The
following clip shows Errol Fuller (1947- ), painter, sparring partner
of “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon and author of such works as
“Extinct Birds” and “The Lost Birds of Paradise”, both of
which I highly recommend, talking about his collection of old
taxidermy. He has some wonderful pieces; I'm particularly envious of
his Shoebill stork (now known, through DNA testing, to be more
closely related to pelicans than storks). It is revealing that four
minutes seven seconds into the film Fuller baulks at using the word
“stuffed” when describing the taxidermy of Charles Waterton and
chooses instead to say “done”.
Fuller's
hesitation when referring to Waterton's work is due to his awareness
that Waterton was unique among taxidermists in not using a structure
on which to position the pelt. His creations were hollow, he never
“stuffed”; from an etymological perspective he remains the only
pure practitioner of taxidermy (from Greek taxis
“arrangement”, from tassein “arrange”, + derma
“skin”) in that he eschewed all artifice other than moulding and
stiffening the skin.
The above painting of Waterton is the work of Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)
who started life as a saddle-maker before becoming a portrait artist.
He also created, in Philadelphia, one of the world's first natural
history museums.
A
self-portrait of Peale in his museum.
Three
of Peale's ten children, Raphaelle, Rembrandt and Rubens, followed in
his footsteps and became accomplished artists. Raphaelle worked for a
while as a taxidermist in his father's museum where the arsenic he
absorbed when mounting specimens contributed to his early death.
“John
Bull and the National Debt”, a satirical piece by Charles Waterton
Waterton (1782-1865) had a large estate in Wakefield, Yorkshire, it was here that he created the world's first nature reserve. He used to invite patients from a local mental asylum to come to his house and use his telescope to watch the waterfowl on his lake as a form of relaxation therapy. By doing such things Waterton became known as an eccentric. Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), herself no slouch when it came to eccentricity, had this to say about him;
“He was an
eccentric only as all great gentlemen are eccentric, by which I mean
that their gestures are not born to fit the conventions or the
cowardice of the crowd. His biographer, Father J. Wood, says, very
rightly: 'It was perhaps eccentric to have a strong religious faith,
and act up to it. It was eccentric, as Thackeray said, to "dine
on a crust, live as cheaply as a hermit, and give his all to the
poor." It was eccentric to come into a large estate as a young
man, and to have come to extreme old age without having wasted an
hour or a shilling. It was eccentric to give bountifully and never
allow his name to appear in a subscription list. It was eccentric to
be saturated with the love of nature. It might be eccentric never to
give dinner-parties, preferring to keep an open house for his
friends, but it was a very agreeable kind of eccentricity. It was
eccentric to be childlike, but never childish. We might multiply
instances of his eccentricity to any extent, and we may safely say
that the world would be much better than it is if such eccentricity
were more common."
“Charles
Waterton Capturing a Cayman”
by
Edward Jones
