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JCS Museum presents works by European NaturalistsAUBURN, Ala. - The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University is pleased to present the works of prints by some of John James Audubon’s precursors and contemporaries. These prints are the works of eighteenth and nineteenth century European naturalists which feature birds, sea creatures, snakes, insects and plants. Artists included in the exhibition are Eleazer Albins (1680-1742), Mark Catesby (1683-1749), George Edwards (1694-1773), Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), and John Gould (1804-1881). The exhibition is currently in progress and will continue through October 31. The works by English naturalist Eleazer Albins feature prints of birds and insects including John Phillip Broyne of Denmark, Duchess of Beaufort, Crested Lapwing, and Long Billed Curlew. Albin was a well-known naturalist and painter, who published the first folio of British birds, with hand-colored plates. Also an English naturalist, Mark Catesby came to the U.S. and published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America. His works in the exhibition include Little Sparrow, Land Crab, Great Hog Fish, Margate Fish, and Vipera Caudifona Minor. George Edwards was an English naturalist and ornithologist, known as the "father of British ornithology," which is the branch of zoology that deals with the scientific study of birds. Edwards published The Natural History of Birds in 4 volumes and Gleanings of Natural History in 3 volumes. His print in the exhibition is Two Tangers. Scottish Ornithologist, Alexander Wilson published the nine-volume work, American Ornithology in 1808-1814, which illustrated 268 species, including descriptions of 26 new species. Prints from the book featured in the exhibition are Red Owl, Warbling Flycatcher, and Purple Finch; Belted Kingfisher, Black and Yellow Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Autumnal Warbler, Water Thrush; and others. Also an Ornithologist, John Gould was an English contemporary of Audubon. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" was pivotal in the foundation of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, though they are barely mentioned in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species. Gould’s works in the exhibition include Blue Breasted Sapphire, Martin Pic Noir-Hupe, de la Louisiane, Martin-pacheur hupe, de la Louisiane, Rosenberg’s Pitta, Short-eared Owl, and Green Woodpecker. Open since 2003, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University is Alabama’s only university art museum. Serving as the gateway into Auburn University, the museum is home to many pieces of culturally significant art. The collection includes more than 100 Audubon prints, a rare group of more than 40 Tibetan bronzes dating back from the 14th century and works by important American artists, such as Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe and Lyonel Feininger. The museum rotunda hangs a three-tiered, hand-blown glass chandelier created especially for the museum by internationally-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. The beauty continues onto the grounds of the museum with fifteen acres of gardens, walking paths and water features, complete with an eleven and a half foot tall brass sculpture, Spinoff, created by Auburn alumna Jean Woodham.
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