Johannes Vermeer, 1632 –  1675, was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic paintings. He was a moderately successful painter in his lifetime, but he was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death. Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes. Most of his paintings were apparently set in two small rooms in his house in Delft.  You can see that his pictures have the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they usually focus on women.

Vermeer produced fewer than 50 paintings in his lifetime (34 have survived). Only three Vermeer paintings are dated: The Procuress (1656; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden); The Astronomer (1668; Musée du Louvre, Paris); and The Geographer (1669; Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt).

The Astronomer 1668

Jan Vermeer was recognized during his lifetime in his immediate cities of Delft and The Hague, but his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting (Grand Theatre of Dutch Painters and Women Artists) and was completely omitted from subsequent surveys of Dutch art for the next two centuries. In the 19th century, Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 pictures to him, although only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today. Since that time, Vermeer's reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

The Little Street in Delft 1657-1661

One aspect of his meticulous painting technique was Vermeer's choice of pigments. He is best known for his frequent use of the very expensive ultramarine, as in the Milkmaid, and lead-tin-yellow, as in a Lady Writing a Letter, madder lake, as in Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, and vermilion. He also painted with ochres, bone black and azurite. The claim that he utilized Indian yellow in Woman Holding a Balance, has been disproven by later pigment analysis.

Lady standing at the Virginal 1670-1674

Vermeer's works were largely overlooked by art historians for two centuries after his death. A select number of connoisseurs in the Netherlands did appreciate his work, yet even so, many of his works were attributed to better-known artists such as Metsu or Mieris. The Delft master's modern rediscovery began about 1860, when German museum director Gustav Waagen saw The Art of Painting in the Czernin gallery in Vienna and recognized the work as a Vermeer, but it was attributed to Pieter de Hooch at that time. Research by Théophile Thoré-Bürger culminated in the publication of his catalogue raisonné of Vermeer's works in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1866.   Thoré-Bürger's catalogue drew international attention to Vermeer and listed more than 70 works by him, including many that he regarded as uncertain. The accepted number of surviving Vermeer paintings today is 34.

Girl with the wine glass detail 1659-1662

Vermeer's painting techniques have long been a source of debate, given their almost photorealistic attention to detail, despite Vermeer's having had no formal training, and despite only limited evidence that Vermeer had created any preparatory sketches or traces for his paintings.

In 2001, British artist David Hockney published the book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, in which he argued that Vermeer (among other Renaissance and Baroque artists including Hans Holbein and Diego Velázquez) used optics to achieve precise positioning in their compositions, and specifically some combination of curved mirrors, camera obscura, and camera lucida. This became known as the Hockney–Falco thesis, named after Hockney and Charles M. Falco, another proponent of the theory. Professor Philip Steadman published the book Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth behind the Masterpieces in 2001 which specifically claimed that Vermeer had used a camera obscura to create his paintings. Steadman noted that many of Vermeer's paintings had been painted in the same room, and he found six of his paintings that are precisely the right size if they had been painted from inside a camera obscura in the room's back wall.

Supporters of these theories have pointed to evidence in some of Vermeer's paintings, such as the often-discussed sparkling pearly highlights in Vermeer's paintings, which they argue are the result of the primitive lens of a camera obscura producing halation. It was also postulated that a camera obscura was the mechanical cause of the "exaggerated" perspective seen in The Music Lesson (London, Royal Collection).

 In 2008, American entrepreneur and inventor Tim Jenison developed the theory that Vermeer had used a camera obscura along with a "comparator mirror", which is similar in concept to a camera lucida but much simpler and makes it easy to match color values. He later modified the theory to simply involve a concave mirror and a comparator mirror. He spent the next five years testing his theory by attempting to re-create The Music Lesson himself using these tools, a process captured in the 2013 documentary film Tim's Vermeer.

 Several points were brought out by Jenison in support of this technique: First was Vermeer's hyper-accurate rendition of light falloff along the wall (human eyes cannot detect such slight differences in light

The Lacemaker 1669-1671

Upon the rediscovery of Vermeer's work, several prominent Dutch artists modelled their style on his work, including Simon Duiker. Other artists who were inspired by Vermeer include Danish painter Wilhelm Hammershoi and American Thomas Wilmer Dewing.  In the 20th century, Vermeer's admirers included Salvador Dalí, who painted his own version of The Lacemaker (on commission from collector Robert Lehman) and pitted large copies of the original against a rhinoceros in some surrealist experiments. Dali also immortalized the Dutch Master in The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table, 1934.

Salvador Dali’s The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table, 1934

No window, no letter, no musical instruments, not even a pearl earring: young woman in a pink dress is not what most people think of as a painting by the 17th century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, but newly authenticated as his earliest surviving work it is coming up for auction estimated at up to £8m.

Saint Praxedis 1665

Although the painting is signed and dated, experts have been arguing about the painting of Saint Praxedis for decades, since it was first suggested that it was a genuine early work by the artist, painted when he was 23, newly converted to Catholicism and heavily influenced by Italian art.

In summation Art Historian Caroline Elbaor summed up Johannes Vermeer, the mecutrial artis perfectly:  In an article published in ARTNET NEWS on October 31, 2016  writer Caroline Elbaor, wrote:

The Procuress (detail of a self portrait?) Johannes Vermeer 1656

“For centuries, the painter was a mysterious figure in art history, with very little known about his personal life, thus earning him the nickname “The Sphinx of Delft.”

Here, we’ve sleuthed around and gathered up six facts about Vermeer to shed more light on the once overlooked painter.

1.) His artistic achievements went largely unnoticed throughout his life and in the centuries that followed. Though Vermeer now holds his place in history books as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age, he wasn’t always so admired. Until the 19th century, he enjoyed little-to-no success as an artist, and many of his pieces were credited as the work of other Dutch artists, including Metsu and Mieris. It was only after the publication of Théophile Thoré-Bürger’s catalogue raisonné of Vermeer’s works in 1866—resulting in rapid attention and exposure—that his work gained renown for its lifelike depictions of middle-class life, set in photo-realistic interiors of homes.

