Abstract
THE possession of artistic talents of the exceptionally high order of those with which the author of the beautiful volume before us is endowed confers, it must be confessed, an advantage over his brother naturalists to whom such accomplishments are denied the value and importance of which it is almost impossible to overestimate. Most naturalists who have to depend upon the labours of others to illustrate their works (and they are the great majority of their class) have but too often to deplore either the lifeless and “wooden” character of the sketches with which they are supplied, or, when higher things are attempted, the sacrifice of accuracy of detail to artistic effect. For, among at least a large percentage of professional zoological artists, the combination of lifelike posture with strict attention to details of form, colour and anatomy seems to be almost unattainable. An artist like Mr. Millais, on the other hand, who is well acquainted with the special characteristics of the animals he portrays, and is at the same time an accomplished landscape and animal painter, is enabled to combine zoological accuracy of detail with scenic effect in the happiest manner. And we have in consequence pictures of animal life which, satisfy the professed naturalist in regard to fidelity, and likewise appeal with full strength to the connoisseur in art and the lover of the beautiful in nature.
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The Wildfowl of Scotland 1 . Nature 63, 567–568 (1901). https://doi.org/10.1038/063567a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/063567a0