Front:
YORK,
APR
23
1985
22
10001
USA 4
John J. Audubon
EW
NY
Back:
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
First Day of Issue: April 23, 1985
First Issue Location: New York, New York
From the days of his youth, John James Audubon felt —
in his own words — "an intimacy with nature bordering
on frenzy." Thus, it was not surprising that while still in
his teen years, he completed his first simple paintings of
birds. It was not until much later, in middle age, that
Audubon took up his brush and palette with the ambiti-
ous goal of portraying every bird that inhabited the
American countryside. It was a goal that drove him to
spend months — even years — in the wilderness, far
from home and family as he completed his faithful record
of America's birds with his own distinctive command of
design, composition and color. In all, he sought after
and painted over four hundred distinct species of
America's birds. When his works were first presented in
Europe, they were instantly acclaimed. Today, the ac-
colade continues. John James Audubon is almost univer-
sally esteemed as the world's foremost bird artist. No
single person has contributed so much to the art of
painting birds as the incomparable Audubon.
No. 85-31
©1985 The Maximum Card Collection
A Division of Unicover Corporation • Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007
Original painting by John Benson.