2.) The Dutch Master had no formal training, suggesting he was self-taught. Because evidence and details surrounding his life are still minimal, where and under whom—if anybody—Vermeer apprenticed remains a mystery. Naturally, theories about his influences abound, but the general consensus, first posited by American art historian Walter Liedtke, is that Vermeer was a self-taught man.

3.) There are only 36 authenticated paintings by Vermeer in the world. Vermeer was an intensely methodical painter, working carefully and with great attention to detail. Therefore, the artist’s output was limited; at present, he only has 36 canvases to his name. Moreover, Vermeer signed none of his works, and he dated only three (The Procuress, 1656; The Geographer, 1668–1669; and The Astronomer, 1668), thus challenging scholars who attempt to authenticate a work. To add to the confusion, experts are reluctant to declare a painting a Vermeer due to his far-reaching influence on other painters, as well as the threat of fakes.

4.) In the late 1930s and early ’40s, a copycat artist forged and sold works he marketed as newly discovered Vermeer’s. From 1938 to 1945, Han van Meegeren created paintings he passed off as original Vermeer’s, fooling experts and collectors alike, in a move that earned him what would be roughly $30 million today. It was only after World War II that a strange turn of events revealed van Meegeren’s forgeries. Having sold a painting to the prominent Nazi deputy Hermann Goering, van Meegeren defended himself against accusations of collaborating with the Nazis by revealing that he had dealt Goering a fake. As such, van Meegeren then proceeded to call himself a hero for having “hoodwinked” the enemy. He was nevertheless convicted of fraud and sentenced to a year in prison.

5.) In 1971, Vermeer’s Love Letter was stolen from the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels in an ill-devised heist. On September 23, 1971, a twenty-one-year-old man named Mario Roymans broke into the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels and stole Love Letter, which was on loan from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum as part of the Rembrandt and his Age exhibition. The painting was severely damaged due to the thief’s recklessness during the two weeks in which it was missing. When Roymans discovered that Love Letter was too big to fit through the window he planned to abscond through, he removed it from the frame with a potato peeler and stuffed the canvas in his back pocket. He later buried it in the forest where it sustained water damage, and hid it under his mattress, where it was crushed. After Love Letter was recovered, an international committee of Vermeer experts was convened to restore the painting.”

The Girl with the Pearl Earring 1665-1667

Not Just rediscovered by the Art World……

As Vermeer’s fortunes changed, with respect to the art world so too did they gain public recognition and popularity.

Vermeer’s The Girl with the pearl earring experienced a surge in popularity towards the end of the 20th Century. The turning point was an international Vermeer exhibition that opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1995. The Girl was chosen as the image for the accompanying poster – and her celebrity status was assured. In Tracy Chevalier published in 1999 a novel titled The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

  Chevalier wrote:

“She makes the perfect poster,” “The colors, the light, the simplicity of the image, that direct gaze: a lot of Vermeer’s paintings are people not looking at us, in their own world, but she draws us in. In that way she’s very modern. When you think about the Mona Lisa, she is also looking at us, but she isn’t engaging – she’s sitting back in the painting, self-contained. Whereas Girl with a Pearl Earring is right there – there is nothing between her and us. She has this magical quality of being incredibly open and yet mysterious at the same time – and that is what makes her so appealing.”

Be Sure to browse our Counted Cross Stitch or Counted Needlepoint Patterns Inspired by Vermeer's work!

Princess with a Pearl Earring!

 Kate Middleton Comes Face-to-Face with Iconic Dutch Painting 2016

For Further Exploration:

https://www.vermeer-foundation.org/biography.html

https://www.vermeer-foundation.org/the-complete-works.html-THE MET

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/verm/hd_verm.htm-TimsVErmeer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim%27s_Vermeer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEior-0inxU- A fantastic 2001 documentary, with a huge chunk exploring Vermeer's composition methods and techniques. Narrated by Meryl Streep

The Virgin and the Unicorn by Domenico Zampieri, known as Domenichino c 1602

The Virgin and the Unicorn by Domenico Zampieri, known as Domenichino c 1602

The unicorn (from Latin unus "one" and cornu "horn", also called monoceros by the Greek) is a mythological creature. Though the modern popular image of the unicorn is sometimes that of a horse differing only in the single spiral horn on the middle of its forehead, the traditional unicorn also has a beard of a buck, a tail of a lion, and cloven hooves — these distinguish it from a horse. The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means, and his single horn was said to neutralize poison.

Portrait of a Young woman with an unicorn by Raphael

Unicorns have been an intriguing animal throughout history. While the actual existence of these creatures is thought to be mythical, people still believe in the fable of unicorns. Historians and storytellers have looked at other mammals, such as the giraffe and the ostrich, as proof that unicorns could perhaps have existed. People are happy to endorse the myth and lore of the unicorn as having existed at some point in time. The ancient Asians believed that unicorns were a sign of good luck that only made revealed to humans in rare cases. It was thought that the appearance of unicorns is a good omen. In medieval times, the unicorn became a symbol of Christianity. The popular belief was that a unicorn could never be lured or tamed, except by the scent of a pure virgin.

The Lady and the Unicorn (French: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to the series of six tapestries woven in Flanders from wool and silk.  The set, on display in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (former Musée de Cluny) in Paris, is often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe.

 “A living drollery: now I will believe That there are unicorns...”

~William Shakespeare, The Tempest, c.1611

The Lady and the Unicorn  Tapestry  Desire.. À Mon Seul Désir

No group of medieval tapestry is more mysterious than the Lady and the Unicorn series which is currently on display at Cluny Museum in Paris France. The facts of its creation are unknown. We know nothing known about the origins of the original tapestry set. There are many different theories about these tapestries but historians have not been able to agree on their origins.

Each of the six artistic master pieces offers a scene of a unicorn with a woman. In medieval times, a unicorn was often thought of as a representation of Christ. The horn was thought to be a symbol of the unity between Christ and God. In each of the six Lady and The Unicorn Tapestries the unicorns represent the human senses. These are defined as sight, smell, touch, sound, taste and love.

