xxii, 302 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm
Type:
Biography
Place:
South Carolina
Charleston
Charleston (S.C.)
Date:
2018
Contents:
Family -- Faith, the Lutheran way -- Painting from nature : Maria Martin and John James Audubon -- Living together/working together : collaboration and kinship -- Family and science : beyond botanicals -- Family and science : quadrupeds -- Faith : "Our trust in God."
Summary:
"Maria Martin (1796-1863) was an evangelical Lutheran from Charleston, South Carolina, who became an accomplished painter within months of meeting John James Audubon. Martin met Audubon through her brother-in-law, Reverend John Bachman, who befriended Audubon while passing through Charleston on route to Florida where he expected to find new avian species. Martin was an amateur artist, but by the time Audubon left, she had familiarized herself with his style of drawing. Six months after their initial meeting, her background botanicals were deemed good enough to embellish Audubon's exquisite bird paintings. Martin's botanicals and insects appeared in volumes two and four of The Birds of America (1830-1838). She painted snakes for John Edwards Holbrook's North American Herpetology (1842) and assisted in drafting the descriptive taxonomies prepared by John Bachman-who later became her husband in 1848 following the death of her older sister-for The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1846-1854). Until now, her contributions have been unknown to all but the most astute students of natural history and art history and a close circle of family and friends. "--Publisher's description.
