TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



Well-educated and of wide and far-reaching knowledge 

 taxidermists should be, but of equal importance to them, and 

 indeed to all curators of museums, are an accurate perception 

 of form and colour, a sound grounding in anatomy, a great 

 love of order, and, lastly, a familiarity, gained in the field, of 

 the habits of animals. The absence of these qualifications 

 explains the undoubted fact that there are dozens of ill- 

 educated men who never should have become taxidermists or 

 curators, and, on the other hand, there are likewise dozens of 

 university men filling posts in museums in various countries, 

 whose business habits and attainments as curators are nil, 

 and to them, probably, is due the general and unfortunate con- 

 ception of an ordinary museum as a place where everything 

 is very dry, very inartistic, and very neglected. 



One thing is abundantly plain : that taxidermists and also 

 curators are of " no account " unless they realise form and lines 

 of beauty, and have a good anatomical grounding and con- 

 siderable aptitude. Colour, of course, is of high importance, 

 but colour-sense is of no avail without sense of form, and this 

 ignorance of the first principle in art is painfully evidenced 

 every day. Who does not know the lovely colour-schemes 

 and fine colour- perception revealed in Giacomelli's birds? 

 Yet neither the artist nor the thousands of people who look at 

 the reproductions of his works appear to be aware that the 

 forms are those of the ignorant bird-stuffer ; — crooked-backed, 

 all awry, and with eyes starting from their heads, these birds, 

 so perfect in colour, are disgraceful in form, and in those 

 obviously taken from life the drawing is but little better. 



In the Royal Academy may constantly be seen such 

 defects of drawing when artists are dealing with animal life, 

 or what is called still life. In 1 892 a study was exhibited in 

 which an owl figured ; the painting was simply perfect and 

 learned — but the bird ! A ragged, moth-eaten old specimen. 