Medieval Ages Museum Cluny Museum in Paris France

Five of the tapestries are commonly referred to as the five senses – taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch. The sixth displays the words "À mon seul désir". The tapestry's meaning is obscure, but has been interpreted as representing love or understanding. Each of the six tapestries depicts a noble lady with the unicorn on her left and a lion on her right; some include a monkey in the scene. The pennants, as well as the armor of the Unicorn and Lion in the tapestry bear the Coat of Arms of Jean Le Viste, who was a powerful nobleman in the court of King Charles VII.   The tapestries are created in the style of mille-fleurs (meaning: "thousand flowers").

The first historical mention of the tapestry occurs in 1814 in a description of the château de Boussac, in the Creuse department in central France, but it was not until 1841 that Prosper Mérimée, a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist and writer, best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis for the opera by Bizet, discovered the tapestry. The tapestries in 1841 at Château de Boussac in France, where they had serious damage resulting from improper storage conditions. In 1844 the novelist George Sand saw them and brought public attention to the tapestries in her works at the time (most notably in her novel Jeanne), in which using the Ladies Dresses, correctly dated them to the end of the fifteenth century.  In 1863, The Tapestries were brought to the Thermes de Cluny in Paris where after careful conservation has restored them nearly to their former glory.

The Lady and The Unicorn Tapestries on display at the Cluny Museum in Paris France

The red background of each tapestry is dotted with a rich variety of flowering plants and features pine, orange sessile oak and holly trees, the repeated motif of a coat of arms of three white crescents on a blue background, and animals including numerous rabbits, monkeys and birds.

Some historians believe that in five of the six panels, the mysterious lady with the unicorn is Mary Tudor, third wife of Louis XII and sister of Henry VIII, who was Queen of France from August 1514 to 1 January 1515.

The Tapestries are:

Touch

The lady stands with one hand touching the unicorn's horn, and the other holding up the pennant. The lion sits to the side and looks on.

Taste

The lady is taking sweets from a dish held by a maidservant. Her eyes are on a parakeet on her upheld left hand. The lion and the unicorn are both standing on their hind legs reaching up to pennants that frame the lady on either side. The monkey is at her feet, eating one of the sweetmeats.

Smell

The lady stands, making a wreath of flowers. Her maidservant holds a basket of flowers within her easy reach. Again, the lion and unicorn frame the lady while holding on to the pennants. The monkey has stolen a flower which he is smelling, providing the key to the allegory.

The Lady and The Unicorn Tapestries on display at the Cluny Museum in Paris France

Hearing

The lady plays a portative organ on top of a table covered with an Oriental rug. Her maidservant stands to the opposite side and operates the bellows. The lion and unicorn once again frame the scene holding up the pennants. Just as on all the other tapestries, the unicorn is to the lady's left and the lion to her right - a common denominator to all the tapestries.

Sight

The lady is seated, holding a mirror up in her right hand. The unicorn kneels on the ground, with his front legs in the lady's lap, from which he gazes at his reflection in the mirror. The lion on the left holds up a pennant.

À Mon Seul Désir

This tapestry is wider than the others, and has a somewhat different style. The lady stands in front of a tent, across the top of which is written "À Mon Seul Désir", an obscure motto, variously interpretable as "my one/sole desire", "according to my desire alone"; "by my will alone", "love desires only beauty of soul", "to calm passion". Her maidservant stands to the right, holding open a chest. The lady is placing the necklace she wears in the other tapestries into the chest. To her left is a low bench with a dog sitting on a decorative pillow. It is the only tapestry in which she is seen to smile. The unicorn and the lion stand in their normal spots framing the lady while holding onto the pennants.

The Lady and The Unicorn Tapestries on display at the Cluny Museum in Paris France

In 2017 the tapestries, once again can be seen in all their vibrancy and detail after a major cleaning and restoration. Two years ago, in 2015, the tapestries were taken down from display at the Musée National du Moyen Age in Paris, where they had been since 1882. Time and decades of dust had taken their toll on the colors, and the lining from which the tapestry was hung was deforming its shape and designs. Over the following months, a team of five restorers removed and replaced the linings and cleared the dust using a form of micro vacuum cleaner. Finally, all six of the panels were rehung in a newly designed room at the museum. "The tapestry has really come to life again," Audrey Defretin, a spokeswoman for the museum stated. "Already the panels were exceptional and emblematic because of their famous history and the mystery of their meaning, but now they have been cleaned and rehung we have some idea of how they might have looked in the Middle Ages. They are really extraordinary."

The tapestries have inspired novels and songs, been featured in Harry Potter movies and puzzled historians for the best part of 500 years. The Lady and the Unicorn, regarded as the Mona Lisa of woven artworks, is one of the greatest surviving artefacts of its kind from the Middle Ages.

Album Cover For John Renbourn

The Lady and the Unicorn was the title of a 1970 album by folk guitarist John Renbourn and shows the A mon seul désir panel on its cover. The tapestry is also depicted in the 2003 Tracy Chevalier Novel The Lady and the Unicorn, and several of the panels can be seen hanging on the walls of Harry Potter's Gryffindor house common room in the blockbuster films.

Lady with Unicorn by Luca Longhi 16^th Century

Be Sure to Check out our Orenco Originals Counted Needlepoint and Counted Cross Stitch Patterns Inspired by these tapestries!

TTThe Nimble Nicks Santa’s Colorful Cute and Happy Helpers!

The Nimble Nicks Santa’s Colorful Cute and Happy Helpers!

I have always loved the Nimble Nicks characters.  As I started to research them I realized having been raised in Massachusetts of course I would have an interest in characters that were born-created in Worcester Massachusetts. There is not a lot of information about the history of the Nimble Nicks but the article written by Roy Nunn and published in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper in December of 2004 provides great insight into these cute Santa’s helpers.

 Interior view of George C. Whitney Company with workers, c. 1888. Photograph from the collections of Worcester Historical Museum.

Here is Roy Nuhn’s article:

The publishing company founded by Civil War veteran George Whitney in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, has long been dear to the hearts of collectors everywhere because of its beautiful 19th-century valentines. But Whitney has also gained much admiration and respect for having made the Yuletide, in the years before World War I, a happier, more colorful holiday. Beginning at the turn of the century and continuing up to about 1920, the Whitney Company manufactured huge numbers greeting cards, children's books, souvenir postcards, paper toys and novelties of every description for Christmas. They were also involved with other holidays, including Halloween, Easter, valentine's Day, etc. But Christmas was the big selling season, just as it was - and still is - for most publishers.

