178 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



from the first. Access to these apartments was gained 

 from the street by means of a spiral stairway, the open- 

 ing of which may still be seen in the Egyptian Hall. 



It is common to speak of this gifted man as if he 

 alone had stifled all the art of the eighteenth century 

 in France, as if he were the molder of his age and not 

 a part of it. Too often has he been judged on the 

 basis of a few, unfortunately conspicuous, theatrical 

 pieces, while his excellent portraits, of which there are 

 many, entitle him to the gratitude of posterity. 

 Buchanan remarked that the mannerism of David could 

 "still be traced in certain pedantries discernible in 

 Audubon's style of drawing," which is a fancy without 

 any basis in fact. If it could be shown that drawing 

 from the casts of antique statues could develop man- 

 nerisms in the careful delineation of birds and mammals, 

 it would still appear that Audubon's style was really 

 formed at a later period. 



This brief Paris episode, which at most could have 

 lasted but a few months, represented all the formal 

 instruction which Audubon ever .received in drawing, 

 although he enjoyed some private tuition at a much 

 later day. As to the sciences now embraced in biology, 

 that is, zoology and botany, which would have been 

 most useful to him, the score was blank; even books on 

 any of these subjects were rare in America at the be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth century. 



When Audubon first came to the United States, he 

 brought with him all his drawings of French birds, and 

 a few pieces which may belong to this early period have 

 been described. 6 Done in a combination of crayon and 

 water color, they represent a European Magpie, a Coot 



6 See R. W. Shufeldt, in The Auk and the Audubonian Magazine 

 (Bibliography, Nos. 184 and 190). 



