From Poverty to Painter

Audubon Paints Portraits and Riverboats

Nov 20, 2006 Mary Trotter Kion

John James Audubon moves to Kentucky but lands in debtors' prison. He travels to Natchez and New Orleans.

Audubon to Debtors' Prison

In 1810, John James Audubon and his family made a move down river to Redbank, now Henderson, Kentucky. However, this relocation did not help. Audubon had many more business failures and was sent to debtors' prison in 1819. The sheriff took everything he could lay his hands upon except Audubon's portfolio of bird drawings. The sheriff considered the drawings worthless.

Audubon the Sidewalk Artist

When Audubon was finally released from jail, he went to work as a sidewalk artist, drawing portraits while customers waited for them. At this time he had no knowledge of painting in oils, only using as a medium water colors and pastels.

While doing these quick portraits his ability developed considerably. Since his wife was working as a teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio, Audubon felt that he could leave his wife for a time to draw all the birds of America, life-size.

Down the Ohio to New Orleans

Beginning his artistic journey, Audubon set off down the Ohio River in a flatboat with a thirteen-year-old boy named Joseph Mason. It was Mason who rendered the floral decorations in most of the first hundred plates of Audubon's published work. Audubon also now began to keep a diary of his personal and ornithological adventures.

In January of 1821, Audubon arrived in New Orleans. He didn't even have enough money to pay for a night's lodging. However, he was soon discovered by a lady of West Feliciana and was hired as tutor to her daughter. He stayed there for five months, returning to New Orleans with much of his finest work completed.

His family joined him by the close of the year. But still living in poverty, he moved to Natchez in 1822, where he taught French, drawing, and dancing. His "delightful personality" won him friends everywhere. In Natchez his wife became a governess on a plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana. In order to support his family, Audubon painted portraits, panels on riverboats, and even street signs.

John James Audubon continues with To Liverpool and the Dakotas by Water: John James Audubon Listens to Bonaparte.

Previous: John James Audubon: Artist and Ornithologist.

The copyright of the article From Poverty to Painter in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish From Poverty to Painter in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.