John James Audubon

John James Audubon’s renowned book, Birds of America, made headlines recently as the world’s most expensive book, fetching over $10 million in auction. What makes this book so valuable?

For one, the 435 life-size prints of American birds and wildlife characterized in Audubon’s Birds of America surpass any of the paintings by the earlier ornithologist, Alexander Wilson and his nine-volume American Ornithology, of which only 268 species of birds are illustrated. Audubon’s depictions lack no detail and stray far from the stiff creations portrayed in Wilson’s work. He not only focuses his attention on birds and animals, but to the surrounding plant-life and environment in which they inhabited. The landscape and foliage are detailed, creating a natural scene and capturing his subjects in natural poses as how they appeared in the wild. Other factors contributing to the value, other than the style and beauty of the depictions, include his character, technique and the trends of the period.





Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785 to a French sea captain and his French mistress, but was raised in France by his father and stepmother where his interests lay in exploring the outdoors, hunting and fishing. When he turned 18, he moved to the United States and settled at their family estate near Philadelphia, called Mill Grove. There, he studied and drew birds, hunted and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell.

Misfortune struck nearly a decade later. His once-successful business of selling dry-goods took a turn for the worse and hard times ensued. Lacking a stable income and having been jailed briefly for bankruptcy, Audubon turned his hobby of bird-drawing into a serious project. Armed with only a gun, art materials and a young assistant, Audubon traveled down the Mississippi , living a rugged, hand-to-mouth existence, with the goal to paint all the birds of North America for future publication. By 1820, while Lucy supported the family by teaching, Audubon continued to work on Birds of America and extended his travel to Alabama and Florida. In 1826, he sailed to England with his partly finished collection and became an overnight success. His life-size paintings and glorified tales of the American wilderness earned him the title “The American Woodsman” and instantly gave him credit for publication.





For all his luck with money, Audubon was an ambitious character and naturalist. In the end, those qualities aided him greatly, enabling him to triumph over adversity and perform the tedious task of putting such a vast collection together. His experiences in the wilderness and his exquisite paintings collectively gave Audubon a name and instantly made his Birds of America a work of value.

His techniques in creating such realistic renderings of wildlife are also worth noting. On Audubon’s second trip into the wilderness, when visiting Alabama and Florida, he brought with him George Lehman, a professional Swiss landscape artist, to create some of the backgrounds and hired hunters to gather specimens for him. Rather than simply stuffing the specimens, Audubon would use wire to pose them in natural positions, often displaying them in action as if flying or feeding. Larger birds and animals would take hours for him to prepare and study before painting them. He would illustrate them in their natural habitats, ensuring an accurate adaptation of them through his personal observations.





Due to his own posing method, Audubon was able to create natural-looking models and therefore, paint natural-looking illustrations; different from the stiff, flat images that Wilson exhibited. Although, some claim his poses to be quite theatrical, Audubon argued that it was an artistic choice, allowing him to showcase specific lines and curves otherwise unnoticed. His paintings were elaborate and consisted of mainly of watercolor and pastel. When they went for print, the process was quite laborious, with colorists having to apply each color individually in an assembly-line fashion to ensure an impressive reproduction similar to the original. Costs were high; however the end result was well worth it. The last print was issued in 1838, making any original copy of the book a valuable piece.

The time period at which Audubon’s book was released also affected the value. At that time there was a great popular interest in science and the marvels of nature. The United States was still a mystery to Europeans and any story recounting the aspects of the American wilderness piqued interest. An insight into such a strange place was something that Audubon’s Birds of America was able to provide for those curious. With the fame of the book, he became known as a “man of science” and the leading naturalist of America.





Despite the book itself, Audubon’s initiative and personal achievement to complete such a collection, not to mention his technique and skill as an artist, and the 14 years and expense that it took to complete the process from the first painting to printing, have all contributed in determining the worth of Birds of America.







Works Cited:
http://www.audubon.org/john-james-audubon
http://www.audubonhouse.org/audubon/jja.cfm
http://www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Audubon-John-James.html
Tyler, Ron. Visions of America: Pioneer Artists in a New Land, New York, 1983.


Researched and written by Shanna Seiberlich


MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser: Farhad Radfar, ISA AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc., is located just steps from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center; please do give us a ring to set up an appointment for a verbal evaluation of your most prized works of art.

Le Cirque de Calder

Chicago is no stranger to the work of Alexander Calder; his 50-ton, red abstract stabile entitled Flamingo graces Chicago’s Federal Square. He was not only an abstract painter and sculptor, but infamous for designing the ‘mobile’.

The foundation of his creativity and dangling artworks of wire can be attributed to his background in mechanical engineering. Calder first studied engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. After graduating in 1919 and working several odd jobs, he finally moved to New York in 1923 and enrolled at the Arts Students League. Thus, his career as an artist emerged.



Calder's Flamingo in Chicago's Federal Plaza


The body of work that propelled him into such a success was a miniature circus that he designed called the Le Cirque de Calder, in Paris in 1927. Calder took interest in the circus in his mid-twenties after he took an assignment with the New York Journal to publish a series of illustrations of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus. Upon moving to Paris in 1926, Calder’s fascination with circus life grew and his inspiration to replicate the show became a work in progress. During his studies at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, he constructed his first figure out of wire, wood and cloth and in the spring 1927, had completed an entire miniature circus, ring and all.



