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The Life 
 
 of 
 
 Joseph Wolf 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 Joseph Wolf 
 
 ANIMAL PAINTER 
 
 By A. H. Palmei 
 
 (Author of The Life of Samuel Palmer) 
 II f.UST RATED 
 
 WE SEE DISTINCTLY ONLY WHAT WE KNOW THOROUGHLY." 
 
 Publifhed by Longmans, Green & Co 
 
 LONDON AND NEW YORK. 
 
 . 1895 
 (All Rights Reserved) 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IT was in the pretty house which Mr. H. E. 
 Dresser, the accomplished ornithologist, had 
 built himself in the midst of the Kentish 
 orchards, that I first saw his old friend Mr. Joseph 
 Wolf. 
 
 One day his host and hostess, having an engage- 
 ment, asked me to walk over for a chat with their 
 guest. It proved to be no ordinary visit, for I found 
 him fascinating and interesting to a degree so remark- 
 able, that I resolved, then and there, if no one else told 
 the story of his life, to attempt it myself. Time passed 
 on, and when, after many explorations of his portfolios, 
 I had formed some estimate of Wolf's power, his ideal, 
 and his life-long diligence in searching for knowledge, 
 there arose a strange, strong longing to make these 
 things more widely known — the feeling and poetry, 
 the scholarly, unmercenary learning, and the consum- 
 mate manipulative skill, all so loyally ministering to 
 truth. 
 
 Nevertheless, the story of a perfectly uneventful 
 life, even without the shadows of adversity to give 
 variety to its sunshine, must often be dull reading ; 
 
V] 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 but if the reader bears in mind the valiant struggle of 
 the little, untaught farmer's boy, the passionate love 
 of wild animals, and the steadfast, self-denying loyalty 
 to an artistic ideal in after-life, perhaps he will grant 
 that such a career was worth some record. 
 
 As to the result of that career, men eminent in 
 science have agreed with men eminent in art ; but no 
 one person can realize the full scope of such attain- 
 ments. The zoologist, the artist, the poet, will appre- 
 ciate these attainments each from his own point of 
 view. If my short record should be the cause of the 
 best of Wolf's work, and what he has accomplished in 
 each of its phases, becoming better recognised, it will 
 not be futile. 
 
 Speaking of a study I had been examining one 
 day, Wolf said, " The thing you have put down there 
 " I would swear to." It is not of all his works that he 
 will speak thus. Some which, apparently, are very 
 accurate and very beautiful, he will not swear to, 
 either because he is not quite sure that they are abso- 
 lutely true, or because the truth is not told as happily 
 as he can tell it In choosing from many hundreds 
 of drawings and sketches the illustrations of this 
 volume, I have confined myself to those which have 
 come up to this standard of the artist's. The originals 
 are as true as he could make them, although, in some 
 cases, the scenes are imaginary ; but what I have said 
 as to the inevitable inadequacy of any translations 
 whatsoever of Wolf's work, I must repeat here em- 
 
PRE FA CE 
 
 VI! 
 
 phatically. To form an adequate idea of its merit, the 
 work itself must, in every case, be studied. 
 
 If we (the artist and I) have inadvertently chosen 
 any work for reproduction as to the ownership of the 
 copyright of which there may be a doubt, we trust 
 that our full apology will be accepted. 
 
 To the Duke of Argyll my thanks are due for his 
 Grace's kind permission to include the original char- 
 coal sketch of a Golden Eagle subject which was burnt 
 at Inveraray. 1 
 
 I am greatly indebted to the Secretaries of the 
 Zoological Society of London and The British Orni- 
 thologists' Union for their courtesy in granting leave 
 to reproduce some of Mr. Wolf's auto-lithographs in 
 The Proceedings and The Ibis. 
 
 I am also indebted to Messrs. H. E. Dresser, 
 G. B. Eyre, Alfred Healey, Robert J. Howard, and 
 J. H. Lea, for the privilege of giving representations 
 of their drawings ; while to Mr. D. G. Elliot I owe 
 permission to add two sketches drawn for his well- 
 known Monographs of The Cats and The Pheasants. 
 
 I must thank Messrs. Longmans & Co. not only for 
 allowing me to include the sketches of Elephants, but 
 for the liberality and thoughtful solicitude with which 
 they have done their part. To them was entrusted 
 the publication of the first work Joseph Wolf did in 
 this country, and it is a happy circumstance that they 
 
 1 The Duke was so good as to inform me that a copy of the picture 
 was made by one of his sons before its destruction. 
 
viii LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 should publish also the story of his life and labours 
 while he is yet among us. 
 
 To Mr. Dresser I owe much besides the loan 
 of his drawings. But for him I might never have 
 met Joseph Wolf; and with constant kindness he has 
 spared no pains to further my object. 
 
 A. H. Palmer. 
 
 Carn Towan, Sennen, Land's End : 
 September 1895. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Wolf's Kindred and Birthplace, page I. Childhood, 3. Unusual sus- 
 ceptibility to the beauty of Nature, 5. His schooling, 5. He turns 
 against farming, 6. His first artistic attempts and discouragements, 
 7. The first Gun, 7. The Ravines of the Moselle, 9. Home-made 
 Brushes, 10. His great powers of observation, 12. He snares Birds 
 of Prey for models, 1 5. He leaves home and becomes a Litho- 
 grapher's Apprentice, 17. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Wolf's apprentice life, 18. Returns home and paints the Bird Minia- 
 tures, Landscapes and Portraits, 21-24. Wine gauging, 25. He 
 leaves home again, and calls on Dr. Riippell, 25. His first encourage- 
 ment, 26. Dr. Kaup, 27. A Commission from Professor Schlegel, 
 28. He escapes military service, 29. Removes to Leyden, 30. 
 Traite de Fauconnerie, 31. He settles at Darmstadt, 33. Illustrates 
 Riippell's Birds of North East Africa, and contributes some Illustra- 
 tions to the Fauna Jaftonica, 34. He attends his first Art School, 35. 
 Sport in the Forests and the use he made of it, 36-37. He studies 
 Pterylography, 38. He studies anatomical detail, 40. He studies 
 Blackgame, 42. The Woodcock sketches, 43. Kern's commission, 
 44. The Darmstadt Oil- pictures, 46. He leaves Dai mstadt and joins 
 the Antwerp Academy, 49. Is invited to London and declines, 50. 
 He leaves Germany, 51. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Wolf begins work at the British Museum for Gray's Genera of Birds, 53. 
 His early friendships, 56. Science versus Art, 58. His power of 
 revivifying preserved specimens, 61. He works for other artists, 63. 
 Distinguished employers, 65. The Pre-Raphaelites' opinion, 67. 
 
X 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 John Gould, 69. Wolf works for Gould, 72. Gould and SevertzofT, 
 75. A Great Auk's Egg, 76. Wolf visits Norway with Gould and 
 George Parker Bidder, 77. Gould's opinion of Wolf, 80. Wolf's 
 first Academy Picture hung, 80. He goes to Knowsley Hall, 82. The 
 Menagerie, 83. He visits Sutherlandshire and studies Ptarmigan, 88. 
 Visits Guisachan and studies the Golden Eagle, 91. His dislike to 
 " Grand Visits," 93. The Proceedings of The Zoological Society, 94. 
 The importance of Backgrounds, 101. The Transactions of The 
 Zoological Society, 102. 'I he Ibis, 105. Naturalists and Art, 107. 
 The Zoological Sketches, 109. Elliot's Monographs, 112. Dresser's 
 Birds of Europe, 115. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Wolf begins to work for the Publishers and visits A. E. Knox, 116. 
 The Poets of the Woods and. Feathered Favourites, 117. Anderson's 
 Lake N Garni, 119. Livingstone's Missionary Travels, 123. Dray- 
 son's Snorting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs, 124. More Academy 
 Pictures, 125. "Jerfalcons striking a Kite," 126. Eagles more 
 picturesque than Falcons, 128. Feathers and Flight, 129-31. The 
 Sketches for Oswell, 133. Wolf's hatred of so-called "Sport" and 
 of Sporting Subjects, 137. " The Aggressor shall not succeed," 140. 
 Wolf removes to Berners Street, 142. His Aviaries, 143. His annual 
 holidays, 147. His snow subjects, 149. He visits Handa and the 
 Bass Rock, 151. His work for Routledge's Poets, 153. Gosse's 
 Romance of Natural History, 156. Tennent's Sketches of the Natural 
 History of Ceylon, 159. Johns' British Birds, 161. Baldwin's African 
 Hunting, 165. Wood's Natural History, 167. Wallace's Malay 
 Archipelago and Campbell's Indian fournal, 169. Wolf's work for 
 the Illustrated Periodicals, 169. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Wolf's Large Charcoal Drawings, 173. The German Athenaeum Sub- 
 jects, 174. His humorous Designs, 180. He frequents the Zoological 
 Gardens and his safeguard maxims in using them, 182-4. He rarely 
 sketches animals in motion, 186. Professor Owen's Monograph of 
 the Gorilla, 188. An Experiment with a Fox, 190. Wolf is intro- 
 duced to Darwin, 192. "The Laughing Monkey," 193. Wolfs inde- 
 pendence of thought, 196. Darwin and the Bullfinch, 197. The Life 
 and Habits of Wild Animals and its reception by the Press, 198. 
 Wood-engraving and Mystery, 202. Wood-engraving and Process- 
 work, 204. "The Night Attack," 209. "Families of Lions," 211. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xi 
 
 Wolfs Mistakes, 212. Commissions, 213. Cui bono? 214. He 
 reaches his Prime, 215. Joins the Institute of Painters in Water- 
 colours, and exhibits "Broken Fetters," 216. His reasons for not 
 exhibiting often, 218. He removes to The Avenue, Fulham Road, 
 and designs " Inquisitive Neighbours," 220. His Clay Models, 221. 
 He paints the Queen's Bullfinch, 223. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Wolf leaves Fulham for Primrose Hill Studios, 225. His personal 
 appearance, 226. The Studio Blackbirds, 227. His Garden, 228. 
 His love of spring-time, 229. The Studio, 230. The great Box- 
 portfolios and their contents, 231. The Subjects on the Easels, 234. 
 A Notable Critic, 235. What Wolf has most suffered from, 235, 
 Instances of his rapidity, 237. " A Row in the Jungle," 238. Scanty 
 material to work from, 240. A notable Sofa and its contents, 241. 
 The Cabinet of Sketches from Life, 245. Wolf's simple bachelor 
 life, 247. His vigorous Conversation, 248. His opinion of con- 
 temporary Zoological Art, 248. The Zoological Draughtsman's Back- 
 grounds, 251. Wolfs favouiite subjects and best works, 252. "Arctic 
 Summer," 254. His colour harmonies, 255. German or English? 
 257. Nothing like Smoking, 258. His love for Children, 259. He 
 pays the Author a Country Visit, 263. His skill with the Rifle, 262. 
 His knowledge of birds' notes and great keenness of sight and 
 hearing, 263. Backgrounds and Accessories, 265. His knowledge 
 of detail is troublesome, 266. Charcoal his favourite material, 269. 
 His water-colour method, 271. His Eclecticism, 274. His un- 
 mercenary Ideal, 277. To compare him with otherartists impossible, 
 279. Mr. Dresser's opinion, 283. Professor Newton's opinion, 284. 
 Mr. Thorbunvs opinion, 286. Mr. Charles Whymper's opinion, 286. 
 
