2025 Poster Session

John James Audubon, a prolific naturalist and artist known for his seminal work The Birds of America, had only a few of his oil paintings survive to today. While 435 meticulously rendered hand-colored aquatints of Birds of America (1827–1838) are well known, his work in oil is considered quite rare.

Audubon’s Pacific Loons, an oil painting dating from ca. 1834, was acquired by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in 2007, along with the hand-colored aquatint. The aquatint features three birds, an adult male, a female, and a young bird in winter plumage, while the oil painting only depicts two birds. The location of the two loons in the painting mirrors that of the print. The discrepancy between the oil painting and the aquatint suggests there may be some additional information in the original oil painting. During a recent on-site collaboration, we used a recently developed RevealScan™-M multi-range infrared reflectance device (Middleton Spectral Vision, Middleton WI) to probe the painting.

The combination of the measured images shows three additional birds, both reminiscent of, yet clearly distinct from the bird that appears in the aquatint. The larger hidden bird has a very similar pose to the third loon in the print, yet it is located in a different spot and has an egg in its beak. The two smaller hidden birds are located roughly where the one in the aquatint is, but are much smaller, possibly even juveniles, as is the bird in the final rendition of the print. Even more interesting and possibly even more rare of a finding was a clear message underneath the painted reeds. After combining the near infrared (in the 1000-1700 nm range) and VNIR (400-1000 nm) bands, the contrast between the fine handwritten text and the visible outside oil painted layer was enhanced to make the words more legible. The note, presumably in Audubon’s handwriting, appears to be a note to the printmaker, possibly Robert Havell, indicating what additions to make to the printed rendition. The hidden birds and text tell a fascinating story about Audubon’s dynamic artistic process and collaboration with printmakers.