File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17973906239).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo14amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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98 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.
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Property of the Museum Restoration of the dinosaur Diplodocus

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