 APPENDIX, 290 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PLATES 
 
 From the 
 B. Eyre. 
 
 Joseph Wolf aged seventy-two 
 
 Photogravure from a photograph by the Author. 
 
 Age 
 
 An old Stag lagging behind the other Deer, 
 charcoal drawing in the possession of Mr. G. 
 1872. 
 
 PANYPTILA SANCTI-JEROMM 
 
 A new species cf Swift from Guatemala. The nest is com- 
 posed entirely of the seeds of a certain plant cemented 
 tog ther, and hung from the under surface of an overhanging 
 rock by the saliva of ihe bird. The structure is twenty- 
 six inches long by six inches in diameter. From the auto 
 lithograph in The Proceedings of the Zoological Society 
 i85 3 . XXIII. 
 
 The Shoe-billed Stork (Balcejiiceps rex) . 
 
 A gigantic grallatorial Bird found only on the Upper Nile 
 Total length 67 inches. From the auto-lithograph in The 
 
 Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 
 
 Fishing in the Shallows . 
 
 ;i. Aves. XXXV 
 
 White-headed Eagle [Haliaetus leucocephalus) and Salmon 
 From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 
 
 ACCI PITER COLLARIS 
 
 "An undescribed species of Hawk from New Granada.' 
 From the auto-lithograph in The Ibis. i860. VI. 
 
 CAPRIMULGUS VEXILLARIUS 
 
 Africa. From the auto-lithograph in The Ibis. 1864. II. 
 
 Fro)itispiece 
 To face p. 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 18 
 
 30 
 
xiv LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Nasiturna pusio {natural size) \ . ... .To face p. 36 
 
 A new Parrot from the Saloman Islands. From the auto- 
 lithograph in The Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 
 1865. XXXV. 
 
 Caprimulgus tamaricis ,, 44 
 
 Dead Sea. From the auto-lithograph in The Ibis. 1866. II. 
 
 Spizaetus nanus . . . . , . . : „ 48 
 
 New species. Borneo. From the auto-lithograph in The 
 Ibis. 1868. I. 
 
 Solitary „ 52 
 
 Rough-legged Buzzard (Archibuteo lagopns). From a char- 
 coal drawing in the Author's possession. 
 
 E Leonora's Falcon (Hypotriorchis eleonorce) . „ 5S 
 
 Madagascar and adjacent islands. From the auto-lithograph 
 in The Ibis. 1869. XVI. 
 
 ASTUR GRICEICEPS . . .. ,. . . ......... .„ . 62 
 
 Celebes. From the auto-lithograph in The Ibis. 1864. V. 
 
 Germain's Polyplectron {Polyplectron germaini) . ,, 69 
 
 Cochin China. From the auto-lithograph in The Ibis. 1866. 
 
 Bubo fasciolatus . . . '. ' „ 76 
 
 An African Horned Owl (not quite adult) ; never previously 
 brought to Europe. From the auto-lithograph in The Pro- 
 ceedings of the Zoological Society. 1863. XXXIII. 
 
 Leucopternis princeps . . . ... „ - 80 
 
 A new accipitrine bird from mountains in Costa Rica. From 
 the auto-lithograph in The Proceedings of the Zoological 
 Society. 1865. XXIV. 
 Tregelaphus SPEKII / . . . . t . , a 85 
 
 East Africa. From the auto-lithograph in The Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society. 1864. XII. 
 
 Pi THE CI A MO N AC H US . „ 92 
 
 From the auto-lithograph in The Proceedings of the Zoological 
 Society. 1862. XXXVII. 
 
 Dactylopsila trivirgata „ 97 
 
 Aru Islands. From the auto-lithograph in The Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society. 1858. Mammalia. LXIII. 
 
 Dead Aye Aye {Chiromys madagascariensis) . „ 103 
 
 Outline of a specimen which had lived in the gardens of the 
 Zoological Society, illustrating the Artist's method of re- 
 cording the measurements of dead animals. The reproduc- 
 tion is from a chalk drawing in the Author's possession, 
 of the natural size ; that is, from nostril to tip of tail in a 
 straight line, twenty-six inches. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 xv 
 
 The Eastern Red-footed Hobdy {Erythropus 
 
 amurensis). $ $ Juv. Natal . . . .To face p. 106 
 
 From the auto-lithograph in The Ibis. 1868. Plate II. 
 
 Felis macrosceloides „ in 
 
 Nepal, India. From the auto-lithograph in The Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society. 1853. Mammalia. XXXVIII. 
 
 Reeves' Pheasant (Phasianus reevesi) . . . . „ 114 
 
 From the original charcoal sketch for the lithograph in 
 Mr. D. G. Elliot's Monograph of the Phasiauidcr. With his 
 permission. In the Artist's possession. 
 
 The Panther (Felis par dus) „ 1 1 6 
 
 The larger and lighter variety found in India and Morocco. 
 From the original charcoal sketch for the lithograph in 
 Mr. D. G. Elliot's Monograph of the Felidcc. With his 
 permission. In the Artist's possession. 
 
 The Pallid Harrier (Circus swainsoni) ... ,, 122 
 
 From the original sketch in charcoal-grey for the lithograph 
 in Mr. H. E. Dresser's Birds of Europe. In his posses- 
 sion. 1877. 
 
 The Marsh Harrier {Circus ceruginosus) . . . „ 124 
 
 From the original sketch in charcoal grey for the lithograph 
 in Mr. H. E. Dresser's Birds of Europe. In his posses- 
 sion. 1877. 
 
 Golden Eagle (A q u ila chrysaetus) .... „ 128 
 
 From a charcoal study for a picture commissioned by the 
 Duke of Argyll. With his Grace's permission. In the 
 Artist's possession. 
 
 "Sport" „ 135 
 
 From a charcoal sketch in the Artist's possession. 1875. 
 
 A Mongoose (Herpcstes smithii . ?) „ 138 
 
 India. From an auto-lithograph in The Proceedings of the 
 Zoological Society. 
 
 The Silver Marmoset {Mico sericeus) ... „ 146 
 
 Brazil. From the auto-lithograph in The Proceedings of the 
 Zoological Society. 1868. XXIV. Drawn from life. 
 
 A Storm in the Alps „ 149 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the possession of Mr. Alfred 
 Healey. 27x21. 1877. 
 
 Morning. A Sequel ' . . „ 171 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 
 
 Tame and Wild . „ 175 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 1872. 
 
xvi 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Surprise 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 1874 
 
 Peace and War 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 1874 
 
 A. Lecture on Embryology .... 
 
 " Came the first Egg from an Owl, or came the first Owl from 
 an Egg ? " From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's posses- 
 sion. 1877. 
 
 The Bashful Monkey 
 
 This lithograph, though drawn from life for The Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society, was not published. It represents 
 a species of Cebus from South America. 
 
 Monteiro's Galago {Galago monteiri) 
 
 Angola. Length 28 inches. The ears of the Galagos are 
 large, " quite bare, and have the unique peculiarity that they 
 can be partially folded upon themselves at such times as 
 their owners please, so as to be nearly flat upon the sides 
 of the head." Lydekker. From the auto-lithograph in The 
 Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 1863. XXVIII. 
 
 Bartlett's Spider Monkey {A teles bartletti) ; 
 
 River Amazons. From the auto-lithograph in The Pro- 
 ceedings of the Zoological Society. 1867. XLVII. 
 
 Allen's Galago {Galago alleni) 
 
 Camaroons River, West Africa. From the auto-lithograph 
 in The Proceedings of 'the Zoological Society. 1863. XXXII. 
 
 The White-cheeked Sapajou {Cebus leiicogettys) 
 
 A new species of Cebus from Brazil. From the auto- 
 lithograph in The Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 
 1865. XLV. 
 
 A Night Attack 
 
 Pine Marten and Ring Dove. From a chalk drawing in the 
 Artist's possession. 
 
 Inquisitive Neighbours 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 1875. 
 
 A Bear with Honeycomb 
 
 From a model exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876. In 
 the Artist's possession. 
 
 The Japanese Bear {Ursus japonicus) 
 
 From the nuto-lithograph in The Proceedings of the Zoological 
 Society. 1862. XXXII. 
 
 To face 
 
 176 
 179 
 180 
 
 186 
 
 193 
 
 202 
 
 208 
 
 210 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 XVI 1 
 
 A Peregrine Tiercel {Falco peregrinus) . . . To face p. 231 
 
 From a charcoal sketch in the Author's possession. 1876. 
 
 Pteromys grandis ... . . . . „ 234 
 
 A "Flying Rat," four feet long. B'ormosa, The camphor tree 
 in which the nest was placed having been felled, the young 
 were captured. The parents at first escaped, but, having 
 returned, were secured also. From the auto-lithograph in 
 
 The Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 1862. XLV. 
 
 THE SiAMANG (Hylobates syiidactylus) .... ,, 236 
 From a water-colour sketch from life, painted in the Gardens 
 of theSoci6te" d'Acclimatation, Paris. In the Artist's pos- 
 session. 
 
 The Siamang (swinging) „ 240 
 
 See above. 
 
 The Siamang (sitting) „ 244 
 
 See above. 
 
 Ospreys {Pa7idion haliaetus) . .... „ 249 
 
 From a charcoal drawing in the Artist's possession. 1869. 
 
 Equals . . „ 255 
 
 From the charcoal drawing in the possession of Mr. J. H. 
 Lea. 1877. 
 
 A Midnight Ramble M 267 
 
 From the charcoal sketch in the possession of Mr. Robert 
 J. Howard. 1856. 
 
 Captivity „ 268 
 
 From a charcoal sketch in the Artist's possession. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Blackcock as he fell . . 65 
 
 From a pencil sketch from nature at Inveraray. In the Artist's possession. 
 
 Sketches of Flying Ospreys 132. 133 
 
 Illustrating the Artist's remarks touching laborious and easy flight. In 
 his possession. 
 
 Joseph Wolf in the Fifties 141 
 
 From a photograph. 
 
xviii LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mode of tying an Elephant . 160 
 
 Original sketch for the woodcut in 'The Natural History of Ceylon, by 
 Sir James Emerson Tennent. 1861. By permission of Messrs. Long- 
 mans & Co. In the Artist's possession. 
 
 His struggles for freedom .161 
 
 See " Mode of Tying an Elephant." In the Artist's possession. 
 
 A Wild Cat {Felts catus) . . . .172 
 
 From a pencil sketch from life in the Artist's possession. 
 
 First Sketch for 'A Lecture on Embryology' . . .181 
 
 In the Artist's possession. 
 
 The Laughing Monkey (Cynopithecus niger) . . . . 195 
 
 A duplicate version of a sketch, from life, for The Expressions of the 
 Emotions in Man and Animals. In the Artist's possession. 1871. 
 
 Head of Ovis ammon 224 
 
 From a chalk sketch in the Artist's possession. 
 
 Sketch of Ovis poli in Snow 239 
 
 In the Artist's possession. 
 
 Pere David's Deer {Cervus davidianus) 260 
 
 Northern China. From a charcoal sketch in the Artist's possession. 
 
 Lion Cubs 289 
 
 From a pencil sketch from life in the Artist's possession. 
 
 Turtle Doves . . . . 303 
 
 From a sketch in the Artist's possession. 
 
 Errata 
 
 Page 37, line 8, for animals read mammals 
 ,, 112 ,, 9 for Elliott read Elliot 
 
 113 >. 20 
 
 114 >. 7, 25 
 >. i79 7 
 ,, 19 8 i7 
 
 243 ,, 4 
 
 / 
 
Age. 
 
