John James Audubon 1785 - 1851

inscribed in pencil: 2 female 1 male
April 9 '43 Female and male facing in long leaves of grass; St. Louis, MO.

Collection of Boatsmen's Bank, St. Louis, Missouri, Catalogue number 095.

Tears along the edges, creases and soil
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With Birds of America completed and plans for the octavo edition well under way, Audubon had by 1840 turned his attention to producing a companion volume about the mammals; from its inception known as, and defined by, Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America.  In 1843 he undertook ‘his final and most spectacular undertaking’, an expedition along the upper Missouri River in search of specimens.

Audubon’s journal gives us a detailed chronology of his travels.  He arrived in St. Louis, the staging point of the expedition, on March 28; about a month, by his calculation, before the river upstream would be clear of ice enough to be navigable.  He spent his time organizing supplies for the journey, reuniting with old friends and sketching animals from pelts he was being given.  The days between April 4 and April 25th, when he set of with his retinue and supplies on the Omega, are only summarized in his journal, but he does record that he ‘outlined two figures of Sciurus capistratus, which is here called “Fox Squirrel”.’  The present work is dated April 9th /43 and inscribed St. Louis, Mo; it is probably the watercolor he was referring to.

The animal is actually the Western Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger ruficenter.  Though sometimes titled Say’s Squirrel, there is no published reference to this species (named no doubt after Thomas Say, an earlier naturalist and taxonomist).
Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, published 1845-48, was comprised of hand-colored lithographs; they lose much of the clarity and vitality of the originals that was retained in the engravings in Birds of America.  The real accomplishment of Audubon as an artist can only be fully appreciated in these original ink and watercolor drawings.