AUDEBERT

audebert, jean baptiste (1759-1800), french artist and naturalist, was born at rochefort in 1759. he studied painting and drawing at paris, and gained considerable reputation as a miniature-painter. employed in preparing plates for the _histoire des coleopteres_ of g.a. olivier (1756-1814), he acquired a taste for natural history. in 1800 appeared his first original work, _l'histoire naturelle des singes, des makis et des galeopitheques_, illustrated by sixty-two folio plates, drawn and engraved by himself. the colouring in these plates was unusually beautiful, and was applied by a method devised by himself. audebert died in paris in 1800, leaving complete materials for another great work, _histoire des colibris, des oiseaux-mouches, des jacamars et des promerops_, which was published in 1802. two hundred copies were printed in folio, one hundred in large quarto, and fifteen were printed with the whole text in letters of gold. another work, left unfinished, was also published after the author's death, _l'histoire des grimpereaux et des oiseaux de paradis_. the last two works also appeared together in two volumes, _oiseaux dores ou a reflets metalliques_ (1802).