Joseph Wolf 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY in the present century, when the 
 province of Rhenish Prussia had been 
 recently formed, and the country was settling 
 down to a state of unwonted peace, one Anton 
 Wolf lived in the little village of Moerz, in the 
 district of Mayfeld, not far from the road connect- 
 ing Treves with Coblenz. The village was about 
 fifteen miles distant from this city, but only two 
 from the market town of Mtinstermayfeld — just 
 remote enough, in fact, to enjoy some of the 
 blessings of remoteness. As for antiquity, if any of 
 the inhabitants cared for such a thing, a neighbour- 
 hood where stern old Rome had left her handiwork 
 would have been interesting enough and to spare. 
 
 Anton Wolf was a reserved, well-to-do man (farm- 
 ing his own land), who, as Headman of the place, 
 had some degree of authority. Among a number of 
 his small duties were such as the reading to the 
 villagers, summoned by the church bell to the public 
 
 B 
 
 /« 
 
2 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 bakehouse, any new government regulation, or signing 
 the book of the gendarmes at stated and sometimes 
 untimely hours. 
 
 The Headman's house was distinguished from the 
 others by the Prussian Eagle on a large metal plate, 
 and was a substantial, slate-roofed, stone dwelling of 
 two stories. I have seen a sketch representing it as 
 bosomed in trees, with a sleepy, old-world look about 
 it, enhanced by a flock of pigeons which wheel about 
 over the steep gables, and bask in rows upon the 
 ridges. Tiles there were none in the place, and very 
 few of the houses were thatched, for such an inflam- 
 mable method of roofing was discouraged by a 
 careful government. Indeed, if an economical man 
 mended his thatch he was straightway fined. It was 
 a place that seemed, from all appearances, to have 
 quietly settled down to slumber. Each burly village 
 stay-at-home was content with his quiet life, though, 
 perhaps, he may have growled a little if the 
 Headman billeted a Prussian artilleryman or trooper 
 upon him, when the duties of a squadron or a battery 
 brought it towards the frontier. 
 
 As for Anton Wolf himself, his ambition climbed 
 no higher than good prices and good seasons. Since 
 the days when he had been drafted off with a heavy 
 flint-lock to withstand Napoleon (before the death 
 of his little daughter), his troubles had been few — 
 nothing much more serious, indeed, than increasing 
 taxation. 
 
CHILDHOOD 
 
 3 
 
 Touching the five strong boys which were borne 
 him by Elizabeth his wife, his main desire was that 
 they should become comfortable, saving men like 
 himself, worthy to plough the paternal acres. 
 
 Of these five surviving children I have to follow 
 the fortunes of Joseph, the eldest, who was born on 
 the 21st of January, 1820, and soon grew to be a fair, 
 sturdy child, evidently destined to inherit the big 
 bones of his ancestors. 
 
 Among the earliest things which he noticed, next 
 to a Black Forest clock, a ponderous oak table where 
 the family fed with their labourers, and the spinning- 
 w,heel at which his mother laboured, was her flower 
 garden. Her fragrant, old-fashioned blossoms were 
 the pride of her life, and it soon became her little 
 son's delight to watch her as she tended them, or to 
 toddle about by himself, prying for the earliest shoots 
 of the tulips, and hyacinths, and daffodils in the 
 spring. 
 
 A notable event was his first sheep-washing, for 
 it was always a real, old-fashioned, village holiday, 
 merrily kept at Catenass on the lovely banks of 
 the Moselle two miles away. The child's joy at the 
 bustle and excitement of the journey, and at the first 
 sight of a river and a fish, he remembers still. 
 
 After a while he began to enjoy the other plea- 
 sures of a primitive life, and he loved to watch the 
 rape-threshing by men mounted on the ponderous 
 farm horses ; or to run at the heels of the field- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 labourers, who were well versed, of course, in 
 poacher's wood-craft. 
 
 It is evident that an unusual susceptibility to the 
 witchery of nature began to show itself very early. 
 At an age when the average village child thinks only 
 of what he can tease and what he can eat, little Wolf 
 was exulting in the teeming life which came with the 
 spring. The re-appearance of favourite flowers and 
 familiar birds, mourned all the winter as dead and 
 gone, thrilled him in a way which neither he nor any 
 one else who has felt it can express in words. It was 
 also evident that, coupled with the overpowering love 
 of nature, there was a power of observation altogether 
 phenomenal. 
 
 As a very little child, the Nightingale's song 
 raised a longing to know what great, beautiful bird 
 sang "so wild and well." So one day he crept along 
 till he was able to see the little insignificant brown 
 thing, not even as large as a Thrush, with arched back 
 and drooping tail, singing right merrily. He was 
 bitterly disappointed ; and he says, " It was too small 
 " for me. I thought 'What an ugly little brute you 
 "'are!'" But when a pair of Goldfinches set up 
 their housekeeping in the garden, he spent hours 
 in watching them and wondering at their exceeding 
 beauty and brilliancy. 
 
 Such as these are the incidents he can recall of his 
 childhood. He tells how greedily he listened for the 
 Buzzards' cries as they soared high up in the air ; 
 
Panyptila sancti-jeroivl-e. 
 
SCHOOL 
 
 5 
 
 how he longed and waited for the cheerful laugh of 
 the Green Woodpecker ; and how the monotonous 
 note of the Turtle Dove always filled him with unac- 
 countable melancholy. He remembers, too, how he 
 grieved to say good-bye to the last Swallow. 
 
 It was not a brush, or a pencil, that first found its 
 way into Joseph Wolf's small fist, but a pair of 
 scissors. With these he cut out paper silhouettes of 
 birds and animals of his own design, to paste on a 
 window ; where they were much admired by a sym- 
 pathetic tax-gatherer. 
 
 Before this time the boy had gone to school at 
 the neighbouring village of Metternich. Here, in 
 a small library belonging to the schoolmaster, he 
 soon scented out an old work on natural history ; one 
 of that class, he says, where the Orang-utan is 
 represented as sedately walking with a stick. 1 At 
 that school, however, science was at a discount, and 
 little Wolf had to content himself with many a wistful 
 glance at the outside of the volume he longed to 
 pounce upon. 
 
 His observant habits and superior skill in drawing 
 maps told favourably with the master ; but to the 
 scholars, a boy who refrained from bird's-nesting on 
 principle and who was willing to fight any one of 
 
 1 At the Zoological Society's, at Hanover Square, there is a careful 
 early drawing by Wolf of an Orang-utan living in the Gardens, support- 
 ing itself upon a stick. This, he says, was simply a trick the animal had 
 learnt, and would not be natural to a wild specimen. " Representations 
 of its walking with a stick," says Wallace, " are entirely imaginary." 
 
6 Z/i^ JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 them in defence of a nest-full of young birds was a 
 puzzle. 
 
 Among the boys, Whitethroats were called 
 " Grass-sparrows," and as a war of extermination was 
 carried on against " Sparrows " all and singular, they 
 adjourned one day to enjoy the slow torture of a nest- 
 full. The ingenious cruelty so infuriated little Wolf 
 that he betook himself to his fists, and then to the 
 master, who severely punished the chief torturer. 
 This incident naturally led to a stormy time, and but 
 for the protection of a warm-hearted big cousin it 
 would have gone ill with him. 
 
 The farmer took advantage of the holidays, and 
 of the hard weather when the Wolves were abroad 
 (troublesome enough at times), to set his boy to 
 work ; but it was becoming pretty evident that Joseph 
 was no true chip of the heavy old block. Although 
 he loved grafting, and took good care to plant plenty 
 of cherry trees, he hated the horse-tending, and 
 would be off in the snow, if he could, all round the 
 villages, to search for the tracks of the Marten-cats. 
 He loathed sauerkraut ; and lived contentedly (as he 
 says he could live now) on bread and butter. With 
 a morsel of the evil-savoured Limburg cheese he 
 could be driven anywhere ; and, indeed, his mother 
 once offered him five groschen to eat a piece of that 
 abomination, and he failed to do so. 
 
 His father, besides being a very reserved man, not 
 given to enthusiasm of any kind, thought all things 
 
THE FIRST GUN 
 
 7 
 
 vain which had nothing to do with the farm, or with 
 village affairs ; and when Joseph snatched a few 
 hours for scribbling the outlines of birds from recollec- 
 tion, the only notice he got was a very doubtful 
 " Humph ! ", though his mother thought the attempts 
 pretty. " Just as the country people in England," 
 he says, " when they see a strapping artist at work 
 " on his picture, think he might be doing some- 
 thing ' k more useful." Old Anton in fact, associating 
 only with people of his own class, was very pre- 
 judiced ; and his son remembers, even now, the 
 paternal rage if he was caught when he was busy 
 with his caterpillars, or piping a lesson to a pet 
 Bullfinch. 
 
 A full measure of the love of firearms with which 
 most boys are born burned in Wolf's heart. He had 
 occasionally abstracted from his father's keeping some 
 great key (such as the key of the church), sounded 
 the depth of the barrel with a stick, and filed a small 
 touch-hole : with the addition of a little gunpowder 
 and a match, the key then became a notable piece of 
 ordnance, to be unlimbered in secret and fired in tre- 
 pidation. At last there came that day of ecstasy when 
 the boy was allowed to furbish up the old gun he had 
 so often devoured with hungry eye ; a long, single- 
 barrel, flint-lock, rejoicing in that fanciful, carved 
 stock which would so much offend the eye of Purdey 
 or Grant. Now, at last, the poultry and pigeons 
 could be protected from the Goshawks, and the 
 
8 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 mystery of some of those perplexing notes and cries of 
 the woods and fields might be solved. So, when the 
 boy returned from a tramp to Mtinstermayfeld with a 
 few cheap water-colours in his pocket, a new flint or 
 two, and some ammunition, he felt that the world was 
 not a bad sort of place after all 
 
 Besides models for his sketches, he shot some fat 
 Fieldfares, with the view of selling them to an old 
 huckster in order to secure a supply of powder and 
 shot. This dame seems to have been a bit of a 
 character. She was a notable busybody, and as she 
 went her rounds among the farms, buying butter 
 and eggs and poultry for the Coblenz market, she 
 collected gossip and toothsome scandal. One day, 
 when she paid Frau Wolf her usual visit, Joseph 
 (then about fourteen years old) came in to sell his 
 Fieldfares. His mother mentioned his strange wish 
 to become, of all absurd things, an artist. He, the 
 eldest son of the Headman himself, a lad who would 
 never lack to jingle the thalers in his pocket, or to 
 smoke a quiet pipe, like his father and grandfather 
 before him — he, an artist ! The old huckster sympa- 
 thized and shook her head as she gazed at the fair, 
 well-grown lad, clad in his blouse, peaked cap, and 
 heavy boots ; and then she repeated impressively an 
 old country saying, " Seven artists, seven shooters, 
 " seven fishermen, and seven bird-catchers cannot 
 " support one idle man." They were ominous words, 
 and not very much to the mother's liking, for she 
 
RA VINES OF THE MOSELLE 
 
 9 
 
 loved her first-born dearly, and petted him, and knew 
 that he returned her love. 
 
