McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Lump fish
Lumpfish
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
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.
Drawing of an Lumpfish from a 18th century specimen. Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Lump fish
Scientific name: Lumpfish
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Thoracici.
Cyclopterus. Caput obtusum
maxillae denticulatae
Memb. Branch. radiis IV
Corpus squamis osseis,
distantibus angulatum.
Pinnae Ventrales connatae
in rotatam.
Thoracici.
Cyclopterus
Lumpus
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Thoracici.
Cyclopterus. The head is blunted,
the jaws are toothed,
the gill-membrane has 4 rays.
The body is angular
with separate bony scales.
There are double ventral fins
circular in shape.
Thoracici.
Cyclopterus
Lumpus