In the process of creating and marketing this huge output of merchandise for the nation's five-and-dimes, department stores, variety shops, and other retail outlets, Whitney introduced a line of Nimble Nicks products.

One of the earliest, if not the first, ensemble of characters especially created by a publisher for its paper novelties, the Nimble Nicks were Santa's helpers. Others - Rose O'Neill's Kewpies, Palmer Cox's Brownies and R. F.Outcault's Buster Brown among them - began as magazine illustrations, dolls, or comic strip heroes and heroines. The Nimble Nicks - cute little guys who loved a good time almost as much as they loved helping Santa make toys and get ready for his once-a-year Christmas Eve trip - were American originals. They came along a half-century after George Whitney had started his valentine business.

During the heyday of the picture postcard fad in the United States, from about 1904 to 1917, the Whitney Company was a major presence. They printed and sold several hundred designs for all holidays. So vast was its production that collectors even today still do not know for sure the entire story.

 Brightly colored, embossed Christmas postcards featuring cheery, pleasant children were issued in sets of six. The same artwork was also used for other holiday novelties, including greeting cards, prints, and softbound juvenile books. Whitney's Santa Claus illustrations, for instance, provided pictorials for Christmas greeting cards, paper toys and picture books. These showed Santa, often with children, unpacking his toys, leading wish lists, trudging through the snow, and placing gaily-wrapped packages under Christmas trees.

And then there were the Nimble Nicks.

On postcards and other paper goods and in storybooks, they were probably introduced about 1915 and stayed around until the early 1920s. Many Nimble Nicks souvenir postcards - at least two dozen of them - were printed, each in runs of tens to hundreds of thousands of copies. Countless other merchandise, including easel stand-ups, were also produced, as well as illustrated books.

Nimble Nicks may well have been the world's first companions for Santa Claus. Others, like Rudolph and Frosty, came along much later.

Each delightful Nimble Nick was a playful little imp whose greatest thrill in life was wearing a tiny Santa Claus suit. Their charm has endured well over the years, and many collectors today are in love with them.

 They lived in a fantasy place called Christmas Land, where snow remained year-round. At first, they are usually mistaken for fairies, elves or pixies. However, a closer examination reveals the chubby fellows - and gals (there's one of them) - to be no more than children who never grow up.

They are taller and larger than the various mythical forest creatures they are often confused with, and they are perfectly proportioned. Each Nick has blonde hair and one curl at the top of his forehead which peaks out from under the red hood. The hair, diminutive size, and Santa Claus outfits are their trademarks, forever tagging them as Nimble Nicks.

The Nicks dwelled in cute tiny houses that did not even reach a regular person's knee and they drove around Christmas Land in kiddie-cars (so the illustrated storybooks tell us). Also, at party time, out came the "funny little chairs" upon which the little fellows sat while eating their favorite treat, turkey stew.

When not helping Santa Claus, the Nicks enjoyed life to the hilt. One of their greatest pleasures was to bunch up as many of themselves as possible, as close as they  could, onto giant sleds and go cascading down giant snow-covered hills. Another activity enjoyed by all was incessant snowball fighting.

Whitney published its many different designs of the Nimble Nicks in vivid red coloring. These, like the firm's other Christmas merchandise, were sold in the nations stores, particularly Woolworth's, well into the late 1920s and early 1930s, though the actual printing of them had stopped years before around 1925.

 Several books aimed at young people between the ages of three and ten were printed by Whitney detailing the adventures of the Nimble Nicks. These were usually die-cut, 6 x 9 inches in size, and average about 12 illustrated pages. Today such books are very rare.

 Whitney also marketed a paper novelty product line known as easel stand-ups. The top half of the design was a die-cut and popped out of its perforations when folded backward and clipped with a tab. The card could then stand up, and part of the illustration was free-standing. About a half-dozen Nimble Nicks designs were printed in this format.

Employees of the George C. Whitney Whitney George C Company Employees, c .1898

The greeting card company that once flourished under the guiding hand of George C. Whitney has been gone now for well over a half-century, but collectors continue to be intrigued and passionate about the valentines, postcards and books the firm published in its 80-year lifetime. To these collectors nothing is more treasured today than the ephemera associated with the Nimble Nicks - Santa's helpers up North in a place called Christmas Land.

We hope you enjoy the Nimble Nicks and all their antics as much as we do.

Be Sure to Check Out the Patterns we have created featuring the Nimble Nicks.

On view at the Cloisters Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Hunt for the Unicorn, or the Unicorn Tapestries, is a series of seven tapestries dating woven between 1495 and 1505, and woven in Brussels or Liège, and currently on display at the Cloisters - Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. The tapestries show a group of noblemen and hunters in pursuit of a unicorn. The Hunt for the Unicorn was a common theme in late medieval and renaissance works of art and literature. The tapestries were woven in wool, metallic threads, and silk. The vibrant colors are evident even today.  The colors were produced from dye plants: weld (yellow), madder (red), and woad (blue). Most of the tapestries have survived however, only 2 fragments of one of the panels, The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn survives

There are a lot of opinions about the history of the tapestries.

The Hunters at the Start of the Hunt 

The original workmanship of the tapestries remains unanswered at the present. The design of the tapestries in the effect of the richness of figurative elements, near to the art of oil painting and influenced by the French style and reflected the woodcuts and metalcuts printed in Paris in the late fifteenth century.

The tapestries were highly probably woven in Brussels in the Flanders, where was the center of tapestry industry in the medieval European. As a series of remarkable works of Brussels looms, the mixture of silk, metallic thread with wool gave the tapestries finer quality and brilliance of colors. The wool was widely produced in the rural areas in Brussels, and easily obtained as the primary material in tapestry weaving, while the silk was costly in the weaving of tapestry, which symbolized the wealth and social status of the tapestry owner.

