McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Rock Ptarmigan? (White and brown)
Rock Ptarmigan, femaleWillow Ptarmigan, female
Lagopus mutaLagopus lagopus
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.
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 female Rock Ptarmigan from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Canada, Alaska, and Scandinavia] and a female Willow Ptarmigan from an 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom. Attributed to Paillou, Peter, and Collins, Charles].
Significant foxing.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Rock Ptarmigan? (White and brown) (Lagopus rupestris?)
Manuscript note on back of drawing: one of the birds came from Hudsons bay the other from Newfoundland
Scientific name: Lagopus muta / Lagopus lagopus
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Tetrao pedibus nudis
The Partridge Kind
Tetrao
Supercilia nuda, papillosa
pedibus hirsutis.
Phasianellus
T. pedibus hirsutis, cauda cuneiformi
rectricibus tribus lateralibus
albis. L.S.N. p.160
Habitat in Canda [sic]
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Tetrao with bare feet
The Partridge Kind
Tetrao
with bare pimpled eyebrow stripes
and shaggy feet.
Phasianellus
T. with shaggy feet, a wedge-shaped tail,
and three white flight feathers on the sides
of the tail. L.S.N. p.160
It lives in Canada.