 Having provided himself with colours, Wolf was 
 no longer content to scribble pencil outlines. There 
 happened to be at the farm a few of the illustrated 
 volumes of the last century ; and of these he set 
 himself to paint the wood-cuts. Wherever furniture 
 was represented, he appealed to the cake of Vandyke 
 brown with startling effect. He says, " I spoilt the 
 " whole of the books, and I ought to have been kicked 
 "at that time." 
 
 Fortunately the country was very favourable for 
 the observation of birds. Four or five hundred yards 
 above the farm it became flat and open, though the 
 fields were small. In the other direction it trended 
 down into a valley, increasing in beauty and interest 
 to the naturalist as it approached the Moselle. Each 
 little tributary wound its way through a well-wooded 
 ravine, so secluded that even a she Wolf could rear her 
 young there, now and then ; and birds without number 
 thronged the steep hangers. Golden Orioles, White- 
 spotted Bluethroats and Hoopoes always appeared 
 in the spring, and there was many a bird which here 
 is accounted rare. In addition to other quadrupeds 
 (such as Otters, Foxes, Stoats, Weasels, and Pole- 
 cats), Stone-martens occurred ; a circumstance which 
 suggested to the boy an original scheme.. Long ago 
 he had learnt the rudiments of trapping from one of 
 his father's labourers who was skilful in setting gins 
 
JO 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 and horsehair snares, and he determined to turn his 
 knowledge to account. Having managed to secure a 
 fine Stone-marten or two, he chose the longest and 
 most elastic hairs from the tails, and tied them neatly 
 into some Crow and Thrush quills. Thus he furnished 
 himself with a set of brushes incomparably better than 
 the limp, camel-hair things he had bought with his 
 first colours. They were so good that he became 
 ambitious ; and casting about for something to copy, 
 he pitched on an elaborate line engraving of Louisa, 
 Queen of Prussia. He sat down with a tiny brush 
 and Indian ink, determined to reproduce that engraving 
 line for line. He says, " There was nobody to tell me 
 " it was impossible, and I felt very unhappy because 
 " I couldn't do it. But fancy trying to do such a 
 " thing ! " The natural deftness and patience which 
 led to such incidents as these (for it is not every boy 
 who could impress the tails of Marten-cats into the 
 service of art), led to better results when more sensible 
 copies were chosen. He had reared from the nest a 
 Long-eared Owl ; 1 and finding it very beautiful he set 
 himself to draw it. In order to get the proportions 
 right he kept at a distance, and for detail went closer, 
 thus showing signs of gumption not to be expected 
 from a farmer's boy. About this time he discovered 
 that an Eagle Owl was kept in an hotel yard at 
 Munstermayfeld, and he went off at once to make a 
 
 1 He speaks of all the Birds of Prey as good sitters, and of the Owls as 
 pre-eminently so— the very opposite of a Titmouse, or a Monkey. 
 
The Shoe-billed Stork. 
 
ROUGH SHOOTING 
 
 1 1 
 
 sketch. This expedition he kept quiet at home, and, 
 indeed, he had the sense to say nothing whatever about 
 his drawing at Moerz. It is a reticence which, ever since 
 that time, he has observed in the presence of people 
 ignorant of art. Before the Philistines he keeps 
 silent ; but ever watchful to add to his store of their 
 observations on art and artists. 
 
 A few migratory Storks sometimes pitched near 
 the village, and on one of these occasions young Wolf 
 crept up with his gun and succeeded in winging a 
 bird. Then he amputated the broken wing, and for 
 some time the Stork paraded the farm, unconscious of 
 the multiplication of his portrait. 
 
 By this time the cousin who had protected little 
 Wolf from the revenge of his schoolfellows had 
 grown up ; and as he rented the rough shooting of this 
 and a neighbouring commune, he allowed the boy to 
 bring the old gun and to join him in his rambles. He 
 was somewhat astonished at the use which was made 
 of it, for Wolf thought nothing of the amount of the 
 bag ; but at the sight of a strange bird, or the sound 
 of an unknown note, he would be off, regardless of 
 time or place. It was a curious circumstance con- 
 nected with these field-days, that the cousin's clay 
 pipe was frequently bitten in two as his gun went off, 
 from which I should imagine that it was a notable 
 kicker. 
 
 For some time, there had apparently been a good 
 understanding between Wolf and many animals, 
 
T 2 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 especially wild animals. In spite of the gun, they 
 seemed to understand that he did not really 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. His 
 eyesight, outward and inward, was literally of the 
 keenest possible description ; and as he looked at 
 everything which interested him with intense purpose 
 and zest, his power of observation grew very great — 
 an habitual, unlaboured watchfulness worthy of a wild 
 animal. His purpose was not only to study the 
 habits of mammals and birds, but to paint the animals 
 so faithfully and fearlessly as to do them justice. He 
 knew nothing of what was before him — nothing of the 
 scope, or history, or heart-breaking difficulty of other 
 branches of art ; and it is well for him and for us that 
 he did not, or he might have resigned himself to study 
 the points of the Moerz pig. 
 
 Some of the incidents of a farm life in that 
 particular district furthered his object. Thus the 
 occasional dash of a Goshawk upon the poultry or 
 pigeons was not an unmixed evil ; for the boy and 
 his younger brothers, by means of the gun, or a gin 
 laid on the fowl which the bird had killed, 1 usually 
 
 1 There Is a spirited and very highly finished little panel picture by 
 Wolf of this subject, painted in Germany when the incidents were fresh. 
 The trap has been baited with a rabbit. 
 
VULPE CIDE 
 
 13 
 
 managed to secure at once an arch-robber and a 
 splendid subject for a drawing. He treasured up in 
 his memory such incidents as the visit of an Eagle 
 Owl to the tree where some of the fowls roosted, or 
 the more dreaded visit of a Stone-marten, which (if 
 luck favoured) was treed by the dogs, and shot as it 
 was dimly seen against the night sky. As for Foxes, 
 there was common cause against them in a place 
 where their murder was a manly virtue, and the 
 only view halloo was that of the Magpies. The 
 enemy's approach was often signalled by these birds ; 
 which, in return for their service, were beloved and 
 protected by everybody. Then the gun or the gin 
 squared all the poultry accounts. Moreover, when a 
 vixen's earth was found, the young men would some- 
 times dig out the cubs and take them round to the 
 farms in a basket, each rejoicing hen-wife giving a 
 reward of eggs. The eggs were fried, and with plenty 
 of cheap wine an unholy wake was held over the poor 
 cubs which would have sorely angered an English 
 M.F.H. Sometimes, when they thought they could 
 manage it, the lads would clap into a basket a sharp- 
 nosed, sandy puppy, and cheat the women out of their 
 eggs. 
 
 As Wolfs skill with his brushes grew greater, 
 his love of the Birds of Prey kept pace with his 
 love of painting. This district lay in the course of 
 the annual passage ; and in the spring an occasional 
 Honey Buzzard appeared ; in the winter, Rough- 
 
14 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 legged Buzzards from the north. Sometimes both 
 Black and Red Kites were to be seen flying towards 
 the south-west, returning with the genial weather. 
 Goshawks, Sparrow-hawks, Hobbies, Merlins, and 
 Kestrils also occurred frequently ; but the idea of 
 shooting such courageous and beautiful visitors as 
 these, except in actual defence of the poultry, was 
 out of the question. Wolf wished to draw from the 
 living birds in all their wild perfection, and at first 
 sight it seems as if he might have wished on till the 
 present time. 
 
 It was a local custom that, at times, the sheep 
 belonging to the farmers were drafted together into 
 one large flock, and placed under the care of a shep- 
 herd ; each farmer having a right to contribute accord- 
 ing to his acreage. The shepherd's duty was to feed 
 off with the sheep all the available pasture ; and the 
 fields being small, the flock might perhaps be dis- 
 persed over the property of half a dozen men, besides 
 the " commune " property on the hills, which was 
 distinct from private land. If the stubbles of any 
 particular farmer happened to be sown with clover, or 
 there was any other reason for excluding the sheep, 
 he set up there a stake topped with a wisp of straw, 
 as a notice to the shepherd. Wolf frequently saw- 
 Hawks and Falcons sitting on these stakes (for the 
 country just here was very open and treeless), and he 
 began to think over the chances of catching them. 1 
 
 1 At that time, he had probably never heard of the pole trap. 
 
SNARING BIRDS OF PREY 
 
 5 
 
 He was familiar with the use of snares, and by 
 dint of great patience and ingenuity, he succeeded 
 in contriving some springes sufficiently powerful, 
 which, in conjunction with short perches, he attached 
 to the stakes in the forbidden fields. He was soon 
 rewarded for his labour ; and made the round of his 
 springes, in the evening to forestall the Foxes, and 
 in the morning to release the Little Owls which 
 sometimes got caught. Once even a Buzzard 
 was secured, and by sheer power of wing gradually- 
 loosened and then flew away with the whole appa- 
 ratus. Another time, a fine old male Sparrow-hawk 
 was held fast merely by the hind claw. Merlins and 
 Kestrils were the most common captures ; and Wolf 
 used to give some of the latter a forked tail with a 
 pair of scissors. There was a colony of Kestrils on 
 a high tower at Miinstermayfeld, and there he often 
 saw the forked tails of those he had caught, three 
 or four miles away. 
 
 In this successful method of capturing birds of 
 prey, he claims to be original and alone. He has 
 never heard of any other person in Germany who 
 used springes in this way. 
 
 He was seldom without a living model now ; and 
 how he conquered the difficulties of making use of it, 
 may well puzzle us. That he did conquer, is testified 
 by numberless sketches and drawings. One day he 
 had a Kestril sitting for its portrait on a chair-back, 
 and he himself was working away, hardly daring to 
 
i6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 move. Suddenly the farmer entered, and the spell 
 being broken, the bird dashed through the glass of 
 the nearest window. Whereupon the young painter 
 received a swinging box on the ear, delivered, I dare 
 say, with the emphatic epithet of " Vogel narr." In 
 spite of such discouragements, sometimes when he 
 could steal the time from the farm, he would set 
 out on foot to Neuwied (a four hours' journey), to 
 gloat over Prince Maximilian's fine collection of South 
 American birds. 1 
 
 Loving guns and gunnery, Wolf took care to be 
 present at the Vogelschiessen held among the neigh- 
 bouring peasants and foresters. A wooden bird with 
 an iron rod passing through it was fixed at the top of 
 a tall pole, and shot at with heavy small-bore rifles 
 till the very last splinter was knocked off. 
 
 Notwithstanding the delights of his art, and wood- 
 craft, and gunnery (all more or less stolen pleasures), 
 the monotonous drudgery of the farm life palled on 
 the boy more and more. He says, I was looking 
 " out for something different, and couldn't find what 
 " I liked." He was troubled, too, by the growing 
 consciousness that to succeed as a painter of birds, 
 more training would be needful than he could ever 
 get among people who looked upon him as a mere 
 bird-catcher, and preferred the weight of their horny 
 hands to the weight of argument, if they found 
 
 1 Mr. Dresser tells me that the collection was afterwards purchased 
 for New York by Mr. D. G. Elliott. 
 
HE IS BOUND APPRENTICE 
 
 17 
 
 him neglecting the horses to scribble pictures of 
 vermin. 
 