The Unicorn in Captivity

The tapestries were rich in floral in the background as a garden, features the "millefleurs" style, refers to a background style of a variety of small botanic, which was invented by the weavers of Gothic age, popular during the late medieval and wilted after the early Renaissance. There are more than a hundred plants represented in the tapestries, which scatter across the green background on the panels, eighty-five of which are identified by botanists whose interior meaning in the tapestries were designed to recall the tapestries' major themes. In the unicorn series, the hunt takes place within a closed garden, the Hortus conclusus, take the literal meaning of "enclosed garden", which was not only in conjunction with the Annunciation, but also a representation of the garden in the secular world.

The Unicorn at the Fountain

The seven tapestries are:

• The Hunters at the Start of the Hunt

• The Unicorn at the Fountain

• The Unicorn Attacked

• The Unicorn Defending Himself

• The Unicorn is captured by the Virgin (two fragments)

• The Unicorn Killed and Brought to the Castle

• The Unicorn in Captivity

The tapestries were owned by the La Rochefoucauld family of France for several centuries, with first mention of them showing up in the family's 1728 inventory. At that time five of the tapestries were hanging in a bedroom in the family's Château de Verteuil, Charente and two were stored in a hall adjacent to the chapel. The tapestries were highly believed woven for François, the son of Jean II de La Rochefoucauld and Marguerite de Barbezieux. And there was a possible connection between the letters A and E and the La Rochefoucauld, which are interpreted as the first and last of Antoine's name, who was the son of François, and his wife, Antoinette of Amboise. During the French Revolution, the tapestries were looted from the château and reportedly were used to cover potatoes – a period during which they apparently sustained damage. By the end of the 1880s they were again in the possession of the family. A visitor to the château described them as quaint 15th century wall hangings, yet showing "incomparable freshness and grace". The same visitor records the set as consisting of seven pieces, though one was by that time in fragments and being used as bed curtains.

The Unicorn Killed and Brought to the Castle detail

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought them in 1922 for about one million US dollars. Six of the tapestries hung in Rockefeller's house until The Cloisters was built when he donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1938 and at the same time secured for the collection the two fragments the La Rochefauld family had retained. The set now hangs in The Cloisters which houses the museum's medieval collection.

In 1998 the tapestries were cleaned and restored. In the process, the linen backing was removed, the tapestries were bathed in water, and it was discovered that the colors on the back were in even better condition than those on the front (which are also quite vivid). A series of high resolution digital photographs were taken of both.

Ancient unicorn tapestries recreated at Stirling Castle

Historic Scotland commissioned a set of seven hand-made tapestries for Stirling Castle, a recreation of The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, as part of a project to furnish the castle as it was in the 16th century.

The Unicorn is captured by the Virgin fragment

Be Sure to Check Out Our Counted Cross Stitch and Counted Needlepoint Charts-Patterns Inspired by these beautiful tapestries:

Ernst Kirchner The Most Influential Modern Artist That You Have Probably Never Heard Of

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880 – 1938, was a German expressionist painter and printmaker. He was one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge",which was a group of artists that helped establish and build the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art.

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Die Brücke (The Bridge) was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905, after which the Brücke Museum in Berlin was named. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller. The seminal group had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and the creation of expressionism.

Die Brücke is sometimes compared to the Fauves. Both movements shared interests in primitivist art. Both shared an interest in the expressing of extreme emotion through high-keyed color that was very often non-naturalistic. Both movements employed a drawing technique that was crude, and both groups shared an antipathy to complete abstraction. The Die Brücke artists' emotionally agitated paintings of city streets and sexually charged events transpiring in country settings make their French counterparts, the Fauves, seem tame by comparison.

From Wikipedia

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Self Portrait by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

In 1898 Kirchner was impressed by the graphic art of the German late Gothic artists, especially Albrecht Dürer, and Edvard Munch both of whom influenced Kirchner’s art. Despite access to the Jugendstil movement and contemporary artists Kirchner chose to simplify his forms and brighten his colors.

Kirchner studied architecture in Dresden, Germany from 1901-1905. But art was his true passion and in 1905 he founded Die Brücke with Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Other artists, including Emil Nolde, subsequently joined the group. For Kirchner, art was a translation of inner conflict into visual terms. He cited the emotive work of Vincent van Gogh and Munch as artistic role models. (see note above)

Kirchner’s use of color and his respect for the paintings of Henri Matisse and the Fauves in France may be seen in Girl under Japanese Umbrella (1906) and Artist and His Model (1907), Much of Kirchner’s work of this period exhibits his preoccupation with malevolence and eroticism. In Street, Berlin (1907), the curvy forms of the fashionable women on the Street focus the sensuousness of the women despite their solemn dress.

Kirchner’s artwork focused upon the human form for a time.  During this period, he was obsessed with nudes.  His studies of the nude, are often explicitly erotic and very Intense.

Illustration for 'Peter Schlemihl' by Adalbert von Chamisso

In 1911 the members of Die Brücke moved to Berlin, where Kirchner produced masterful woodcuts for Der Sturm, Germany’s leading avant-garde periodical before World War I. His illustrations for Adelbert von Chamisso’s novel Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1915; “Peter Schlemihl’s Wonderful Story”) and for the poem Umbra Vitae (1924) by the Expressionist poet Georg Heym are considered to be among the finest engravings of the 20th century.

Umbra Vitae (1924) by the

Expressionist poet Georg Heym

At the outbreak of World War, I in 1914, Kirchner joined the German army, He found life in uniform rigid and constraining and he suffered a nervous breakdown and returned home.

A Berlin Street Scene by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Even while he was ill and during his recover, Kirchner continued to produce many works; paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture. He sought help at a sanitarium in the Swiss Alps. The cold, dry air in Davos, Switzerland, was considered therapeutic. In 1917, he moved permanently to Davos, Switzerland, where he stopped painting nudes and focused on landscapes and personalities as he started included images of rural life and the surrounding Alps. Through the 1920s major exhibitions of his work were held in Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, and other cities. In 1931, he was made a member of the Prussian Academy of Art.

