CHAPTER XII 
EARLY DRAWINGS IN FRANCE AND AMERICA 
Child and man—His ideals, perseverance and progress—Study under David 
at Paris—David’s pupils and studios—David at Nantes arouses the 
enthusiasm of its citizens—His part in the Revolution—His art and 
influence over Audubon—Audubon’s drawings of French birds—Story 
of the Edward Harris collection—The Birds of America in the bud— 
Audubon’s originality, style, methods, and mastery of materials and 
technique—His problem and how he solved it—His artistic defects. 
Audubon began to draw birds and other animals 
when a child, and, like most children, was ready to be- 
lieve that his crude sketches were finished pictures if 
only they possessed some sort of a head, a tail, and sticks 
in place of legs. But, unlike the majority of youth, he 
went direct to nature for his subjects, and his “family 
of cripples” failed to satisfy him long. He gradually 
developed a high ideal, and at an early age felt stirring 
within him the impulse and the power to express it. 
On stated anniversaries his masterpieces, he tells us, 
were burned, in spite of the praise and flattery they had 
evoked; he would then exert all his powers to do better, 
and this commendable practice was kept up for years. 
In this respect the child was father of the man, for 
on the 5th of March, 1822, when Audubon was living 
in New Orleans, too poor to buy even a blank-book for 
a journal, he thus wrote of his work during the pre- 
vious months: “Kvery moment I had to spare I drew 
birds for my ornithology, in which my Lucy and myself 
alone have faith. February was spent in drawing birds 
173 