 Now at that time lithography had advanced far 
 towards perfection, and was in high repute. From 
 Munich, Dtisseldorf, and Paris, lithographs of the 
 pictures at the chief continental galleries were 
 circulating. even in the country, and the boy began to 
 think that the trade of a lithographer might possibly 
 help him on the road he had chosen. He says, 
 1 ' Lithography was something betwixt and between. 
 " It was supposed at that time to be a good thriving 
 " business." Again and again he approached his 
 father on the subject, who consented, at last, that he 
 should desert the plough, and provided sufficient 
 money not only for binding him apprentice to 
 Gebriider Becker at Coblenz, for three years, but for 
 lodgings in that city. It is satisfactory to know not 
 only that this amount was repaid with interest, but 
 that the whole family were afterwards indebted pecu- 
 niarily to one upon whom they had probably looked 
 as likely to turn out a troublesome prodigal. 
 
 Thus ended the first era in the life of Joseph 
 Wolf. Simply and solely by the light of his own 
 genius and the force of his own character he had 
 removed the obstacles and had conquered the inertia 
 that have been responsible for many " a mute 
 inglorious Milton." 
 
 c 
 
t 8 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 JOSEPH WOLF, when he found himself one of 
 Gebriider Beckers' three or four apprentices at 
 Coblenz, was sixteen years old, and much too 
 broad-shouldered to be safely derided as a country 
 bumpkin. If he had been an ordinary lad, simply 
 seeking excitement and relief from monotony, he 
 would have found that he had gone from bad to 
 worse. Certainly, for a day or two, he enjoyed the 
 fun of learning to write backwards ; but that soon 
 palled, and the laborious copying of commonplaces 
 which followed was depressing work. He says, 
 u Nobody would tell me anything, and I felt they 
 were all duffers." But it was impossible that he 
 should ply his tools for long without the discovery 
 that he was no mere beginner ; and in spare moments 
 he made some original sketches which pleased his 
 employers not a little. " When they found that I 
 "had ideas," he says, "and could compose, they let 
 " me alone, and I had no more drudgery to do. Even 
 " when I left off working, and began to cudgel my 
 " brains for an idea, the firm said nothing." He told 
 
HIS APPRENTICE II EE 
 
 19 
 
 them he was " searching for an idea," and they had 
 the sense to believe him. They turned him to 
 account by causing him to make designs of flowers, 
 fruit, or landscapes, which sometimes took the form of 
 bottle labels ; and he thinks that if Christmas cards 
 had been invented he would have been condemned to 
 do nothing else. Among the labels were some which 
 were required by the proprietor of an " Eagle Phar- 
 macy," who wished for an appropriate device. 
 Here was a chance for Wolf ; and he drew a whole 
 stone-full of Eagles, all in different positions. He 
 would have nothing to do with the cards and billiards 
 of the other apprentices, and even ignored the 
 military bands on the parade ; but the instant his 
 day's work was done, he was off like a rifle-bullet to 
 the banks of the Rhine. There he hunted among the 
 willows for birds, and moths, and caterpillars ; or tried 
 to catch the Bluethroats with Nightingale nets in the 
 early spring. 
 
 He discovered in the city a large wholesale trades- 
 man who had kindred tastes, and who owned a good 
 collection of stuffed birds. Here it was that Wolf 
 saw, for the first time, an illustrated ornithological 
 book. It was a work by Susemihl, and he says " I 
 " couldn't make the book out. According to my 
 " knowledge, the plates were not the right thing." 1 
 
 1 He afterwards did six full-page designs and several others of Falcons, 
 Owls, and other birds for what appears to be a later edition of the same 
 work, namely Johann and Eduard Susemihl's Abbildiingen der Vogel 
 Europas. No better example could be given of what kind of illustra- 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Save for the few old volumes on which he had 
 exhausted his Vandyke brown, books were little 
 known in his family. No scion of the house, save 
 himself, had ever been guilty of the slightest inclina- 
 tion to tempt the dangers of any art or science. 
 Yet, in spite of this, let loose as he was among 
 half a hundred seductive shops, one of his first 
 purchases was Schlegel's translation of Shakespeare, 
 which he greedily devoured, astonished, he says, at 
 the great mind of the author. 
 
 As far as art was concerned, Wolf thinks that the 
 three years of his apprenticeship were quite thrown 
 away ; and with many lads, fresh from a farm life, 
 it is certain they would have been worse than 
 thrown away, by turning them out neat, stereo- 
 typed journeymen, warranted absolutely free from 
 originality. 
 
 The qualities for which Wolf's work became 
 so pre-eminent are not such as are usually evolved 
 from the drawing of bottle-labels, or the dull routine 
 of a lithographic draughtsman's office ; but yet he 
 was quite uninjured in any way. Indeed, it is likely 
 that in the case of such an enthusiast — so passionate 
 a lover of nature, a training in patience, and 
 method, and exactness was more to the purpose 
 than the best training of a first-rate art-school 
 would have been. The apprentice work increased 
 
 tions Wolfs work superseded at that period (the forties), and how he 
 superseded them. 
 
AT HOME AGAIN 
 
 2 r 
 
 by contrast the attractiveness of his favourite subjects, 
 crystallized his undefined hopes, and did not di- 
 vert his energy to other alluring branches of art. It 
 will be presently seen how greatly he was afterwards 
 beholden to the sound knowledge of lithography. 
 
 When the three years were over, Wolf returned 
 for a time to his father's farm, where he was 
 regarded in a very different way from the obstinate 
 V bird fool " of the old days. He was now a compe- 
 tent tradesman. He could write backwards neatly, 
 and draw you, out of his own head, a noble bottle- 
 label ; feats which made even the old Headman 
 himself put on his spectacles. If the lad still insisted 
 in spending a little time in painting owls and vermin 
 — why, after all, it didn't matter much now. They 
 might come in for tradesman's bill-heads, or some- 
 thing really useful. 
 
 As for those ravines of the Moselle, teeming with 
 bird life, and ringing with many a pretty call and 
 song, what a paradise they were, after the dingy lanes 
 and the ceaseless, mercantile buzz of Coblenz ! The 
 lad spent day after day in these favourite haunts of 
 his by the river, storing his memory with the life 
 history of the birds and beasts. He took his gun 
 with him of course ; partly because he knew that a 
 great deal of important knowledge could not be got 
 without it, and partly, I think, because he loved it 
 pretty keenly. One clay he flushed a large bird, and 
 a relentless pot shot knocked a lovely Hazel Grouse 
 
22 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 off the tree where it had settled. It was a rare species 
 on the north bank of the river, and the pleasure of 
 that shot lives yet, though the shooter has burnt, 
 since then, a good deal of powder. Another day, 
 near home, he had released a Little Owl from one of 
 his springes, when a splendid Goshawk intercepted its 
 headlong flight towards the woods. It battled on its 
 back with pitiful screams, but by the time Wolf had 
 got to his gun, the deadly foot had gripped home, and 
 the Hawk glided away to his dinner. Always very 
 interested in the exploits of this bird, he relates how 
 he was once out shooting near Moerz, and put up 
 from some turnips a Short-eared Owl. Almost imme- 
 diately, a Goshawk swept from his look-out on a 
 neighbouring tree, struck the Owl in mid air, and 
 carried it off. " People who have never been in a 
 " country where Goshawks are common," says Wolf, 
 " hardly know what brutes they are." Incidents such 
 as these, and many others, kept the lad's pencil hard 
 at work. 
 
 He had taken up his painting with a will when he 
 came home ; and he began now to make a series of 
 miniature bird studies in water-colours. These minia- 
 tures are so extraordinary that I am at a loss how to 
 describe them without incurring the accusation of 
 exaggerating most grossly. It must be remembered 
 that they were the work of a youth still in his teens, 1 
 
 1 In my former sketch of Wolf s life, among many other inaccuracies, 
 the date of these drawings is fixed some years earlier. 
 
ACCIPITER COLLAKIS. 
 
THE BIRD MINIATURES 
 
 23 
 
 who, save for the three years lithographic practice 
 from which he had just escaped, was entirely self- 
 taught. They were done without books from which to 
 learn the scientific detail, or crib the attitudes. There 
 was not the smallest encouragement — nothing but the 
 distractions of a small farm-house, with hostile critics 
 whose ignorance of natural history was hardly less 
 profound than their ignorance of art. In spite of all 
 this, we find that after the earliest attempts of all 
 each of these tiny studies is a portrait so true to 
 nature, so brilliant and life-like, that astonishment 
 stifles all criticism. 
 
 In answer to my question when I first sat won- 
 dering before these drawings and found that they 
 would even bear the use of a strong lens, the painter 
 said, " The reason I did them so small was that I had 
 " got then into the way of working minutely, and 
 " could not cover a larger space to my satisfaction — 
 " not so as to get the quality of the surface. Rough 
 " paper and the ordinary water-colour method would 
 " not have suited me." Here, at all events, he was 
 evidently paying the penalty (if it were a penalty), of 
 his lithographic minutiae. Long before this he had 
 noticed not only that there was a considerable 
 difference between the summer and winter plumage 
 of the common Sparrows, but that their backs were 
 marked very definitely in stripes. He says, " I used 
 " to labour to get those stripes right, as if everything 
 " depended upon it." How much did depend upon 
 
24 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 this craving for truth, upon the labour unspeakable 
 to show the soft sleekness and delicate, dainty 
 precision of marking which distinguish a perfect 
 specimen of a wild bird, he did not realize at that 
 time. It would seem, from what we know of zoo- 
 logical art, past and present, that such an overpower- 
 ing solicitude for truth in this all-important respect, 
 and the sound, scientific knowledge of the feather 
 tracts which follows, are not too common even now. 
 
 As for these miniatures I think they have been 
 as much admired, and that by artists, as anything 
 Wolf has done. 
 
 I have seen some laborious pencil and Indian- 
 ink drawings of landscapes in the neighbourhood of 
 Moerz, which were produced at this time, showing 
 the same solicitude to draw faithfully from nature. 
 The work is very elaborate, but the surface to be 
 covered being larger than it was in the bird subjects, 
 the elaboration is misapplied, and is not focussed. 
 
 It was, of course, quite natural that Wolf should 
 try his hand at portraiture, and I believe he painted 
 at this time several little water-colour likenesses of 
 people in the neighbourhood ; one or two being 
 commissions. Small oil portraits of his father and 
 mother hang in a brother's house to this day. 
 
 Joseph Wolf had now been a year at home, and 
 no doubt his father (naturally thinking it high time 
 his son should earn his living), considered it a time 
 of sheer idleness. But sooner than even appear to be 
 
DR. R UP PELL 
 
 -5 
 
 idle, the lad accepted from the excise authorities 
 a temporary engagement which he calls "wine 
 revising " ; that is to say he became for the time a 
 gauger whose duty it was to visit the various wine - 
 producing villages, going from house to house with 
 the Headman, with power to search for concealed 
 liquor, if any were suspected. Having completed this 
 unpleasant work, he sent in his report, put his 
 sketch-book of miniatures in his pocket, and trudged 
 off into the world to seek his fortune as a journeyman 
 lithographer. 
 