Landscape Under a Winter Moon by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

In 1932 Kirchner was labeled a degenerate artist by the Nazis.  Kirchner was asked to resign from the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1933.  In 1937, more than 600 of his works were confiscated from German museums and were either destroyed or sold. Kirchner was called un-German by the Nazis. His works were removed, some were destroyed. His artwork was cleared out of Germany and in his own country Kirchner felt his work would not be known. That was a devastating blow to Kirchner.

In March of 1938, the Nazis invaded nearby Austria, and Kirchner felt besieged. As an historian recounted "The Nazis were 12 miles away from Davos," … "Kirchner is sitting there in his mountain house with his paintings and his drawings, his prints, his sculpture and so forth, and he got more and more this idea, 'My God, they're 12 miles away and they've destroyed my art in Germany and now they're coming for me.” Kirchner thought it would be better to destroy his own artwork rather than let the Nazis do it so he destroyed it himself.

View of the Basil and the Rhine by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

He tried to persuade his long-time girlfriend, Erna, to commit suicide with him but she refused, and could not stop him. Kirchner died from a self-inflicted gunshot, he was just 58 years old.

The first public exhibition of Kirchner's work in the United States was at the Armory Show of 1913, the first comprehensive exhibition of modern art in America. U.S. museum acquisitions of Kirchner's work began in 1921 and steadily increased through the next four decades. Kirchner was given his first one-man museum show in the U.S. at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1937. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, held a monographic exhibition of Kirchner's art in 1992, based on works in the collections of the Gallery and its donors, and then held a major international loan exhibition of Kirchner's art in 2003.

Self Portrait by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

One of his surviving paintings -- a street scene in Berlin -- sold in 2006 for $38 million dollars.

And in Germany, a country whose rejection tortured him, Kirchner is now revered as one of its greatest modern artists.

 Be Sure to check out our Counted Cross Stitch and Counted Needlepoint Charts inspired by Kirchner's work!

Mary Cassatt The Grand Dame of Impressionist Artists

“There's only one thing in life for a woman;

it's to be a mother... A woman artist must be...

capable of making primary sacrifices.”
 Mary Cassatt

So ironic since Mary had no children and never married.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Pennsylvania, but lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with an emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" (3 grand Ladies) of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot.

Tea by Mary Cassatt, 1880, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844–1926), born in Pennsylvania and spent her early years traveling with her family in France and Germany. Although her family objected to her becoming a professional artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia at the early age of 15.  Part of her parents' concern may have been Cassatt's exposure to feminist ideas and the bohemian behavior of some of the male students. Although about 20 percent of the students were female, most viewed art as a socially valuable skill; few of them were determined, as Cassatt was, to make art their career.  She continued her studies from 1861 through 1865, the duration of the American Civil War. Among her fellow students was Thomas Eakins, who later became the director of the Academy.

Self Portrait 1878 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Discouraged and unhappy with the lessons and the chauvinistic attitude of the male professors and students Mary decided to study the old masters on her own. Female students could not use live models, until somewhat later, and the principal training was primarily drawing from casts.

 When Cassatt decided to end her studies, no degree was granted. Despite her father's objections, she moved to Paris in 1866, with her mother and family friends acting as chaperones. Since women could not yet attend the École des Beaux-Arts, Cassatt applied to study privately with masters from the school and was accepted to study with Jean-Léon Gérôme, a highly regarded teacher known for his hyper-realistic technique and his depiction of exotic subjects. Cassatt augmented her artistic training with daily copying in the Louvre, obtaining the required permit, which was necessary to control the "copyists," usually low-paid women, who daily filled the museum to paint copies for sale. The museum also served as a social place for Frenchmen and American female students, who, like Cassatt, were not allowed to attend cafes where the avant-garde socialized. One famous couple met this way In this manner, fellow artist and friend Elizabeth Jane Gardner met and married famed academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

The Mandolin Player by Mary Cassatt 1868 Private Collection

In 1868, Cassatt’s painting The Mandolin Player was accepted at the Paris Salon, the first time her work was represented there. After three-and-a-half years in France, the Franco-Prussian War interrupted Cassatt’s studies and she returned to Philadelphia in the late summer of 1870.

Lilacs in the Window c. 1880 Private Collection

Cassatt returned to Europe in 1871 where she spent eight months in Parma, Italy, in 1872, studying the paintings of Correggio and Parmigianino and working with the advice of Carlo Raimondi, head of the department of engraving at the Parma Academy. In 1873, she visited Spain, Belgium, and Holland to study and copy the works of Velázquez, Rubens, and Hals. In June 1874, Cassatt settled in Paris, where she began to show regularly in the Salons, and where her parents and sister Lydia joined her in 1877.

Mary Cassatt Seated, Holding Cards painted by Edgar Degas c. 1880–84

In 1877 Edgar Degas invited her to create an impressionist painting . Mary was amazed and accepted the invitation. “It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”  Mary Cassatt

In 1877, Edgar Degas invited her to join the group of independent artists later known as the Impressionists. The only American officially associated with the group, Cassatt exhibited in four of their eight exhibitions, in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886. Under their influence, Cassatt revised her technique, composition, and use of color and light, manifesting her admiration for the works of the French avant garde, especially Degas and Manet. Degas, her chief mentor, provided criticism of her work, offered advice on technique, and encouraged her experiments in printmaking. Like Degas, she was chiefly interested in figure compositions. During the late 1870s and early 1880s, the subjects of her works were her family (especially her sister Lydia), the theater, and the opera. Later she made a specialty of the mother and child theme, which she treated with warmth and naturalness in paintings, pastels, and prints.

Children Playing with a Cat c. 1908 Private collection

She became extremely proficient in the use of pastels, eventually creating many of her most important works in this medium. Degas also introduced her to etching, of which he was a recognized master. The two worked side-by-side for a while, and her draftsmanship gained considerable strength under his tutelage. He depicted her in a series of etchings recording their trips to the Louvre. Mary simplified her impressionist style around 1886. Mary was a role model of many artists in America, Europe and Canada.

The Boating Party by Mary Cassatt, 1893–94 National Gallery of Art, Washington

62 windows located in the Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Indiana were created by Louis Comfort Tiffany

“The pursuit of beauty” was the single goal of the amazing talented Louis Comfort Tiffany who was one of the most creative and prolific designers of the late 19th-century.

