Drawn from Nature: Audubon’s North American Mammals

Hawks Pavilion
Works on Paper Gallery H5

The celebrated naturalist John James Audubon traveled widely during the nineteenth century, studying North America’s wildlife. After completing his famous Birds of America, Audubon embarked on an equally ambitious project: The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. Cataloguing every four-legged mammal north of the Tropic of Cancer, Audubon’s lengthy treatise, co-written with the Lutheran minister and naturalist John Bachman, was accompanied by 150 large-format prints that brought their evocative descriptions to life. Squirrels scramble up tree limbs as foxes howl and rats raid the larder. The project effectively reproduced a continent of animals.

Drawn from Nature presents a selection of Audubon’s mammalian prints, showcasing how the naturalist used art to engage in rigorous scholarly debate. Audubon’s images reflect decades of close observation from nature. His careful documentation and exacting drawings constituted a scientific method. Produced alongside his sons, the resulting prints convey the animals’ defining characteristics—from coloring and disposition to habitat and food source.

Pictured: John James Audubon (American, born Haiti, 1785–1851), Victor Gifford Audubon (American, 1809–1860), and John T. Bowen, printer (British, 1801–c. 1856), Virginian Opossum, Plate LXVI from The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, 1845–48, hand-colored lithograph on Imperial folio paper, sheet size: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm), Museum purchase, 2004.19.66