McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
House Finch, male
Haemorhous mexicanus
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm
Peter Paillou was born in London into a Huguenot family and was recognised in his own time as an eminent ‘bird painter’. In 1744 he began to paint for Taylor White and worked for him for almost thirty years, painting chiefly birds and mammals. He painted as well for Robert More, Joseph Banks, and for the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Many of his paintings of birds were used as the basis for book illustrations, often engraved by his colleague and fellow Huguenot, Peter Mazell. Paillou was elected to the Society of Artists and in 1763 he exhibited ‘A Piece of Birds, in Watercolours; the Hen of the Wood and Cock of the Red Game’. In 1778, to considerable approval, he also showed a picture of ‘A Horned Owl from Peru’, completely made from feathers.
Charles Collins was an Irish painter, known for his portraits of animals and still-lifes. He achieved success in England painting exotic birds, game, dogs and dead game still-lifes. He was the painter for Robert Furber’s ‘Twelve Months of Fruit’ (1732). In 1736 he published in collaboration with John Lee a set of 12 large engravings, coloured by hand, of British birds in landscape and garden settings, entitled Icones avium cum nominibus anglicis. He then came to the attention of Taylor White, who engaged him to paint birds from his and others’ collections until 1743. Collins died in 1744, when he was described as ‘Bird Painter to the Royal Society.’
Drawing of a male House Finch from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: North America. Attributed to Paillou, Peter and Collins, Charles].
Scientific name: Haemorhous mexicanus
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Monti-fringilla
Fringula alarum basi subtus flavissima
L.N.S. [sic] p. 179
The
Mountain-finch
Will. orn. p. 254
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Monti-fringilla
Fringula with very yellow underparts at the base of the wings.
L.N.S. [sic] p. 179
The
Mountain-finch
Will. orn. p. 254