I'm listening to NPR right now..this very instant...regarding James Auduban ..the bird guy. We have a couple of the prints in the hallway - not sure if they are worth the paper they are printed on or what we paid for them in the distant past, nor do I think that they are particularly interesting. We have other bird prints by "lesser" artists that are frankly much nicer. Anyway, it seems that Audubon has taken on the persona of the naturalist artist just doing his craft...something of a La Boeheme figure, a male Mimi suffering in silence type.
Actually his life should be made into a movie. Family escaping from the Napoleanic Wars, Quakers, Louisville Kentucky shortly after the Lewis and Clark and the Purchase.....anyway very very interesting and now I'm going to read up on him.
You might want to start here. I'm not a wiki fan but its well written.
Did you know, by the way, that bird watching is a hobby of about 10% of Americans and that some high schools consider bird watching a sport. This is serious business and the fervor is...well...feverish. I'm not kidding. Occasionally some duck lands in our marshland/wetland and it isn't uncommon for the word to go out and 100 or so folks descend within minutes (an hour tops) to the local bridge with long range lens cameras and if you drive by them or attempt to, they turn violent.