Joseph Mason (1808 – October 8, 1842) was an American artist who worked as an assistant to

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

, painting uncredited plant-life backgrounds for some 50 of his bird studies for the book ''

The Birds of America ''The Birds of America'' is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and ...

''.

Early life

Joseph Mason, who is listed in some sources as Joseph R. Mason, was born in

Delaware, Ohio Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio m ...

, the son of Joseph Wilson Mason (a bookseller), and later moved to

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Career

Tutelage under Audubon

When Audubon came to Cincinnati for a short time in 1820, Mason became his pupil, showing exceptional talent, especially as a draftsperson. Audubon later wrote in a letter to his wife that Mason had a "fine" talent for painting and "''draws flowers'' better than any man probably in America, thou knowest I do not flatter young artists much, I never said this to him, but I think so". Audubon hired Mason as his assistant to paint the floral backgrounds of his bird pictures as they traveled south down the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

rivers to New Orleans. A good shot, Mason also undertook other expedition duties, shooting many specimen birds as well as rowing the boat and ferrying supplies.

Traveling with Audubon

During the two years he traveled with Audubon (October 1820 to August 1822), Mason painted, by his own reckoning, between 150 and 200 background watercolors for Audubon. Over 50 of these were used, uncredited, in Audubon's book of 450 bird paintings. For example, for Audubon's study of two blue yellow-backed warblers (now known as

northern parula The northern parula (''Setophaga americana'') is a small New World warbler. It breeds in eastern North America from southern Canada to Florida. Description The northern parula is one of the smaller North American migratory warblers, often being ...

birds; plate 15 of ''Birds of America''), Mason painted an image of ''

Iris fulva ''Iris fulva'', also known as copper iris, is a species in the genus ''Iris'', it is also in the subgenus '' Limniris'' and in the series '' Hexagonae''. It is a rhizomatous perennial, endemic to the southern and central United States. It has cop ...

'', the copper iris, which Audubon called

Louisiana flag The flag of Louisiana consists of a rectangular field of blue with the arms of Louisiana, the pelican vulning herself, in white in the center, with a ribbon beneath, also in white, containing in blue the state motto: "Union Justice Confidence ...

. Similarly, plate 73 shows Mason's painting of a branch of ''

Magnolia grandiflora ''Magnolia grandiflora'', commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a tree of the family Magnoliaceae native to the Southeastern United States, from Virginia to central Florida, and west to East Texas. Reaching in height, it is a ...

'' (southern magnolia, called by Audubon great magnolia) on which is perched a

Canada warbler The Canada warbler (''Cardellina canadensis'') is a small boreal songbird of the New World warbler family (Parulidae). It summers in Canada and northeastern United States and winters in northern South America. Taxonomy In 1760 the French zoologi ...

(called by Audubon Bonaparte's flycatching warbler). A former curator of the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

considers that Mason's backgrounds significantly contribute to the scientific worth of Audubon's project because of how they help to establish scale, proportion, and environment.

Uncredited work

It appears that Audubon may not have intended to give Mason credit for his work, as he had Mason sign his name in pencil while he signed his own name to the finished works in ink. By the mid 1830s, Mason was unhappy with how Audubon had treated him, and in 1834 he wrote of Audubon in a letter to the author and critic John Neal: : I looked on him as my greatest friend; and it never once entered my mind that he would do me injustice when he came to publish his work. This it appears he has done. Joseph R

Neal would go on to express serious reservations about Audubon's honesty and trustworthiness in several 1835 issues of ''The New England Galaxy'', of which he was then senior editor. Among other things, he alleges that Audubon had promised Mason that his name would be on the relevant plates of ''The Birds of America''.

Later life

Mason returned to Cincinnati in 1822 to assist his mother, who was then newly widowed. Mason lived in Cincinnati for the remainder of his life except for a couple of years in Philadelphia (1829–32) and short trips to Michigan (1840–41) and Indiana (1841). He established himself as a private art teacher and portrait painter; this later work is rather wooden compared to his botanical paintings.

Death and legacy

He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

on October 8, 1842. In the early 2000s, wildlife artist John Ruthven became interested in Mason's life and determined to track down his grave, the location of which was then unknown. Ruthven discovered that Mason had originally been buried in a downtown cemetery and was later moved to

Spring Grove Cemetery Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum () is a nonprofit rural cemetery and arboretum located at 4521 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the third largest cemetery in the United States, after the Calverton National Cemetery and Abraham L ...

and Arboretum. Ruthven joined forces with other Cincinnati civic leaders to create a bronze relief marker memorializing Mason's contribution to the monumental ''Birds of America''; it was dedicated in 2013.

Note

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Joseph 1802 births 1842 deaths Botanical illustrators 19th-century American artists Artists from Ohio Deaths from pneumonia in Ohio