Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-10-15

rdtSonS can be had at very great annual expense Most desirable at least 1t Is, as well for the interest o art as of science, that all the great public bodies and all persons of wealth, who love to enrich their libra ries with works of splendor should provide them- selves with that of Audubon" It will depend, V says Swanson, in the same spirit. on the powerful and the wealthy, whether Britain shall have the honor of fostering such magnificent undertaking. twill be lasting monument, not only to the memory ofits author but to those who employ their wealth in pa
 ronzing genius, and in supporting the national ere dit If any publication deserves such distinction, 1t IS surely this; inasmuch as it exhibits perfection
 in the higher attributes of geological painting, never before attempted. To represent the passions and
 feelings Of birds, might, until now, have been well deemed chmerica Rarely, indeed do we see their outward forms represented with any thing like na- ture' In my estimation, not more Mdn three painters eoer hted, rho conld dra,o bird. Of these, the la. mented Rarahaud of whom France may be iusty proud was the chief He has long passed away but hls mantle has, at length been recovered in the Forests )f America" !"
 Oeneous and eloquent-but in the line printed in
 italics, obscure us an oracle. Barrabaud and Audu- bon are two-why not have told us who is the thirdl Can MiSwanson mean himsey? We have heard as mucl hlnted; ifso we cannot but admire his mo- desty II thus remaining the anonymous hero of his own paegyrc. If not so, then he has done himself great nusce, for he is beautiful bird painter and drawer,as all the world knows though assuredly in genus hr inl lerlor to Audubon Is the third Bewic Fso' why shnn to name 'ihe genius that dwelt nn the banks of the Tyne! ltn0t so Mir Swains0n may live and die assured, in spite of this sentence of ex- cluslon from the trio, that Bewick will in Secuia cscHtoum sit on top ofhe tree of iame on the same branch with the most llustrious, nor is there any lear of its breaking, for it is strong and the compa- ny destined to bestrde it. select
 Audubon speaks modestly of his great work but with the enthusiasm and confidence, natural and be- coming Tn man of such extraordinary genius. We cannot do better than employ, when they come to us, his own words. Not only then, is every object as whole, of the natural size but also every portion of each object The compass aided him m its deli neahon, regulated and corrected each part even to the fort-shortenng. The bill. feet legs and claws the very feathers as they proecton beyond another have been accurately measured. The birds almost all of item, were killed by himself, and were regu- larly drawn on or near the spot. The positions, he observts may, perhaps, in some instances, appear omre; but such supposed exaggeration can afford subjects of criticism only to persons unacquainted wlth tte ieathered tribes; for nothing can be more transient or varied than the attitudes of birds For example, the heron, when warming itself in the sum- will sometimes drop it's wings several inches as if they were dlslocated the swan may often be seen foatngwrh one foot extended from the body; and some pgeons turn quite over when playing in the air. The flowers, plants, or portions of the trees which are attached to the principal objects, have al ways been chosen from amongst those in the vicini- ty o winch the birds were found, and are not as some persons have thought, the trees or plants on which they always feed or perch We may mem tion, loo, that Audubon invented ways of placing birds, dead or alive, before him while he was draw
 ing them, so that he saw them still in the very atti tudes he had admired when they were free in the air or on he bough; and indeed, without such most in- genlous apparatus of wires and threads as he em- ploys, il was not in mortal man to have caught as he has done, and fixed them on paper all the cha racterstic but evanescent varieties of their motion and their repose. His ingenuity is equal to his ge- nius.
 Itmay be useful to mention hele the particulars of the plan of this work The size is double-elephant follo-as Cuvler says, "qu approche des doubles phanches de scription-( Demons de l. Egypt" The paper being of the finest quaity-the engrav- lngs are, in every instance of the exact dimensions of the drawings which, without any exception, re- present the birds, and other objects of their natural slzethe plates are colored in the most careful man. ner from the original drawings-he work appears in numbers ofwhich five are published, annually, each number consisting of five plates, and the price of each number IS two guineas, payable on delivery The first volume, consisting of one hundred plates and representing ninetyone species of birds of many of which there are several figures is now published, accompanied by the volume from which we have gi- ven the above interesting extracts; but which is also sold by itself and cannot fail of finding ready mar ket It is expected that other three volumes equal size, will complete the work and each volume of plates will in like manner with the first be accom- panied with a volume oflet,cr press.
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