"Audubon at Green Bank
Almost, Happy!!— Sepr 1826."
Made at the home of Mr. William Rathbone, Sr., and presented to Mrs. Rathbone; now in possession of Mr. Richard R. Rathbone, Glen-y-Menai, Anglesey; for reproduction see The Life and Adventures of John James Audubon, edited by Robert Buchanan, and Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals.
4. 1826 (?).—Oil portrait by W. H. Holmes, 36 by 28 inches; painted for Audubon's friend, Walter Horton Bentley, Manchester, England, and in possession of the Bentley family ever since. Audubon is represented in a green coat, a crimson cloak with deep fur edging thrown over one shoulder, and with portfolio in hand.
For information concerning this fine but little known portrait, as well as for the photograph reproduced in [Vol. I, p. 412], I am indebted to Mr. Ruthven Deane. In 1913, Mr. John Conway Bentley, a grandson of the former owner, formerly of Glasgow, but then living in Cheshire, England, attempted to dispose of the Holmes portrait in this country.
5. 1826.—Oil portrait by John Syme; painted at Edinburgh, November, 1826; supposed to have been engraved by W. H. Lizars, but no trace of painting or engraving has been found. See Maria R. Audubon, [op. cit.], vol. i, pp. 157 and 165.
On November 27, 1826, Audubon wrote: "At twelve I went to stand up for my picture, and sick enough I was of it by two; at the request of Mr. Lizars I wear my wolf-skin coat, and if the head is not a strong likeness, perhaps the coat may be." In writing to his son, Victor, in 1833 (see [Chapter XXVII, p. 57]), Audubon said: "I am glad to hear of Kidd & Co.'s publication of Parrots, but I regret that my face should have been there from Syme's picture, which in my estimation is none of the best."
6. 1828.—Oil portrait painted in London by an American artist named Parker, in August, 1828; Parker subsequently accompanied Audubon and Swainson to Paris, where he is said to have executed portraits of Cuvier and Redouté. On August 25, a few days before starting on this journey, Audubon wrote: "Mr. Parker has nearly finished my portrait, which he considers a good one, and so do I" (Maria R. Audubon, [op. cit.], vol. i, p. 303). No further mention of this painting has been found.
7. 1830-31.—Miniature painted on ivory by Frederick Cruikshank, probably in London, and before Audubon's return to America on August 2, 1831. This portrait has become well known through the excellent engraving of it by C. Turner, A.R.A., first published in London, "Jany. 12, 1835, for the Proprietor, by Robert Havell, Print-seller, 77, Oxford Street," with Audubon's characteristic autograph. Good copies of the original engraving have become very rare. (See [Frontispiece, Vol. I.])
Miss Maria R. Audubon possesses a very faint water-color sketch of the original, which, as she has recently written me, "was destroyed by fire at Shelbyville, Kentucky, with many other rare and valuable belongings of my grandmother's, soon after her death [in 1874]."