Photograph of Louis Comfort Tiffany 1915

One of America’s most acclaimed artists, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s was an artist whose career experimented and influenced many artistic and decorative mediums.  Tiffany designed and directed artisans in his studios to produce leaded-glass windows, mosaics, lighting, glass, pottery, metalwork, enamels, jewelry, and interiors.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848-1933, was the son of the founder of Tiffany & Company which is an upscale jewelry and luxury home goods store.  Tiffany chose not to join the family business and instead followed his artistic endeavors. 

Cairo Travelers Resting by Louis Comfort Tiffany

1869, oil on canvas New Britain Museum of American Art

Garden Landscape and Fountain ca. 1905–15

Louis-Comfort Tiffany Studios

Starting in the late 1870s, Tiffany focus changed to the decorative arts and interiors.  He started designing and overseeing the creation of elaborate stained glass windows and art glass installations. Tiffany designed private interiors and public spaces for family, friends and institutions.

Window with Hudson River Landscape by Louis Comfort Tiffany

at the Corning Museum of Glass

Leaded glass home furnishings, windows and installations brought Tiffany him the greatest recognition. Tiffany and John La Farge, modernized the creation and the look of stained glass. The pair of artisans experimented and created a new type of glass that showed a blended palette with richer colors and hues.  different colors were blended together in the molten state, achieving subtle effects of shading and texture.  In 1881, both Tiffany and LeFarge  patented an opalescent milky multi colored glass.

Dragonfly Lamp 1906

With Tiffany glass production and the vibrant colors that his artisans were creating in the late 1890’s Tiffany and his studios turned toward creating lighting and lamps. 

 Vase 1903

From there Tiffany mastered, created studios where he assembled and trained artists in enamel work, blown glass works, pottery and jewelry. Tiffany used all his skills in the design of his own house, the 84-room Laurelton Hall, in the village of Laurel Hollow, on Long Island, New York completed in 1905. Later this estate was donated to his foundation for art students along with 60 acres of land, sold in 1949, and was destroyed by a fire in 1957.

 My Favorite picture of tiffany in all his colorful glory

by his friend the artist Sorolla Joaquin

For Further Browsing and Reading

• Robert Koch, Louis C. Tiffany: Rebel in Glass (1964),

• Susie Hodge, Louis Comfort Tiffany (2014)

• The Macklowe Gallery:

• The Louis Comfort Tiffany Story on The Tiffany and Company Site

The Cello Player 1921

Issachar Ber Ryback was a respected and prolific artist of Russian French Jewish descent. His artworks are extraordinary and 80 years after his death his work has become involved in a case misidentification or forgery in a modern day art scandal not of his making.

An article on Art.com written by is Konstantin Akinsha recounts the selling of a painting by Ryback titled the Progrom and the selling of two strikingly similar paintings by Stanislaus Bender titled saving the Torahs.

"A painting attributed to a prominent Eastern European Jewish artist that sold at Christie’s London last November 29 for $198,450 is a fake, a number of experts say. The work, called Pogrom, is attributed in the sale catalogue to Issachar Ber Ryback (1897–1935) and shows two bearded Jews fleeing, with Torah scrolls cradled in their arms. It more than doubled its high estimate of $78,200 to reach a price much higher than any previously paid for this artist’s work.....The same picture—or at least the same image, in a slightly different size—was sold for $3,700 at Christie’s Amsterdam on June 19, 1991, where it was attributed to Stanislaus Bender and called Saving the Torah Scrolls. Complicating the situation, a third and slightly larger version had been sold at Sotheby’s New York on June 25, 1990, for $35,750. This one was attributed to Bender and was called Saving the Torahs."

THE ARTIST

Issachar Ber Ryback was born in 1897 in Yelizavetgrad (Ukraine).  He studied at the Kiev Academy in Moscow from 1911 – 1916.  Ryback was an early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic format, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.  Ryback attended the art school in Kiev until 1916. He joined a progressive group of painters and was influenced by advocates of a modern Jewish literature such as David Bergelson and David Hofstein. Painters Alexander Bogomazov and Alexandra Exter were in Kiev at the time, and they taught him. In 1916 El Lissitzky and Ryback were given the task to make Jewish art memorials of Schtetls from Ukraine and Belarus. When he participated in an exhibition of Jewish paintings and sculptures in Moscow the spring 1917, his works were highly reviewed.

Woman Knitting in Living Room from In my Village 1932

As a young artist he initially experimented with Cubism and then began painting Jewish subject matter in the 1920s when critics and collectors began to appreciate his analytic Cubism and recognize his importance in the Russian vanguard movement. During the October Revolution in 1917, he took part in multiple activities to redefine avantgarde Yiddish culture, and moved to Moscow. In April 1921, after his father was killed by soldiers in the Pogroms in Ukraine, he fled to Kaunas and in October 1921 he obtained a visa for Germany.  Note:  A pogrom is a violent riot aimed at the massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, particularly one aimed at Jews. The term originally entered the English language in order to describe 19th and 20th century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire. He became a member of the Novembergruppe and exhibited his Cubist pictures at both the Berliner Secession and the Juryfreien Kunstausstellung.

Berlin Woman 1926

In 1921 Ryback moved to Berlin, where he participated in the “Der Sturm” group. He was invited back to Moscow in 1925 to design costumes for the Moscow Theatre.

The Lion 1924

Ryback illustrated three small Yiddish fairy tale books for Miriam Margolin. His Shtetl-litographies was published in 1923 by Schwellen-Verlag. At the time the Jewish education organization World ORT was situated in Berlin and he made the draft for its logo. Issachar returned to Moscow where he created sets for Yiddish theaters. He was unhappy in Russia and in 1926 he emigrated to Paris France and never returned to Russia.

In My Village 1932

When Ryback moved to Paris he adopted a new style of Realism, portraying Russian Jewish “shtetl” life, bringing out the forceful, distinctive character of his Yiddish-speaking subjects without resorting to sentimentalism.

