CDV By Brady of John-James Audubon

CDV By Brady of John-James Audubon (1785-1851) was a self-taught artist and ornithologist known for his magnificent Birds in America, with its 435 folio engravings. The illegitimate son of a French sea captain, Audubon was born in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) and grew up in France, where he learned to draw local birds. He immigrated to the United States at age 18. He published Birds of America by subscription over an 11-year period, beginning in 1827. About 175 sets of the work were sold in Europe and the United States. In 1840-44 he published a smaller, lower-cost edition of the book in seven volumes, which made his drawings known to the wider public. The image is from an album of mostly Civil War-era portraits by the famous American photographer Matthew Brady (circa 1823-96)