Jean-Baptiste Audebert

Jean Baptiste Audebert (1759 - 1800) was a French artist and naturalist.

Audebert was born at Rochefort. He studied painting and drawing at Paris, and gained considerable reputation as a miniature-painter. Employed in preparing plates for the "Histoire des colportes" of Guillaume-Antoine Olivier, he acquired a taste for natural history. In 1800 appeared his first original work, "Histoire naturelle des singes", illustrated by sixty-two folio plates, drawn and engraved by himself. The coloring in these plates was unusually beautiful, and was applied by a method devised by himself.

Audebert died in Paris, leaving complete materials for another work, "Histoire des colibris, oiseaux-mouches, jacamars et promerops", which was published in 1802. Two hundred copies were printed in folio, one hundred in large quarto, and fifteen were printed with the whole text in letters of gold. Another work, left unfinished, was also published after the author's death, "L'Histoire des grimpereaux et des oiseaux de paradis". The last two works also appeared together in two volumes, "Oiseaux dorés, ou à reflets métalliques" (1802).

References

*1911