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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURXAL 



being recognized as objects of art be- 

 cause in the past they were painted by 

 certain well-known foreign artists. The 

 market has been so ruled by precedent 

 and fashion that no first-class painter 

 has dared paint any other animals. 

 The painter of horses and dogs has been 

 able to find little market for his paintings 

 except in stock magazines and the paint- 

 er of wild animals has had to place his 

 pictures in sporting magazines. A few 

 years hence it will perhaps have been 

 proved that Knight working single- 

 mindedly along the line of his interest 

 has had some influence toward bringing 

 about the condition in which work 

 stands on its merit, irrespective of any 

 fashion in dictated subject. What is no 

 doubt true, is that there is already well 

 started a small movement, of which 

 Knight stands in the front rank among 

 the forerunners, for the wild animal in 

 art, just as there has been in literature, 

 and that this mo\'ement will work itself 



out during the next half century in many 

 additions to our animal bronzes and par- 

 ticularly in animal mural decorations. 



The character of Knight's portrayal 

 of animals is one about which there has 

 been much controversy among artists. 

 He paints nature as he sees it. He is so 

 great a lover of truth that the "Tiger 

 and Cobra" for instance was made not 

 merely from studies of the tiger from life; 

 the tiger was modeled and a tiger skin 

 spread over this model in the sun to get 

 the l>asis of realism in color, light and 

 shadow on which to build the artist's 

 picture. Like the old Barbizon French 

 school he tries only to learn from nature, 

 portraying the exact truth of form and 

 color, as subtly affected however by 

 light in an atmosphere. Like La Farge 

 who was largely influenced by this 

 school. Knight adds something of the 

 scientist — in fact of the true naturalist 

 — to his ability as an artist. 



M. C. D. 



Property of the Museum 



Restoration of the dinosaur Diplodocus 



