50 
NATURE NOTES. 
A SELBORNIAN ANIMAL PAINTER. 
i|T must be nearly forty years ago that three small boys 
of Selbornian instincts found their keenest enjoyment 
in looking at books illustrated by two artists to whom 
one, at least, of the boys has ever since been grateful. 
The artists were Harrison Weir and Joseph Wolf — both of them, 
happily, still with us, and the former, at any rate, a staunch 
supporter of the Selborne Society ; and the boy is the writer of 
this notice. When The Life of Joseph Wolf'^' came into his hands 
his first feeling was of regret that one whose books had delighted 
his boyhood as well as his later life had been taken from us ; and 
it was with keen satisfaction he found that, although born in 
1820, Joseph Wolf was still hale and hearty, and still at work, in 
his studio at Primrose Hill. 
Different in treatment as is the work of Wolf and Weir, there 
is no need to draw an invidious comparison between the two 
artists, for each in his way is excellent, and we can equally enjoy 
both. But it is satisfactory to know that each of them, in 
addition to the skill of the artist, possesses a true sympathy and 
affection for the subjects of his pencil. “ The best aspect of 
Wolf’s work,” says one of his critics, “ is his power of represent- 
ing the pathetic side of animal life, in which he shows his 
sympathy for the suffering bird or beast.” And yet, as Mr. 
Charles Whymper has said, “ although a true lover of animals, 
he never commits that folly of trying to make them other than 
what they are — ‘ beasts of the field.’ A large section of the 
public, reared in pictures of pet dogs with interesting faces as 
like man’s as possible, and noble stags and eagles of conven- 
tional beauty, do not, therefore, all at once see the charm of his 
completely natural animals. But the verdict of every single 
naturalist and sportsman is that no pictures of wild animal life 
could possibly be better and truer.” 
As a schoolboy in Rhenish Prussia, Wolf early showed that 
sympathy with animals to which reference has been made. We 
find him fighting his schoolfellows for torturing a nest of young 
birds. He began to draw almost as soon as he could hold a 
pencil, and soon knew the habits of every bird in the district. 
“ At the sight of a strange bird, or the sound of an unknown 
note, he would be off, regardless of time or place.” And the 
animals in turn recognised in Wolf a friend. “ They seemed to 
understand that he did not thirst for their blood, but merely 
wished to know all about them. His patience and gentleness of 
disposition may have had something to do with this, besides a 
certain skill in the language which every animal uses in its 
intercourse with an especial human friend, in those rare cases 
where it finds itself understood.” 
* The Life of Joseph Wolf, Animal Painter, by A. II. Palmer. Illustrated. 
London : Longmans. Price One Guinea. 
