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for Victor Gifford Audubon
American, 1809 - 1860
Victor Audubon, eldest son of John James Audubon and older brother of John Woodhouse Audubon, grew up in Henderson, Kentucky. He early demonstrated a facility in art and showed enough promise to gain admission to the School of the Royal Academy of Art, London. However, he either did not enroll or spent a very brief time there, because his father's became shaky. He soon returned home and began working as a mercantile clerk in Louisville, an occupation he pursued with some success for several years. John James Audubon's fortunes subsequently improved, and he needed his eldest son to oversee the publication of The Birds of America in London. He went there in 1832 and remained abroad until the project was completed, at the end of the decade. As his duties afforded him considerable free time, Victor was able to resume art study, in particular taking landscape-painting lessons from John Wilson. He also traveled extensively in England, Scotland, Wales, and on the Continent.
Returning to America in 1840, Victor settled in New York. He and his brother helped their father prepare The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1848) for publication. While John Woodhouse Audubon seems to have progressed from rendering backgrounds for The Birds of America to executing the central subjects for The Viviparous Quadrupeds, Victor's contribution to the illustrations in the latter volume was the naturalistically accurate details of trees, plants, and general landscape backgrounds. Victor also handled the business aspects of the project.
Victor Audubon exhibited consistently in Academy annuals from 1840 through 1849, most frequently showing landscapes. Several of his submissions bore titles identifying them as European scenes, either dating from his stay abroad in the 1830s or executed from sketches and memory after his return to New York. Grove of Palm Trees, in the Island of Cuba, shown in the annual of 1844, offers the intriguing suggestion he had traveled to the area where his father was born. A number of paintings shown in annuals of this period were catalogued as executed jointly by Victor and John Woodhouse Audubon; all were animal subjects, so the division of labor between the brothers' specialties is clear.
Victor was initially elected an Associate in 1841 but failed to qualify. Given a second chance, he promptly secured his election with this portrait by Huntington. On being elected an Academician he qualified with a landscape painting that was recorded in the 1852 inventory of the Academy's collection but had gone missing by the time the 1911 inventory was published. Victor clearly was a respected and productive member of the Academy. Immediately upon attaining the status of Academician, he was elected to serve on the jury for the annual exhibition of 1848 and had the same assignment for the following year's annual. Also, he served on the Council for the 1848-49 term.
According to his "Inventory," Huntington agreed to paint Victor Audubon's requisite portrait for presentation to the Academy in exchange for a landscape Audubon was to paint for him. Huntington noted "landscape never painted-he did not live long after." In fact, Victor lived some fourteen years more. However, his death in 1860 was described as following a series of painful, paralytic strokes. This detail, combined with the abrupt cessation of his activity within the Academy, suggests he was to some degree incapacitated for the last decade of his life. Since he had been out of touch with the Academy for some years and had died during the summer, it is not surprising that no official notice of his passing was entered into minutes at the annual meeting the following spring. However, Thomas Seir Cummings had not forgotten him: "August 17 [1860]. Died, Victor G. Audubon, Academician, son of the distinguished Ornithologist. He was an artist of much merit-a devotionist to his father's fame and works, which he continued to retouch and publish until his death."
This portrait probably was cut down to its present size from original dimensions of twenty-five by thirty inches.
Returning to America in 1840, Victor settled in New York. He and his brother helped their father prepare The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1848) for publication. While John Woodhouse Audubon seems to have progressed from rendering backgrounds for The Birds of America to executing the central subjects for The Viviparous Quadrupeds, Victor's contribution to the illustrations in the latter volume was the naturalistically accurate details of trees, plants, and general landscape backgrounds. Victor also handled the business aspects of the project.
Victor Audubon exhibited consistently in Academy annuals from 1840 through 1849, most frequently showing landscapes. Several of his submissions bore titles identifying them as European scenes, either dating from his stay abroad in the 1830s or executed from sketches and memory after his return to New York. Grove of Palm Trees, in the Island of Cuba, shown in the annual of 1844, offers the intriguing suggestion he had traveled to the area where his father was born. A number of paintings shown in annuals of this period were catalogued as executed jointly by Victor and John Woodhouse Audubon; all were animal subjects, so the division of labor between the brothers' specialties is clear.
Victor was initially elected an Associate in 1841 but failed to qualify. Given a second chance, he promptly secured his election with this portrait by Huntington. On being elected an Academician he qualified with a landscape painting that was recorded in the 1852 inventory of the Academy's collection but had gone missing by the time the 1911 inventory was published. Victor clearly was a respected and productive member of the Academy. Immediately upon attaining the status of Academician, he was elected to serve on the jury for the annual exhibition of 1848 and had the same assignment for the following year's annual. Also, he served on the Council for the 1848-49 term.
According to his "Inventory," Huntington agreed to paint Victor Audubon's requisite portrait for presentation to the Academy in exchange for a landscape Audubon was to paint for him. Huntington noted "landscape never painted-he did not live long after." In fact, Victor lived some fourteen years more. However, his death in 1860 was described as following a series of painful, paralytic strokes. This detail, combined with the abrupt cessation of his activity within the Academy, suggests he was to some degree incapacitated for the last decade of his life. Since he had been out of touch with the Academy for some years and had died during the summer, it is not surprising that no official notice of his passing was entered into minutes at the annual meeting the following spring. However, Thomas Seir Cummings had not forgotten him: "August 17 [1860]. Died, Victor G. Audubon, Academician, son of the distinguished Ornithologist. He was an artist of much merit-a devotionist to his father's fame and works, which he continued to retouch and publish until his death."
This portrait probably was cut down to its present size from original dimensions of twenty-five by thirty inches.
