades which result from the diverse inflections of light; necessary though these be for completing the truth of a picture, they are foreign as well as prejudicial to scientific accuracy.[364]
AUDUBON
AFTER A PORTRAIT IN OILS, HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED, PAINTED ABOUT 1826 W. H. HOLMES FOR WALTER HORTON BENTLEY, OF MANCHESTER, AND IN 1913 IN POSSESSION OF HIS GRANDSON, JOHN CONWAY BENTLEY, FORMERLY OF GLASGOW. IN THE ORIGINAL AUDUBON IS REPRESENTED IN A GREEN COAT, A CRIMSON CLOAK WITH DEEP FUR EDGING THROWN OVER ONE SHOULDER, AND WITH PORTFOLIO IN HAND. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH IN POSSESSION OF MR. RUTHVEN DEANE.
By November Audubon was once more in London, busy at painting to fill his orders and his purse. On the 11th of the month, we find Swainson, whose own exchequer was empty, writing to Audubon for a loan; this letter, and one soon to follow, illustrate some of the characteristics to which we have referred:
Tuesday 11 Nov. 1828.
I had written the enclosed, my dear Mr. Audubon, before your letter of Monday reached me. It has come this instant, Dreams, you know, must always be interpreted contrawise, we might have lifted up our arms, as you saw in your dream but, if you had not awoke, it was no doubt to have shaken hands! But that my regard for you may be evinced, I will bring myself to lay under an obligation, which I would only ask for one of my own family. I was that moment thinking to which I should write, to ask the loan of 80 £ for a few months, and now I will ask it of you. If you was aware of the peculiar feelings which we Englishmen have on such occasions, perhaps you would smile, but so it is that we never ask any one, from whom we have the least idea of a refusal. Now, did I not believe you to be a sincere friend, do you imagine I should have told you I was in want of Money much less have asked you to lend me some. The fact is, I have suffered a severe loss during my being in Paris, what little I had on hand has been spent there and in making preparations for the publication of my Zool. Illustrations. Two or three months however, hard work will bring me round again & repay you.
Let me see your letter to the President of the Zool. Soc. before it goes, and you shall see mine.
I shall be most thankful for the Grouse. I send 2 drawings to Havell to be engraved spur him on for I want to have every thing ready before the new year.
Yours most sincerely,
W. Swainson.
John J. Audubon, Esq.
79 Newman St.
In December the Swainsons invited Audubon to dine with them at Christmas; in his letter Swainson said:
Why are you so sad? I would lay ten shillings that old Havell has been disappointing you as he has done me. He is in matters of business a complete daudle—an old woman, and I have done with him. His son I think better of he has a good idea of punctuality in business.... In one of your walks I hope you have thought about the French Wine that we talked so much about and have ascertained the particulars from your friend, so that we may order a cask. I hope you have not mistaken the price,—for if not, nothing that can be drank in this country is one half as cheap.
In the following letter Swainson refers to the second series of his Zoölogical Illustrations,[365] the sale of which was irritating him, and to N. A. Vigors, with whom he had entered upon a notorious controversy in 1828:
18 January, 1829.
My Dear Mr. Audubon,
I write this in utter uncertainty whether it will find you in London. My first number has now been out three weeks—it has been seen and universally admired, and how many copies do you think the Publisher has sold? now pray guess as the Americans say. 100—no. twentyfive, no. fifteen, no. ten? yes. positively ten copies and no more, has been sold. I blush almost to confess this mortification to even, you, but so it is. Now, my dear Sir, what am I to think of the "generally diffused taste," as the phrase is, for Natural History.
This allthough vexing to me, may be a consolation to you, who are able to exhibit on what I call your Red Book the names of a good portion of 150 subscribers to a 200 guinea Book. Think yourself my friend exceedingly well off.
The amount of sale must be kept silent, it would be a nice nut to crack for V [igors]. & his friends.
I shall be able to do without the water birds, if you have not found any.
I have had a most extraordinary letter from Waterton, which will highly amuse you. The man is mad—stark, staring mad.
Yours very faith'ly
W. Swainson.
Can you tell me any safe expeditions made of sending and receiving letters and Parcels from Philadelphia.
Early in 1829 Bonaparte wrote from Rome, where he had then settled, and the following letter shows that he had then heard of Audubon's visit to France, and was keenly interested in his success:
Rome January 10 th 1829.