Ryback was an important member of the Russian Jewish, modernist movement that included Lissitsky, Altman, Aronson and Chagall. Edouard Roditi said of him, “Ryback may be generally recognized as an artist whose genius bears comparison only with that of Chagall.” He died suddenly in Paris in 1935, a few days after the opening of a retrospective exhibition of his work organized by the Wildenstein Gallery.

The  Circus Elephant 1925

Rybak was a contemporary of the Jewish-Russian artists Natan Issajewitsch Altman, Boris Aronson and Marc Chagall, who worked with handing down the Jewish tradition in modern art.

Most of the works he left behind are in Museum Ryback in Bat Yam in Israel.

Be Sure to check out our counted cross stitch and counted needlepoint charts inspired by the works of Issachar Ber Ryback with this link!

In my thoughts by Alfons Mucha

“Art exists only to communicate a

spiritual message.” Alfon’s Mucha

  
 The Arts Poetry Sketch

 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON AMERICAN NATURALIST

Oil, 1841 by Victor and John W. Audubon John James Audubon's Sons

John James Audubon 1785 – 1851, was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He is known for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds as well as his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species.

John James Audubon, was born as Jean-Jacques Audobon in the French Colony of Saint-Dominigue (now Haiti).  Audubon had an immediate interest in nature and birds and drawing in his childhood. Audubon became one of the most distinguished illustrators of the 19th century. Audubon had a diverse and exciting life. Born in Haiti he moved to France at the age of four.  He loved the woods and exploring and spent many hours observing nature. When he was 18 years old, he moved to the United States.  Originally named Jean Jacques, he changed his name to John James to sound more American. He lived in Mill Grove Pennsylvania on his family farm. While in Mill Grove Audubon explored and enjoyed spending time in  nature and he studied American birds and he came up with the technique of bird banding, which helped him to study the same birds, longevity, migration and other patterns of life. 

Great White Heron from  Audubon's Birds of America

During a visit to France he studied taxidermy with naturalist and physician Charles-Marie D'Orbigny.  After his return to the United States, Audubon resumed his bird studies and started a nature museum in Pennsylvania featuring his own taxidermy and specimens. Audubon had several failed business ventures and often hunted and fished to feed his family. During his hunting expeditions, he observed and drew specimens and learned techniques of hunting.

Bay Owl Detail from Audubon's Birds of America

John was determined to find and paint all the birds of North America. He vowed to create a better study of The Birds of North American that the one created by the poet and naturalist Alexander Wilson.  In late 1820, Audubon set out to explore the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to study the birds. He travelled with the Swiss Landscape artist George Lehman in search of ornithological specimens. He supported himself by painting portraits of people and by teaching painting to a few students. 

 In 1824 Audubon began to look for a publisher for his drawings. He was unable to reach an agreement with American publishers and traveled to Europe with hopes of obtaining a publisher. In 1826, at the age of 41, Audubon arrived Europe He was favorably received, being referred to as the “American Woodsman”. He Traveled around England and Scotland to raise money to publish his work. His work on “Birds of America” consisted of images of around 700 species of North American birds. While in London, he signed up subscribers for his volumes and a deal with a publisher in London. By 1827, the first volume of “Birds of America” were published. It took 11 years for all the volumes to be published.

Atlantic Puffins from Audubon's Birds of America

 In 1829, Audubon returned to America and added more drawings to his collection. Audubon also hunted animals and sent the skins back to his British friends. The success of “Birds of America” brought him some fame. In 1930 he was elected to be a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Audubon had earned enough from publishing of his books, he bought an estate on the Hudson River.

The Audubons named their home Minniesland.  The Audubon Estate on the Banks of the Hudson. Foot of 156th Street at Carmansville.  Lith. of Major and Knapp, 444 Broadway, N.Y.  For D. T. Valentine's Manual, 1865.

 While on his excursions to the West to observe Western species, Audubon’s health began to deteriorate. He became quite senile by 1848 and suffered a stroke that year. He died in 1851. 

John James Audubon, portrait by John Woodhouse Audubon 1843

Audubon's Achievments

• Audubon's influence on ornithology and natural history was far reaching. Nearly all later ornithological works were inspired by his artistry and high standards. Charles Darwin quoted Audubon three times in On the Origin of Species and also in later works.[83] Despite some errors in field observations, he made a significant contribution to the understanding of bird anatomy and behavior through his field notes. Birds of America is still considered one of the greatest examples of book art. Audubon discovered 25 new species and 12 new subspecies
• He was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Linnaean Society, and the Royal Society in recognition of his contributions.
• The homestead Mill Grove in Audubon, Pennsylvania, is open to the public and contains a museum presenting all his major works, including Birds of America.
• The Audubon Museum at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, Kentucky, houses many of Audubon's original watercolors, oils, engravings and personal memorabilia.
• In 1905, the National Audubon Society was incorporated and named in his honor. Its mission "is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds..."
• He was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 22¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.
• On December 6, 2010, a copy of Birds of America was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $11.5 million, the second highest price for a single printed book.

Audubon's Legacy

Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed the birds using fine shot. He then used wires to prop them into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists, who prepared and stuffed the specimens into a rigid pose. When working on a major specimen like an eagle, he would spend up to four 15-hour days, preparing, studying, and drawing it. His paintings of birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat. He often portrayed them as if caught in motion, especially feeding or hunting. This was in stark contrast to the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as Alexander Wilson. Audubon based his paintings on his extensive field observations.  Audubon worked primarily with watercolor early on. He added colored chalk or pastel to add softness to feathers, especially those of owls and herons. He employed multiple layers of watercolor paints. All species were drawn life size which accounts for the contorted poses of the larger birds as Audubon strove to fit them within the page size. Smaller species were usually placed on branches with berries, fruit, and flowers. He used several birds in a drawing to present all views of anatomy and wings. Larger birds were often placed in their ground habitat or perching on stumps. At times, as with woodpeckers, he combined several species on one page to offer contrasting features. He frequently depicted the birds' nests and eggs, and occasionally natural predators, such as snakes. He usually illustrated male and female variations, and sometimes juveniles. In later drawings, Audubon used assistants to render the habitat for him. In addition to faithful renderings of anatomy, Audubon also employed carefully constructed composition, drama, and slightly exaggerated poses to achieve artistic as well as scientific effects.