338 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
Dr. Mitchell, who was the father and first president 
of the Lyceum of Natural History, had been a friend 
of young Audubon when he was clerking in New York 
in 1807.*° His recommendation was accepted, and the 
naturalist was enrolled on the Lyceum’s list of mem- 
bers; to justify his election, two papers, representing 
his first contribution to ornithology, were presented to 
the Society, and appeared in its Annals of that year."* 
Audubon visited the Lyceum with Dr. DeKay and ex- 
hibited his drawings, but said that he felt awkward and 
uncomfortable. On August 3 he called on John Van- 
derlyn, the artist, examined his pictures, and ‘“‘saw the 
medal given him by Napoleon, but was not impressed 
with the idea that he was a great painter.’ Upon 
meeting Vanderlyn again a little later, he was asked to 
sit for a portrait of Andrew Jackson; his journal entry 
regarding the incident was as follows: *° 
August 10. My spirits low, and I long for the woods again ; 
but the prospect of becoming better known prompts me to 
remain another day. Met the artist Vanderlyn, who asked me 
to give him a sitting for a portrait of General Jackson, since 
my figure considerably resembled that of the General, more than 
any he had ever seen. I likewise sketched my landlady and 
child, and filled my time. 
The context shows that the sitting was given, and 
as Mr. Stanley C. Arthur remarks, Vanderlyn’s por- 
trait, which now hangs in the City Hall in New York, 
shows “Old Hickory” from the shoulders up, but from 
the shoulders down it is John James Audubon. 
On the 14th Audubon wrote cheerfully to Sully: 
*% See Chapter XI. 
“See Bibliography, Nos. 15 and 16. 
* See Lucy Audubon, ed., Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist 
(Bibl. No. 73), p. 107. 
