Plate 4
Havell LXXXIII
House Wren
(Troglodytes aedon)
When Audubon and his wife were in Pennsylvania in 1812, the artist made a pastel drawing of a male house wren. Years later, perhaps in 1824, he used the early work as a basis for the bird perched on the old felt hat in this pastel and watercolor rendering. Audubon’s penciled outline of the tree limb was completed by Robert Havell, Jr., in his engraving. Audubon wrote of this painting: “I knew of one [nest] in the pocket of an old broken-down carriage, and many in such an old hat as you see represented in the plate… I hope you will… look at the little creatures anxiously peeping out or hanging to the side of the hat, to meet their mother; which has just arrived with a spider, whilst the male is on the lookout, ready to interpose should any intruder come near.”
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
Learn more about this print on the National Audubon Society's website.
Learn more about the Library's Audubon Collection.