Jean-Baptiste Audebert
Encyclopedia
Jean Baptiste Audebert was a French
artist
and naturalist
.
Audebert was born at Rochefort
. He studied painting and drawing at Paris
, and gained considerable reputation as a miniature-painter. Employed in preparing plates for the Histoire des cloportes of Guillaume-Antoine Olivier
, he acquired a taste for natural history. His first original work, Histoire naturelle des singes appeared in 1800, illustrated by sixty-two folio plates, drawn and engraved by himself. The coloring in these plates was unusually beautiful, and was applied by a method devised by himself.
His work was also included in the bestselling Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse
.
Audebert died in Paris, leaving complete materials for another work, Histoire des colibris, oiseaux-mouches, jacamars et promerops, which was published in 1802. Two hundred copies were printed in folio, one hundred in large quarto, and fifteen were printed with the whole text in letters of gold. Another work, left unfinished, was also published after the author's death, L'Histoire des grimpereaux et des oiseaux de paradis. The last two works also appeared together in two volumes, Oiseaux dorés, ou à reflets métalliques (1801-1802) written with his friend Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
. In this work he printed lines of gold and silver over the painted colours of the birds to give them a metallic sheen imitating the iridescent colours of nature.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
.
Audebert was born at Rochefort
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...
. He studied painting and drawing at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and gained considerable reputation as a miniature-painter. Employed in preparing plates for the Histoire des cloportes of Guillaume-Antoine Olivier
Guillaume-Antoine Olivier
Guillaume-Antoine Olivier was a French entomologist.He was the author of Entomologie, ou histoire naturelle des Insectes and Le Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman, l'Égypte et la Perse . He was a close friend of Johan Christian Fabricius and a patron of Pierre André Latreille.-References:...
, he acquired a taste for natural history. His first original work, Histoire naturelle des singes appeared in 1800, illustrated by sixty-two folio plates, drawn and engraved by himself. The coloring in these plates was unusually beautiful, and was applied by a method devised by himself.
His work was also included in the bestselling Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse
Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse
Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse is a book , issued in 1800, that gives an account of the 1791-1793 d'Entrecasteaux expedition to Australasia. The title refers to the search for La Pérouse, who disappeared in the region in 1788, a popular, though unsuccessful, object of the mission...
.
Audebert died in Paris, leaving complete materials for another work, Histoire des colibris, oiseaux-mouches, jacamars et promerops, which was published in 1802. Two hundred copies were printed in folio, one hundred in large quarto, and fifteen were printed with the whole text in letters of gold. Another work, left unfinished, was also published after the author's death, L'Histoire des grimpereaux et des oiseaux de paradis. The last two works also appeared together in two volumes, Oiseaux dorés, ou à reflets métalliques (1801-1802) written with his friend Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was a French ornithologist.Vieillot described a large number of birds for the first time, especially those he encountered during the time he spent in the West Indies and North America, and 26 genera established by him are still in use...
. In this work he printed lines of gold and silver over the painted colours of the birds to give them a metallic sheen imitating the iridescent colours of nature.