McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Red deer [male]
Red Deer, male
Cervus elaphus
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 a male Red Deer from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the United States, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Asia.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Red deer [male] (Cervus elaphus hippelaphus?)
Manuscript note on back of drawing: The Mountain Stag of the Duke of Cumberland in Windsor forest as large as an elk
Scientific name: Cervus elaphus
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Pecora Cervus
Montanus
Cervus cornibus teritibus [teretibus] erectis ramo
-sis. collo subtus jubato.
colore rufescente
Manitudo [Magnitudo] Alces Aequat
Habitat Montibus Germancis [Germanicis]
The Mountain Stag.
This Stag was painted in Windsor
Forest the property of ye Duke of Cumber-
-land & said to come from Germany.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Pecora Cervus
Montanus
Cervus with erect many-branched rounded antlers,
and a mane under the neck;
it is reddish in colour.
It is equal in size to the Alces.
It lives in the mountains in Germany.
The Mountain stag.
This Stag was painted in Windsor
Forest the property of [the] Duke of Cumber-
-land & said to come from Germany.