 Although there were several lithographic houses 
 at Frankfort, he failed to find employment at any. 
 Nevertheless, one of the proprietors, having seen the 
 sketch-book, said, " Don't you forget to go to Dr. 
 " Rlippell here at the Museum before you leave." " So 
 " I went," says Wolf. M He was a serious old fellow 
 " with rather a forbidding exterior. When I came in 
 " — a young lad — he looked at me as if he had no idea 
 " what I wanted to see him for. I said, ' I am a litho- 
 " ' grapher, and have been about to the different estab- 
 " ' lishments to look out for work, and at one of them 
 " ' they told me to show you this book.' Of course 
 " the moment he opened it he brightened up, and 
 " got very amiable all at once. ' I hope you will be 
 " ' able to remain near Frankfort,' he. said, ' for I am 
 " ' about to publish a work on the Birds of Abyssinia, 1 
 
 1 Systematische Uebersicht der Vogel Nord-Ost-Afrikd 's, nebst von 
 Dr. Eduard Rlippell. Frankfurt a. M. 1845. 
 
2 6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " 1 and I should like you to do the illustrations for me. 
 " ' Wherever, on your travels, you remain to work, let 
 "'me know, and you shall do the drawings there. 
 " ' When you go to Darmstadt, you go to Dr. Kaup.' " 
 
 It was the first piece of pure encouragement that 
 the lad had ever experienced : and it was sweetened 
 by the fact that it was not the lithographic knowledge, 
 but the knowledge of birds, so much despised at 
 home, which had brought success at last. 
 
 In the course of this interview, Wolf described 
 a new note which he had heard for the first time, 
 near Frankfort. ''You are a good observer." said 
 Rlippell. " That is the Serin Finch." This species, 
 which now nests near the city, 1 had gradually ex- 
 tended northwards from southern Europe. 
 
 Bidding the Doctor adieu, Wolf turned off with a 
 lighter heart towards Darmstadt, Here he not only 
 found employment as a lithographer (besides doing 
 some overtime work for the Frankfort Museum, 
 which Dr. Rlippell sent him), but he was able to 
 make himself independent of that trade as a means of 
 livelihood. He was far from deserting it altogether, 
 and the dry knowledge his apprenticeship had given 
 him was to bear good fruit. 
 
 There are few who find themselves dropped with 
 hardly a disappointment or rebuff into that precise 
 niche in life which fits them to a hair's-breadth. 
 
 1 See Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe's Handbook to the Birds of Great 
 Britai7i. 
 
DR. KA UP 
 
 27 
 
 The charm which, in Wolf's case, worked this 
 wonder was, once again, the little sketch-book. Dr. 
 Kaup, to whom Ruppell had given him an intro- 
 duction, was also a well-known , naturalist, and the 
 Director of the Darmstadt Museum, to which most 
 of the rare or curious objects of natural history col- 
 lected in that neighbourhood found their way. Kaup 
 rejoiced over the miniatures with a great joy, and even 
 conceived a scheme, which never came to anything, 
 for a work on ornithology to be written by himself and 
 illustrated by his new friend. He introduced the lad 
 to some living Peregrines, and requested his help in 
 stuffing and setting up a Sparrow-hawk. Wolf went 
 to work with some diffidence, as he expected to find 
 in the Doctor ornithological science severely personi- 
 fied. His astonishment was boundless when he 
 discovered that this professed naturalist knew next to 
 nothing of the distribution of the feather tracts, and 
 that he had to arrange the feathers himself. In tell- 
 ing me this incident he went on to say, " Those 
 " fellows know very little. To put a bird right, they 
 " smooth it down with their hands, and tie paper 
 " round it very tightly, but this gives a totally false 
 *■* impression. The feathers are naturally full of 
 " spring, and lie lightly." 1 
 
 1 This method of " putting a bird right " flourishes still, as will be seen 
 from the following quotation from Browne's Practical Taxidermy : " Game 
 " birds stuffed as ' dead game 5 and hung in oval medallions [?] form suit- 
 " able ornaments for the billiard room or hall if treated in an aesthetic 
 " manner. Not, however, in the manner I lately saw perpetrated by a 
 
28 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Wolf was not a man to rest on his oars, so he 
 settled down to his trade, and worked away at his 
 " compositions " for the firm which employed him, 
 with the cheerful industry which became so strong a 
 point in his character. This industry was more than 
 the mere daily habit of mounting the treadmill 
 common to business men ; and it had nothing mer- 
 cenary or sordid about it. It was an insatiable 
 appetite for work — a zest and an avidity which al- 
 ways consume obstacles, and achieve (with the help 
 of a fine physique), something out of the common 
 way. 
 
 Meanwhile, taking the sketch-book with him, Dr. 
 Kaup had left for Leyden to attend a conference of 
 ornithologists. The designs of the Birds of Prey 
 had their effect, and in a few days Wolf received 
 letters from Dr. Kaup and also from Professor 
 Schlegel giving him a commission for some life-size 
 drawings of the young and adult Goshawk, intended 
 to form part of the illustrations for Professor Schlegel's 
 and A. H. Wulverhorst's Traitd de Fauconnerie. 
 These he proceeded to do in his overtime. 
 
 In spite of Dr. Kaup's enthusiastic recommenda- 
 tion, backed by the little sketches, Wolfs fate was 
 
 " leading London taxidermist — a game bird hanging in a prominent posi- 
 " tion, as if dead, from a nail, enclosed in an elaborate mount, the bird so 
 " beautifully sleek and smooth that, although it was head downwards, not 
 " a feather was out of place ! All was plastered down, and gravity and 
 " nature were utterly set at defiance. A little consideration, and a visit 
 " to the nearest poulterer's shop, would have prevented such a palpable 
 " error." 
 
A LUCKY ESCAPE 
 
 29 
 
 not quite settled even yet. When he was twenty 
 years old (that is in 1840), he had to appear at 
 Maien before the authorities for drafting army re- 
 cruits. It is obvious how much depended on the 
 result ; for though so keen a shot would no doubt have 
 taken kindly to his rifle, he might have returned from 
 his term of service (if he returned at all), with the 
 edge of his artistic enthusiasm hopelessly dulled. 
 In any case, the loss of time would have been 
 ruinous. To make matters worse, he was as sound as 
 a bell, upright as a corporal, and had the sight of a 
 hawk ; just the very lad the recruiting sergeant 
 wishes for, and the very last to dream of malingering. 
 Fortunately at that peaceful time very few recruits 
 were wanted, and it was easy to get off. Still more 
 fortunately he knew the surgeon well. When his friend 
 asked him with a smile, " What shall we say about 
 you ? " the young fellow answered, naturally enough, 
 that he had nothing whatever to plead. Neverthe- 
 less, by means of the kindly but particularly inappro- 
 priate fiction of a weak chest, he was let off with 
 " garrison duty," which then involved service only in 
 case of war. Thus released, he hurried back to his 
 work at Darmstadt. 
 
 Although the first drawings for the Traitd de 
 Fauconnerie were done, as we have seen, in overtime, 
 the commission was of an importance too great to be 
 deemed secondary to the humdrum work of a litho- 
 graphic office — work of which Wolf saw that he 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 could be independent at last. Accordingly, he gave 
 his employers notice and removed for a time to 
 -Leyden. 
 
 Schlegel gave him, as a pet, a fine old Peregrine 
 tiercel (from which he drew many pencil studies), and 
 generally made much of him. This does not appear, 
 however, to have been the first interview, for Mr. 
 Dresser sends me the following interesting anec- 
 dote : — 
 
 "Professor Schlegel told me, many years ago, when I was 
 "spending a few days with him at Leyden, that his first acquaintance 
 " with Wolf was when he invited the latter to Holland. Wolf came 
 " as a young, fresh-looking lad to see him, and told Schlegel that he 
 " would like to see some waders and marsh birds ; so Schlegel took 
 "him out in a punt covered with bushes, in which he was wont 
 " to watch the birds. On arriving among them, he asked Wolf 
 "where his note-book and pencil were, but the answer was that 
 " he did not require them. After spending some time watching the 
 " birds, they returned to Leyden, and Schlegel asked Wolf to supper, 
 " for which purpose they adjourned to a restaurant ; and, after supper, 
 " Wolf asked for paper and pencil, and made some excellent sketches 
 " of birds he had that day seen for the first time. Schlegel told me 
 "that he was astounded at the accuracy of the attitudes, as given 
 " by Wolf ; and at once realized that he excelled any other natural 
 "history painter he had hitherto known. Schlegel, before I left 
 " Leyden, made me a present of Wolf's original of one of the plates 
 "in the Fauna Japonica, which I think I showed you." 
 
 Many years afterwards Schlegel forcibly endorsed 
 
 the opinion he had formed. Wolf, on the occasion of 
 
 one of his trips to Germany, paid a visit to his friend 
 
 at Leyden, and found him at the Museum. When the 
 
 Professor saw him coming he exclaimed in a loud 
 
 voice, " Here comes the first man in his branch of art ! " 
 
" TRAITE DE FA UCONNERIE " 
 
 3 1 
 
 This high opinion was reciprocated, for Wolf 
 thinks that, of all persons he has met, his friend was 
 one of the nicest, and one of the best all-round men of 
 science. 
 
 After this early and congenial commission, Wolf 
 was, as he expresses it, "an independent artist. My 
 head was above water at last." His talent and know- 
 ledge, being no longer hidden under the anxious mien 
 of a quiet-spoken, journeyman lithographer, he was 
 treated accordingly. 
 
 Herman Schlegel's and A. H. Wulverhorst's Traite 
 de Fauconnerie 1 is a mighty volume with which many 
 a good falconer, bent on a comfortable read, must have 
 had an angry tussle ; and over which the authors, as 
 they say, spared no pains. The publication, indeed, 
 appears to have been spread over no less than nine 
 years. 
 
 After a most elaborate but uninviting title-page 
 and some other lithographs (representing the Heron 
 hawking of the Loo Club), Wolf's work begins with 
 the fifth plate ; a Greenland Falcon hooded and on 
 the fist. It is followed by twelve other Falcons on 
 ten plates, drawn in the artist's most careful and con- 
 scientious style, with all the elaboration of that period 
 of his art. For the backgrounds (and very bad they 
 are), other artists are responsible ; and this, jointly 
 with the fact that the birds themselves are somewhat 
 
 1 Traite de Fcmconnerie par H. Schlegel et A. H. Verster de Wulver- 
 horst. Leiden et Diisseldorf. Arnz et Comp. 1844-1853. 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 stiff and formal in their attitudes and treatment, 
 detracts from their artistic merit. 
 
 The authors, in their preface, speak of the artist 
 as follows : " Ouant aux figures des oiseaux de chasse, 
 " elles ont ete faites sur le vivant par M. Wolf, jeune 
 " peintre d'animaux qui a, sans contredit, surpasse 
 " tous ses devanciers par une etude profonde de la 
 " nature." 
 
 It may be added that it is said in the Badminton 
 Library Falconry, " The illustrations, 1 from the pencil 
 of Wolf, are in themselves an education in falconry." 
 He says of them himself, that, as far as scientific 
 detail goes, they are perfectly correct, but that he has 
 learned, since then, " to do Falcons in a different way 
 — a better way." But, as we shall see, he does not 
 consider them as susceptible to artistic treatment as 
 the Eagles. 
 
 Nearly perfect, even then, in his knowledge of 
 wild Falcons, he has since learnt a great deal of 
 the detail of a sport which Mr. G. E. Freeman calls 
 " a gallant, venerable friend, whom our forefathers 
 " loved with all their hearts." 
 
 Freeman himself, to whom (jointly with Captain 
 Salvin, that keenest of keen hands), sport is indebted 
 for a most interesting and enthusiastically written 
 
 1 One, if not more, of these was exhibited at the Sports and Arts 
 Exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery, without any reference in the cata- 
 logue to its origin, or to the fact that it was a lithograph. Mr. Wolf 
 has no doubt that it was taken for an inferior chalk drawing. 
 
