Abbot, John

This watercolor and those in the following nine lots derive from a fine collection of unpublished original watercolor drawings by John Abbot of birds of Georgia and the surrounding region, executed in Georgia, ca. 1819–1826, and showing the subjects perched on branches with floral backgrounds.

John Abbot was born in London in 1751, the son of a lawyer who encouraged his early interest in, and talent for, natural history, and who arranged for him to study drawing, perspective, and engraving under Jacob Bonneau. Abbot owned copies of the ornithologies of Mark Catesby and George Edwards, and visited the latter at least once. After a brief term clerking in his father's office, Abbot emigrated to Virginia in 1773, removing to Georgia the following year. For the rest of his life, Abbot lived in Georgia (moving among Burke, Chatham, Scriven, and Bulloch counties) and devoted himself to illustrating the animal and plant life of that state.

In his long career (he died about 1840), Abbot is estimated to have completed over five thousand watercolor drawings of the flora and fauna of Georgia, but very few have been published or otherwise reproduced; and the majority of his few published drawings depict butterflies, moths, and insects, rather than birds. Abbot's single publication during his life was The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia (London, 1797); he also contributed a few plates to Boisduval and Leconte's Histoire générale et iconographie des lépidoptères et chenilles de l'Amerique septentrionale (Paris, 1829–1837).

Because of his limited publication, Abbot's work has only recently been recognized and elevated to the rank of such better-known contemporaries as William Barton, Alexander Wilson, and John James Audubon. Vivian Roger-Price's pioneering exhibition and attendent catalogue, John Abbot in Georgia: The Vision of a Naturalist Artist (Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, Georgia, 1983), have contributed greatly to the general recognition of the importance of Abbot's work. Her catalogue concludes: "This exquisitely rendered vision of Georgia's insect, bird, and plant life established Abbot as one of the premier naturalist artists of the nineteenth century. In his watercolors Abbot combined a talent for composition and design with the technical skill for capturing the textures of his subjects." A few examples of bound volumes of bird drawings by Abbot survive at the British Museum, Houghton Library, University of Georgia, the Smithsonian Institution, and Knowsley Hall (Lord Derby's Library).