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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



at intervals during the years since, 

 constitutes an entirely original line of 

 study that to-day is being imitated with 

 more or less success in various Ameri- 

 can and foreign museums. The recent 

 series of life-size restorations exhibited 

 in the Hagenbeck Park of Hamburg 

 for instance, was largely influenced by 

 Knight's early work. 



Mr. Knight combines in his restora- 

 tions realism and artistic atmosphere, 

 and backed bv the facts of science and 



fossil remains of the skeleton, then to 

 place the model in the sun for realistic 

 effects in drawing. 



Before the time of Knight's work, all 

 restorations of extinct animals, such as 

 those of Cuvier from fossils found 

 around Paris and those of Owen, had 

 been entirely without artistic effect, and 

 while the restorations of Owen were ana- 

 tomically correct, the many made by 

 the English artist, Waterhouse Hawkins, 

 for Princeton and other museums were 



Property of the Museum 

 Gigantic sabre-tooth tiger of the early part of the Pleistocene Epoch in Brazil. The sabre-tooth is 

 shown stalking out to the edge of the cliff at sunset and snarling his defiance at some beast below. Per- 

 haps he sees a huge ground sloth and will bound down and tear the unwieldy creature with his dagger- 

 like tusks. Some of liis relatives ranged into North America but he is characteristic of Brazil 



the opinions of a man experienced in 

 making accurate deductions, he suc- 

 ceeded in making these animals, which 

 have not walked the earth for a million 

 or more of years, look as though they are 

 alive and in their natural haunt. It was 

 in connection with these restorations 

 that he began his work as a sculptor, 

 adding thus a new medium. He found 

 it of practical help to model the animal 

 first, working up the form from the 



characterized by lack of accuracy. Es- 

 pecially is this true of the models to show 

 extinct reptiles. In great contrast stand 

 Knight's large series of paintings and 



models.^ 



1 Knight's series of prehistoric restorations pro- 

 duced between 1896 and 1900, are now exhibited in 

 the fossil vertebrate hall of the Museum and have 

 been reproduced in many foreign museiuns, nota- 

 bly Paris, London and Mimich. A second series 

 comprising in jjart the same animals, is now tinder 

 way, based upon more recent and precise knowl- 

 edge both of the structiu-e and the probable habits 

 of the various types. 



