David worked on this portrait for about a month, and on April 23, before his departure for Paris, he asked the privilege of again addressing the Assembly. Not only was the request granted, but he was publicly thanked for the trouble he had taken in coming to their city, and a committee was appointed to express the sentiments of esteem with which he had inspired the whole community. We may add that David seems to have taken this canvas to his studio in Paris, where it was subsequently lost or destroyed in the period of turbulence that followed. David's radical speeches from the tribune, added to his popularity as an artist, no doubt brought him pupils in plenty from every quarter of republican France. Young Audubon was probably admitted to the most elementary class, for he received no instruction in the use of oils but was directed to study the rudiments of drawing from the cast. As he had hoped to perfect himself in the art of depicting animals, he was disappointed. "Eyes and noses belonging to giants," he said, "and heads of horses, represented in ancient sculpture, were my models." He also spoke of drawing "heads and figures in different colored chalks," and of "tolerable figures" obtained by use of the manikin, but adds: "These, although fit subjects for men intent on pursuing the higher branches of the art, were immediately laid aside by me"; yet he "returned to the woods of the New World with fresh ardor,"[153] and there began a series of drawings which were later published.