HE SETTLES AT DARMSTADT 
 
 book, 1 speaks of its illustrations as coming " from the 
 excellent and well-known pencil of Mr. Wolf." Of 
 these the most notable is the " Female Goshawk and 
 Hare." 
 
 Although most of the exciting flights Wolf has 
 witnessed have been those of wild birds, yet he is 
 fully awake to the fascinations of falconry, and his 
 name is probably as well known to some of the 
 members of the Old Hawking Club as that of Adrian 
 Mollen. 
 
 It was once my good fortune to listen to a conver- 
 sation between our friend and a keen Anglo- Indian 
 falconer, which dealt with Sacres, Luggurs, and 
 especially with the Shahins, besides the notable career 
 of certain of these birds. Wolfs real interest was 
 evident ; and it was also evident that he knew much 
 of the respective merits of the different species, not 
 only from an artistic, but from a sportsman's point of 
 view. 
 
 After a profitable and pleasant time at Leyden, 
 Wolf had a bad attack of ague, with which he battled 
 for a month, but at last was driven back to his old 
 quarters at Darmstadt. There he settled down to 
 begin the most serious studies of his life. He wrote 
 to Dr. Riippell, and having received from him the 
 box of skins, was soon engaged on the lithographs 
 
 1 Falconry, its Claims, History, a?td Practice. By Gage Earle 
 Freeman, M.A., and Francis Henry Salvin, Captain West York Rifles, 
 to which are added Remarks on training the Otter and Cormorant by- 
 Captain Salvin. London, Longmans, Green & Co. 1859. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 (fifty in number) for The Birds of North- East Africa. 
 Of this early work, consisting as it did almost entirely 
 of drawings of widely-differing species from specimens 
 more or less badly preserved, we must not be too 
 critical. The attitudes, here and there, are stiff ; and, 
 as a whole, the backgrounds are weak. A few are 
 good ; but they are wanting in freedom and the look 
 of nature. The feet are not so learnedly drawn as we 
 find them in subsequent work, and the lithographic 
 draughtsmanship, pure and simple, depends more on 
 its colouring than afterwards. 1 
 
 The acquaintance with such men as Riippell, 
 Kaup, and Schlegel, and their keen admiration for 
 his work led, of course, to plenty of employment. 
 Among other commissions there came one from 
 C. H. Temminck, then a very old man in failing 
 health. Wolf also undertook to draw upon the stone 
 ten of the Accipitres, and the same number of birds of 
 other orders, out of the 119 species illustrated in 
 Temminck and Schlegel' s Birds of Japan, forming 
 part of Siebold's Fauna japonic a, completed and pub- 
 lished in 1850. Some of these lithographs are well 
 worth study, such, for instance, as Strix fuscescens. 
 
 It was at this time that Wolf began to attend his 
 
 1 I am indebted to Mr. H. E. Dresser for the following translation of 
 a passage in RiippelPs preface : — " The fortunate chance of becoming 
 " acquainted with a very talented young natural-history artist, Wolf of 
 " Darmstadt, gave me the opportunity of having fifty birds which occur 
 " in North-East Africa figured ; and which are either unknown, or of 
 " which, up to now, only descriptions have been published ; and this has 
 " been carried out in the most satisfactory manner." 
 
ART-S CHO OL JDIS CIPLINE 
 
 35 
 
 first art-school ; and it is certain that many men whose 
 career had begun so happily — whose hands were full 
 of work after their own heart, with no fear of rivalry, 
 would have done nothing of the kind. But he had 
 already made some money, and he determined to 
 invest it in his own way. He copied portraits and 
 other pictures in the Darmstadt Gallery (including a 
 few for the King of Bavaria), and he also painted a 
 portrait or two on his own account. But all this time 
 he was still at work at his birds, whenever he got the 
 chance. 
 
 At the art-school he set himself to draw outlines 
 from the Antique ; for he knew by a kind of intuition 
 the value and difficulty of such training, if conscienti- 
 ously battled with. Indeed, I have heard him express 
 his wonder that outline, which he considers the most 
 difficult thing of any which an artist has to conquer, 
 should be chosen as the first course in elementary 
 schools. He went at his outlines with such a will 
 that he had a good deal of spare time on his hands, 
 and soon got into the good graces of a landscape- 
 painter named Seegur, who acted as inspector, or 
 something of the kind. Seegur shook his head, 
 nevertheless, when a lively sketch of a trapped Fox 
 appeared one day on the back of an outline Venus. 
 Besides this Antique work, Wolf also began to apply 
 himself to oil-painting ; but he says that had all this 
 school discipline come earlier, his animal subjects 
 would have been "knocked out of his head." 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Among the friends he made at Darmstadt was 
 one Baur, an Oder Forst Ratk, or Upper Forest 
 Councillor. From his youth to a ripe old age, this 
 veteran sportsman had continued, with "a fierce per- 
 severance," to slay Roe Deer with a rifle. Wolf says 
 Baur proved a good friend to him. "He had no 
 V artistic taste, but he saw that I represented animals 
 " as he knew them himself." He was also pleased with 
 the young artist's keenness not only with the rifle, but 
 to learn every detail touching the habits of the wild 
 animals of the forest. Through old Baur's favour, 
 Wolf was often allowed to join him at the shooting 
 parties, and even to practise a little still-hunting on his 
 own account. 
 
 He had picked up at a pawnbroker's a capital gun, 
 lately the property of a certain spendthrift Baron. 
 With this and his rifle he had some fine sport, the bag 
 including Wild Boars, Red, 1 Roe, and Fallow Deer, 
 and Hares ; not to mention Black-cock and other 
 winged game. 2 Yet he did not suffer even such sport 
 
 1 These Red Deer are so much larger than the Scotch specimens 
 that the first time Wolf shot a Highland stag he was astonished at its 
 smallness. 
 
 2 Mr. Robert J. Howard of Blackburn possesses, among other works 
 of Wolf's, a water-colour drawing of an adult male Hobby, touching 
 which he was good enough to tell me this, " When I bought the drawing, 
 " Mr. Wolf said that he was not at all anxious to part with it ; he kept it 
 "for auld lang syne. I wished to know the history of the bullet holes in 
 " the tree on which the bird stands. Mr. Wolf wrote this, which I have 
 " pasted on the back of the picture. ' The Hobby is represented perched 
 "'on the dead top of an old fir tree which stood on the outskirts of a 
 "'plantation some hundred yards or so from the path by which we 
 " ' sportsmen emerged from the wood on our way home. The tree-top 
 
Nasiturna pusio. 
 
HIS DIAGRAMS OF ANIMALS 
 
 37 
 
 as this to usurp for one moment the first place in his 
 mind. His own particular "fierce perseverance" was 
 shown by the making of a large series of outlines of 
 the dead animals at the end of the day, which were 
 laid on paper and pencilled round. From these data 
 he was able to compile a scale of careful comparative 
 measurements which he drafted into a couple of 
 books, one for birds and the other for mammals. On 
 inspection I found these books were as neatly kept as 
 ledgers. In the first, fifty-eight measurements of each 
 species are subdivided under such headings as " Spread 
 wings from above," and from below ; " Foot " ; " Tail," 
 &c. In the second, fifty-four measurements are sub- 
 divided in the same manner. 
 
 Of many of the birds he also made a painstaking 
 plan to scale, showing the tail and wings extended. 
 The plan is equally divided by a central line, and 
 shows half the bird as seen from below, and half from 
 above. The exact positions, shapes, and areas of the 
 various tracts of feathers, besides the individual shape 
 of each kind of feather and the shapes of the 
 markings, are all sedulously given. These diagrams 
 are sometimes accompanied by an outline of the head, 
 and most of them by a full-size drawing of the tarsus 
 and foot, done without regard to time and labour, and 
 
 " ' was a favourite perch for the different Birds of Prey, and for Turtle 
 " ' Doves, &c., and by way of emptying our rifles we would take long 
 " ' shots at any bird sitting there and presenting so tempting a target. 
 " ' Hence the idea of the bullet holes in the tree, as shown in the drawing. 
 —J. Wolf.'" 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 giving the exact shape and positions of the scales and 
 scutellse. 1 In some cases there is even a third 
 diagram representing a plan of the same bird, with 
 the wings half extended and the tail feathers closed ; 
 showing also in outline the boundary lines of the 
 tracts of feathers on the body. 
 
 The making of a set of measurements and 
 diagrams such as these, if only of one species, would 
 give more knowledge than a good deal of time spent 
 peering into the glass cases of a museum ; but when 
 species after species was thus elaborately analyzed, 
 measured, and drawn, it may be imagined whence that 
 mastery came to which I shall allude, especially as the 
 practice was continued to a time when the draughts- 
 manship became absolutely faultless. Of the Birds 
 of Prey (always his favourites), Wolf was particularly 
 careful to secure records in this manner. 
 
 The systematic study of the arrangement of the 
 plumage (upon which the beautiful precision of the 
 markings of the wild bird so much depends), Wolf 
 says he was the first to introduce into England, and 
 he also says that the time of its introduction by him 
 may be traced in Gould's works. It will be seen at 
 the conclusion of this book that Professor Newton, 
 speaking of Wolfs knowledge of pterylography and 
 its great effect upon his work, thought that he must 
 have seen Nitzsch's treatise upon that subject, and 
 
 1 Two of these drawings (unfortunately lithographed by another hand) 
 were reproduced in The Zoologist for August 1880. 
 
THE BEAUTY OF "SURFACE' 
 
 39 
 
 unlike other ornithological artists, have profited by 
 it. This, however, is not the case. The labours of 
 Nitzsch, like those of Sundevall, were unknown to 
 him ; and like all his knowledge, the knowledge of 
 pterylography was entirely self-acquired, without re- 
 course to books, without the help of teachers, and 
 without the advantages of wealth or wealthy friends. 
 It was not till many years afterwards that the trans- 
 lation of C. J. Sundevall's treatise On the Wings of 
 Birds came in his way, or that he became aware 
 how this indefatigable Swedish naturalist had been 
 laboriously studying the external characters of birds, 
 with the view of building up his system of classifi- 
 cation, at the time he himself was patiently studying 
 them in Germany. 
 
 Had the works of Nitzsch and Sundevall fallen 
 into Wolf's hands at this time they would have inter- 
 ested him deeply ; for he was labouring with his 
 pencil, to an extent of which even many of his 
 warmest admirers know little, in the same field ; 
 continually harping, as he harps to this day, on the 
 paramount importance of a systematic study of the 
 beautiful " surface " of mammals and birds — on the 
 importance of the closest attention to the distribution 
 of the tracts of a bird's feathers, and the growth 
 of a mammal's coat. 
 
 It is hard to imagine any person who loved his 
 gun, however much he loved his art, cumbering 
 himself with a gigantic roll of " continuous cartoon'' 
 
4Q 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 paper ; or going out in the winter to shoot one or two 
 Fieldfares or Redwings, which had to be carried 
 carefully home, measured, analyzed, and drawn, as I 
 have described. It is a good instance of that Darwin- 
 like love of the truth that is humbly and patiently 
 built up little by little. " It wasn't sport," says Wolf, 
 " that took me out shooting. I wanted to learn. If 
 " you study animals, even at the zoological gardens, 
 " you learn much more than by looking at them along 
 " the barrel of a gun." To the gun, nevertheless, he 
 owed more than he is, perhaps, willing to acknow- 
 ledge. His powder was straight, and almost every 
 shot added to his portfolio at least one study or 
 diagram ; sometimes a whole series, as in the case of 
 a Crane or two he shot at Darmstadt. Besides these 
 dead models, he had usually several living sitters, 
 including a Goshawk and a Great Plover, from which 
 he also frequently sketched. As to a Quail he had 
 studied at Moerz, it grew so tame that it used to sit 
 on the toe of his boot while he drew it. 
 
