Alexander Wilson
Alexander Wilson
British, 1766 - 1813
American draughtsman of Scottish birth. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself in the Paisley weaving trade and a failed start as a poet, he moved in 1794 to the USA. For about ten years he was a school teacher in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, finally, in 1802, taking a post at a school at Gray’s Ferry, PA, where he came to know William Bartram. Bartram encouraged Wilson’s nascent interest in ornithology, which soon developed into an ambition to create a comprehensive illustrated book on North American birds, resulting in the American Ornithology (1808–14). Bartram also helped Wilson to learn to draw birds, offering him the use of his library so he could study illustrations of American birds by such 18th-century naturalists as Mark Catesby and George Edwards (1694–1773). Wilson also came to know Charles Willson Peale, in whose museum, an important research centre for Philadelphia naturalists, he drew many of the birds included in the American Ornithology from mounted specimens. He travelled extensively in search of new birds, encountering other naturalist–artists, including John Abbot (1751–c. 1840) and JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, along the way.
Wilson’s drawings for the American Ornithology are remarkably fine for an artist who learnt to draw so late in life, but they are far simpler in composition than Audubon’s works; indeed, they are even less complex than the 18th-century prototypes that he had studied in Bartram’s library. His images remain essentially specimen drawings, stressing anatomical features over behaviour or habitat as the defining characteristics of a species. Alexander Lawson (1772–1846), the primary engraver of the plates for American Ornithology, composed larger, more integrated scenes from Wilson’s material by creating collages with the individual drawings and filling in background details before engraving the plates. The engravings become particularly elaborate in the final volume of the Ornithology, which was completed the year after Wilson’s death. This suggests that while Wilson was able to oversee the publication of his work, he preferred to adhere to the straightforward anatomical clarity that suited the needs of systematic science, rather than attempting to explore the complicated network of physical and behavioural relationships that had become the focus of more revolutionary scientific research. [Amy Meyers. "Wilson, Alexander." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 15, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T091725.]
Person TypeIndividual
Terms
French, 1864 - 1901
