McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Spotted deer [male]
Sika Deer, male
Cervus nipon
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 possible male Sika Deer from a 18th century specimen. Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Small tear and stains along top edge.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Spotted deer [male](Cervus axis)
Manuscript note on back of drawing: No 4 3. The Spotted Stag in Windsor Forest belonging to the D of Cumberland
Scientific name: Cervus nipon
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Pecora Cervus
Fusco-Maculatus.
Cervus Fusco-maculatus. Cornua tenuissima
Ramis V cujus tribus in Vertibus [verticibus] positis
Color partes superiores rufescentes
maculis fuscis notatae
inferiores albae.
Magnitudi precedenti inferior
Habitat
The Brown-Spoted Stag.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Pecora Cervus
Fusco-Maculatus
Cervus tawny-speckled; with very slender antlers
with 5 branches, of which three are placed at the highest point;
the upperparts are reddish and
marked with tawny spots. and the underparts
are white.
It is smaller than the previous.
It lives
The Brown-Spot[t]ed Stag.