Dear Sir,
I received in due time your favours of November 3d. & December 21 st. & now come to thank you for them, wishing you or rather expressing to you at the occasion of the renewal of the year, the warm wishes I constantly have for your health, happiness & especially for the success of your work. From the contents of your letter I clearly perceive that one at least of my letters to you must have miscarried. Nothing could be more interesting to me than the narrative of your journey to France, though I had heard from other quarters the good & well deserved reception you met with. Your letter of August 20 th. never came at hand, & it must have been the same with at least one of mine to you. What you mention about Temminck quite astonishes me! ... I thought he would have undertaken even a journey to see you & your drawings!!! Please let me know when you write whether the Ornithological Illustrations of Jardine, Vigors & Co are stopped or still going on.—The animals I spoke to you of were reported as delivered to you by Mr Gray of the British Museum who had received them for me from the U. States. Is it not so? ... Corvus Cornix with us is very fond of the sea shore & feeds occasionally on fish, but I never observed it had the singular habits of C. ossifragus at least as described by Wilson.
I am surprized at Messrs J B's conduct; I have always found them extremely kind and well disposed towards me; & although we have settled our accounts I had no reason to believe they would refuse our box. However we can do without their interference quite as well, & I hope you have already forwarded the box to Leghorn recommending it to the care of my agent in that port. Messrs F. & A. Filuchs.(?) I shall keep a good lookout for it being extremely anxious to see your new number. I should never have done if I was [to] repeat [to] you all the praise given to your work by our Italian artists & men of science!... I shall merely state that on my part I prefer the plate of Goldfinches to any other, birds and plants, being life itself; & that I am most anxious to see Astur Stanleyi which I strongly suspect to be my Falco Cooperii.... By this time, however you may have been able to ascertain the fact ... please let me know how the thing stands. It is only by your letter that I hear of my work (2 d) being in London: I have not yet seen a copy myself nor did I know positively that it had been published. You must surely have received one from myself at all events, for I directed Messrs Gay & Lea to let you have one of the very first out. Let me know whether you have it & your opinion about it.—I think you are right in going to Russia, especially as in giving them the American Birds you will probably give us the Russians, some of which are hardly known. Try to get for me Pyrrhula longicauda, P. rosea & Scalopax—thalina, the latter especially. I shall not loose sight of the portrait, but it will be still more difficult to get the signature. I will however endeavor from some of my relations. You were right in supposing me "dans les bras de la paix & le bonheur d'un heureux père de famille" but greatly mistaken to think I was taking "le plaisir des sciences". Settling and other cursed worldly affairs have so much taken up my time, that I have not looked a specimen or a book since I am in Rome ... my small library itself & my Cabinet have not even been arranged & I tremble to find all my birds destroyed when the happy day will come to look into them. In the mean time an addition has been made six weeks ago to my small family. I have another son who has received the names of Lucien Louis Joseph Napoleon & better than that who is the porthrait of health itself. I am sure you will divide my happiness & excuse my delay in answering you principally on that account. I am in debt with half the scientific world & this has been the first letter I scratched since I am in Rome!... I hope to be more regular & less in a hurry in future ... though God knows!... I will not however close this letter without mentionaing the pleasure I had the other day in getting you a new subscriber & that among the English themselves.! The Earl of Shrewsbury & his good Lady highly admired your work the other day at my house & were so pleased with it that they said they would write immediately to add their name to the list. The Earl of Shrewsbury is as you know the first Earl of Great Britain a catholic & what is more to you a man of great taste. His not having heard of your work shows that you have not made enough noise about it: & I am sure his name will be followed by a great many others to which Mr. Chapittar (Lord Shrewsb. friend) has promised me to show the work & deliver the prospectuses. Did you hear of the death of poor Mr Barnes killed by a stag (?). It is a great loss for the Queen. I remain, Dear Sir, begging you the London news
your most obliged friend
Charles L. Bonaparte.
[Addressed] Mr. J. J. Audubon
79 Newman Street
Oxford St.
London
Inghilterra.
[Endorsed] Answered Feby. 8 th. 1829.
J. J. A.
Audubon continued to work on his paintings during the winter of 1828-9, hoping to put his affairs in such order that he might be able to start for America in the following year.