Complex and unique, this body of work consists of performers, animals and props fashioned out of wire, cloth, leather and other materials. The Cirque Calder was manually operated by Calder, who manipulated the wire figurines into performing typical, death-defying acts found in real circuses. His first performance was held in Paris at his studio and attended by his peers and friends. With his wife working the gramophone, Calder amazed his audience with his ingenious mechanical devices and manipulation of the tiny, wire performers displayed as lion tamers, cowboys and acrobats. Figures walking the tightrope, getting shot out of a cannon, leaping and engaging in acrobatics in the ring were highlights of the elaborate, 2-hour show.




Calder’s rendering of the circus became a huge success and he presented Le Cirque de Calder all over Paris and in New York. He continued to give performances well into the 1930s. Today, the circus is housed at the Whitney Museum in New York and continues to draw an audience. Over the years, at least two films have been created, documenting Calder’s performances. The more popular of the two is the 1961 film by Carlos Vilardebo entitled Calder’s Circus, which showcases Calder as the “Ringmaster” animating his toy-like figurines within the ring.

Until his death in 1976, Calder went on to have many more successful and artistically productive decades, exhibiting his works at such museums and galleries as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Third International Exhibition of Sculpture. Working with wire for Le Cirque inspired Calder’s later projects, and his creations and sculptures became bigger and more unique. In the 1930s, he not only became renowned for inventing the mobile, but discovered a talent for creating large, outdoor sculptures, experimenting with wood and sheet metal. Although his mobiles launched a new art form and his sculptures are timeless, the most memorable and inspirational body of work produced by Calder remains to be Le Cirque de Calder.




Works Cited
http://www.answers.com/topic/alexander-calder
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/alexander-calder/about-the-artist/78/
http://www.calder.org/home
http://rogallery.com/Calder_Alexander/calder-biography.htm


Written and researched by Shanna Seiberlich.

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser: Farhad Radfar, ISA AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc., is located just steps from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center; please do give us a ring to set up an appointment for a verbal evaluation of your most prized works of art.

Carl Krafft

Carl Rudolph Krafft was an important American painter throughout the early 20th century. He belonged to a group of artists called the Ozark Painters, whose work focused on the Ozark Mountains. Born August 23, 1884 in Reading, Ohio, the son of a traveling Lutheran pastor, his family moved and settled on the south side of Chicago in 1890. He remained in the Chicago area for the rest of his life; moving in 1926 to Oak Park, a western suburb that was the center of much Prairie architecture and the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway. He was a popular and influential painter up to his death on October 18, 1938.




Despite being scolded by his teachers for drawing in his textbooks, Krafft was encouraged to pursue art from a young age. However, religion was a significant part of his upbringing and he initially began studies in the seminary before taking nightly art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was not only an incredible artist, but a talented organist and considered studying music also. Krafft was not the first of his family to take an interest in the arts. His ancestor, Adam Krafft (c.1460 – 1509), was a master sculptor in Germany whose self-portrait is pictured to the left. He is featured below the sacramental shrine to Saint Lorenz in Saint Lorenz Church in Nuemburg, Germany.

It wasn’t until Krafft visited relatives in Missouri that he became enamored with the beautiful Ozark Mountains. A lifelong love for painting the region ensued. He traveled annually to the mountains
to paint the transition from fall to winter, capturing the beautiful colors of the changing seasons. The painting pictured below is owned by Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, just a few short blocks from the Oak Park Art League, which he founded in 1921.

After the stock market crashed in 1929, copies and fakes of Krafft’s original paintings were being circulated. To combat the forgery of his signature and the sale of these paintings under his name, he began marking his paintings with his thumbprint, along with his signature. Below are two images of Krafft’s earlier work. Although his use of rich color mirrors his later pieces, his signature lacks a thumbprint, indicating that they are indeed earlier paintings.


















Krafft enjoyed painting the transition between winter and fall in Ozarks. The cool, blue palette of the distant snow topped mountains showcases this lovely transition and captures the peaceful mood of the scene. The use of the color yellow highlights the tranquility of early morning in the wilderness. In contrast to that painting, the one to the right depicts an earlier fall landscape and features vibrant, autumn hues, creating a sense of warmth and comfort. Krafft’s colorful palette compliments his adaptation of the seasons, both of which were painted in the same area.

Krafft’s talent in the arts would prove to be a secure source of living. As the demand for artists rose, he left his job as a commercial designer to focus solely on his artwork. Throughout his career as a painter he also turned to teaching, and was the founder and president of many art leagues and schools including The Municipal Art League, the Society of Painters of the Forest Preserve, the Society of Ozark Painters, and the Oak Park Art League, which is still active today. He also had the honor of exhibiting his works nationally at such venues as The Art Institute of Chicago, the St. Louis Museum, The John Herron Museum in Indianapolis, the National Academy of Design, Grand Central Art Galleries, and at the Allied Artists of America where he was awarded a gold medal in 1926.

Today, Krafft’s work is still displayed in museums and private collections across the country. His works not only represent the beauty of the Ozark Mountains, but also the group of regionalist painters who devoted their energies to capturing the beauty and quiet spirit of the American Midwest landscape.



Works Cited
http://www.krafft.us/An_Artists_Life/contents.html
http://opal-art.com/historical/krafffall.htm
http://thisoldpalette.blogspot.com/2010/08/carl-krafft.html
http://www.rhlovegalleries.com/site/epage/19599_472.htm


Written and researched by Rachel Swain.

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser: Farhad Radfar, ISA AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc., is located just steps from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center; please do give us a ring to set up an appointment for a verbal evaluation of your most prized works of art.