Though John James Audubon (1785-1851) probably never stayed in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime, France), a set of 131 drawings from his youth have recently been discovered in the archives of the Society of Natural Sciences of Charente-Maritime. They are kept in the Natural History Museum of La Rochelle.This website was created so as to enable the access to and detailed study of the totality of those works as they were discovered and attributed to Audubon between 1998 and 2016, before restoration. A link with similar North-American collections has been set up to allow useful comparisons. The drawings appeared among hundreds of other pictures in “The Iconography” an album brought together by Charles-Marie Dessalines d’Orbigny (Saint-Malo, 1770 – La Rochelle, 1856), kept in La Rochelle.
The restored collection was displayed at the beginning of 2018 by The Natural History Museum of La Rochelle. A complete catalog, enhanced with innovative contributions was published on that occasion.
The exhibition has been awarded the "National Interest Exhibition" label by the Ministry of Culture Affairs.
A complete catalog, enriched with innovative contributions, was published on this occasion.
