Description

The first (upper left) was engraved by Charles Wands in Edinburgh. It was commissioned by W.H. Lizars in 1826, based on the oil portrait by John Syme of the same year, also sponsored by Lizars. Audubon was 41 years old at the time. Syme’s painting is now in the art collection of the White House.

Both the painting and the print were to serve as publicity for Audubon’s The Birds of America, which Lizars planned to publish in Edinburgh. Audubon soon replaced Lizars as his engraver and publisher with London-based Robert Havell, Jr. Consequently, Lizars had no use for the print and did not publish it until seven years later. Then he allowed it to be used at the beginning of The Miscellany of Natural History, Volume I, Parrots, written by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder and Captain Thomas Brown, published by Fraser & Co, Edinburgh, Smith, Elder & Co, London and W. F. Wakeman, Dublin. This book was illustrated by Joseph Bartholomew Kidd, a collaborator of Audubon’s.

Of the oil portrait Audubon wrote on November 27, 1826: “At twelve I went to stand up for my picture, and sick enough I was of it by two; at the request of Mr. Lizars I wear my wolf-skin coat, and if the head is not a strong likeness, perhaps the coat may be.” Audubon was especially displeased with how Syme had depicted his eyes: “more those of an enraged eagle than mine.” As you can see, this quality carries over to the engraving. In writing to his son, Victor, seven years later, Audubon noted of the engraving: “I am glad to hear of Kidd and Co.’s publication of Parrots, but I regret that my face should have been there from Syme’s picture, which in my estimation is none of the best.”