Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 92) Audubon’s birds and words The famed nature painter was inspired by the Feliciana Parishes privations of being a household employee in a home that was not A Summer of Birds explores one season in John James Audubon’s entirely welcoming. life, a few months that were in many ways transformative for the For the once-successful merchant to be a family tutor chafed at iconic artist and naturalist. Danny Heitman, columnist for the Audubon — he managed to work with the family reasonably well, Baton Rouge Advocate, has created a focused work that neatly but Lucretia Pirrie’s temperament and his own were not suited for combines history with intriguing details — the kind of background long-term amity. Nonetheless, as one of the stories that indeed “bring history to life.” large houses in the area, Oakley was a In 1821 Audubon was at a turning point. cultural center in the wooded wilderness, A Summer of Birds: John James The 1819 national economic slump helped and given his “gift for anecdote, his unusual bring about the ruin of his Kentucky mill Audubon at Oakley House occupation, and his keen sense of the and store. But in “a tragic turn of events by Danny Heitman dramatic, Audubon would have been an that was also oddly liberating,” Audubon Louisiana State University Press: eventful visitor to Oakley’s table.” chose to pursue his long-delayed ambition Baton Rouge, 2008 Among the many pleasant surprises in A of becoming a working artist, a dream he’d Summer of Birds, Heitman brings held since childhood. in the work of Robert Penn With his wife looking after their children, Warren, notably his 1957 he became an itinerant poem cycle “Audubon: A painter and tutor, with an Vision,” commenting in a eye to completing his grand passage that parts the curtain project, The Birds in America on Audubon’s sometimes(finally published in 1840). troubled season at Oakley Audubon first came to Louisiana as a portrait artist, but found little work, later writing that New Orleans, “to a man who does not trade in Bonaparte Flycatcher dollars or any other such stuff is a miserable spot.” However, he received at least one commission, a scandalous nude portrait called Fair Incognito —a work whose story continues to be a part of Audubon lore. In New Orleans Audubon met Eliza Pirrie and her mother, Lucretia, who offered him the job of tutoring Eliza at their country home in the Felicianas, just southeast of St. Francisville. Oakley was perfectly sited for Audubon’s work, “luxuriant in bird life,” and a diversity of natural habitats. His work there would eventually comprise almost one-quarter of The Birds in America. Audubon lived in a small room on the ground floor of Oakley, devoting early mornings to exploration, afternoons to Miss Pirrie’s instruction, and nights to painting and writing. Heitman describes the toil required for Audubon’s art, the labor in finding and recording specimens, as well the 92 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2009
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