 Besides what I have named, there were other 
 researches. I have found in his portfolios series after 
 series of studies of the superficial and anatomical 
 detail of animals ; such, for instance, as the species 
 of Deer which were met with in the forests, each of 
 which was minutely analyzed, measured, and described 
 — so minutely that there is a perfect gallery of draw- 
 ings of the horns alone. When a vixen was dug out 
 by the foresters and knocked on the head, she was 
 
LANDSCAPE STUDIES 
 
 4* 
 
 immortalized in a dozen or more little analytical 
 drawings, and consequently committed to memory, 
 inch by inch. 
 
 It must not be imagined that Wolf devoted him- 
 self to the study of zoology only. I was astonished, 
 one day, to find in one of his presses two formidable 
 volumes. The one contained a large number of 
 elaborate tracings of the human bones and muscles 
 from engravings ; and the other, tracings of the same 
 kind of the bones and muscles of the Horse. These 
 were all accompanied by neatly written lists of the 
 names (including the processes and attachments), and 
 comparative measurements. The care and pains- 
 taking were those you would expect to see in the 
 ledgers of some merchant prince. There was not an 
 erasure, or an illegibility, or a blur. It was work 
 done con amove. I have also seen numbers of land- 
 scape studies of this period, in pencil and water- 
 colours ; besides many others of foregrounds and 
 trees. Most of these were drawn direct from nature 
 in the neighbourhood of Darmstadt ; and with the 
 same indefatigable, conscientious care — the same 
 determination to learn as much as possible, that is 
 shown by the zoological work. Some of the fore- 
 ground studies, by their handling and repletion of 
 detail, suggest rather strongly the influence of Albert 
 Dlirer, but at that time Wolf knew nothing of his 
 work. 
 
 The desire to learn was so strong that, in bad 
 
4^ 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 weather, the student elaborated certain pencil copies 
 from old prints and lithographs of foreground foliage. 
 In fact the word "elaborated" hardly conveys the 
 laboriousness of this work. It was work in facsimile. 
 As a kind of relief or reward at the end of each copy, 
 he perched a bird or an insect on one of the bushes or 
 rocks. 
 
 Wolf was now steadily applying himself to the 
 drawing of trees and foreground foliage ; and he pro- 
 bably enjoyed sitting down for a good tussle with a 
 bit of complex ramification, or with a tangled thicket 
 of brambles, nearly as much as he enjoyed the difficul- 
 ties of drawing animals. He saw that these animals 
 depended for much of their beauty, their concealment, 
 and the interest of their habits, upon the nature and 
 colouring of their surroundings, and he set himself 
 to learn those surroundings. 
 
 Near Darmstadt he found a small avenue of 
 fantastic and stunted firs, which he says he used to 
 delight in drawing. The use he made of them is 
 evident in many subsequent designs. 
 
 From his friends among the foresters he learnt 
 much woodcraft, besides some useful wrinkles in 
 shooting. 1 One of them showed him a good hiding- 
 place in the Odenwald, whence to see the assembly 
 of the Black Grouse. Here he dug a hole, screened 
 
 1 To a lover of guns, Wolf is an interesting companion. He will talk 
 by the hour of the minutiae of bullet-casting ; of rapid and slow twists, 
 the proper use of the sling, and other things on which the man who is 
 once thoroughly bitten with an affection for firearms burns to discourse. 
 
A WOODCOCK'S NEST 
 
 45 
 
 it with fir boughs, and armed with his binoculars, 
 crept into hiding just before day-break. He says 
 " There is great enjoyment in watching these birds 
 " day after day. When they fight, the combs of the 
 " males are inflated, so that they look as big as straw - 
 " berries. These combs are chiefly developed in the 
 " breeding season, and are therefore not much known 
 " to sportsmen. Nor do sportsmen know the size of 
 " the comb of a Red Grouse ; which, when courting 
 " is going on in the spring, is three-quarters of an inch 
 "high." A series of careful recollections were after- 
 wards made of the fighting birds. The results of this 
 watching, day after day, were not only stored in one of 
 those memories whose storage-room seemed infinite, 
 but were also added to the corpulent portfolios. 
 
 It was at this period, that Wolf made a few little 
 studies that I think he looks upon with as much 
 satisfaction as any he has done. He was energizing 
 away at some very pleasant country quarters (the 
 village of Grassellenbach), where he had the whole 
 wing of a farm-house to himself and capital cookery, 
 for the sum of one shilling a day. Some wood-cutters, 
 as they felled a neighbouring oak-copse, saw a Wood- 
 cock fly off her eggs. The forester on duty told Wolf 
 that the bird had returned, in spite of the destruction 
 of the cover. Sketch-book in hand, and trembling- 
 all over with excitement, the artist crept up, sat down 
 " by inches," and worked, as he says, "like blazes," 
 till he had secured careful drawings from several 
 
44 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 points of view. If not altogether unique, such a chance 
 was rare enough to shake a man's nerves who realized 
 the beauty of the sight, and what the sketches were 
 worth in days when "snap-shot" photographs were 
 unknown. The power to turn out careful studies 
 under such circumstances arose partly from a habit of 
 intense concentration when the time came for it, and 
 partly from the perfect knowledge of the distribution 
 of the feather tracts. "It would otherwise," says the 
 artist, "have been impossible. The light stripes on 
 "the backs of the birds of this genus are each com- 
 " posed of two lines of parti-coloured feathers; the 
 " light webs of which, joined together, form the stripes 
 " when the plumage is in perfect order. There are 
 " hundreds of sportsmen who have killed no end of 
 " Woodcocks who don't know anything about that. 
 " They don't know the beauty of them. Professed 
 " ornithological artists have made the mistake of 
 " representing the stripe as formed of one line of 
 " feathers." 
 
 It was natural that Wolf should be anxious to turn 
 to some practical account the knowledge derived from 
 the long twilight watches and exciting days in the 
 forest ; and towards the end of his residence in 
 Darmstadt he was fortunate in receiving a commission 
 from one Kern, a publisher in that city, to draw on 
 stone a series of natural history and sporting sub- 
 jects, in conjunction with an artist named Frisch ; a 
 kind of blank cheque which allowed him free scope 
 
DESIGNS FOR KERN 
 
 45 
 
 for invention. These designs (which are dated 1846 
 and 1847), were the first commissions in which he 
 was allowed free scope ; and they prove that the 
 imagination which was afterwards so strong was, even 
 then, fairly sturdy. The subjects include the various 
 game-birds in their haunts, Badgers at play, Wood- 
 cock-shooting ; wildfowl, and like designs. The 
 Blackgame Lek shows a vigorous fight between two 
 cocks ; and in the distance may be seen a man watch- 
 ing" them, as Wolf had so often done himself. 
 
 In one of these designs we see, for the first time, 
 a favourite whim of his — the flouting of the aggressor. 
 A marauding Fox has sprung at a fine cock Caper- 
 caillie, and is rewarded with a mouthful of tail- 
 feathers. Of this kind of episode we shall afterwards 
 find plenty of examples. 
 
 The Woodcock-shooting shows the artist's usual 
 way of handling sporting subjects. The shooter is 
 at least a gunshot distant, and the birds so near in 
 the twilight sky that the broken leg and floating 
 feathers appeal to our sympathy, as they are intended 
 to do. The composition strikes me as unfortunate, 
 but that of the Badger design is the reverse. Here, 
 a whole family scuffle and play together in a glade of 
 a dense pine-forest, by the rather pronounced light of 
 the full moon. Thirty years later the artist would 
 have suppressed much of the detail both of the 
 animals and the landscape ; but even here we find, to 
 a certain extent, a quality which afterwards became 
 
46 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 one of his strongholds — the quality of the " lost and 
 found," or mystery, or suggestiveness, allied to that 
 all-important item of artistic knowledge, the knowing 
 what to omit. 
 
 The lithographs I have described appear to me 
 to possess, among their other good qualities, 
 originality. Seeing how little Wolf knew of con- 
 temporary art of any kind, how conventional much 
 of the sporting and zoological art was at that time, 
 originality is not, perhaps, so great a merit as it might 
 have been. He saw his subjects vividly in a mind 
 not confused by a thousand recollections of this school 
 or that ; and he tried to draw what he saw with his 
 natural naivete. There was this disadvantage, that 
 he had little or nothing to " crib " from. He could 
 not help himself to a head here, an attitude there, or 
 the whole composition of a group somewhere else, 
 as his plagiarists have so often done at his expense. 
 He was a pioneer, and had to fight his way, as it 
 were, and pay his footing. 
 
 The Darmstadt period of Wolfs art, as we may 
 call it, is represented in oil-colour by a series of little 
 panel pictures which in their crispness of touch and 
 elaborate finish would suggest Dutch influences, if 
 we did not positively know that the painter was 
 altogether uninfluenced by any school. One of the 
 most elaborate of these pictures (perhaps too ela^ 
 borate), represents a quantity of Wild Duck and 
 Widgeon thronging in the old channel of the Rhine. 
 
DARMSTADT OIL-PICTURES 
 
 47 
 
 The chief figure is that of a fine Mallard, which, with 
 extended wings, is scrambling out of the half-frozen 
 water upon a small bank of snow beneath a thicket of 
 reeds. 
 
 Another picture shows us a covey of Partridges, 
 dusting, basking, and playing in a patch of sunlight, 
 with so perfect an abandonment of happiness that the 
 subject is charming. That the actions of the birds 
 are thoroughly natural it is unnecessary to say. They 
 are the result of actual observation. 
 
 A third and much smaller subject represents one 
 of the experiences of Wolf's trapping days ; for a large 
 Goshawk, its foot fast in a gin, struggles for freedom 
 with the full strength of wings and body, looking 
 round with furious eyes at the trapper who is 
 evidently approaching. The dead Rabbit which is 
 the cause of the beautiful criminal's destruction lies 
 on the snow, and the distant woods whence he came 
 loom mistily against a yellow, wintry sky. This is 
 one of those little artistic achievements which must 
 always be coveted by the lover of zoological art, both 
 on account of its interest, and the extreme faithfulness 
 of the work, although it is very early work. 
 
 Without this ocular demonstration of W^olf's 
 capabilities as an oil-painter at this period, I should 
 not have believed that the time at the Darmstadt art 
 school could have been so profitable. 
 
 The work and the sport I have described are only 
 a fraction of the fruit of this period of his life ; work 
 
4? 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 ranging from an auto-lithograph " diploma card " of 
 the Natural History Society of the Grand Duchy of 
 Hessen, alive with mammals and birds, to highly- 
 finished studies from nature. It was a time full of 
 sunshine, when the mental attributes to which Wolf 
 was to owe his success in life, were slowly ripening. 
 Among these attributes was one which proved of 
 far greater value to him than many others. With 
 increasing success and knowledge, there grew up, a 
 power of discounting them, as it were. It was a 
 power of estimating their relative values and amount 
 compared with what might still be achieved — of self- 
 appraisement. It was Wolfs determined resolution 
 to be accurate, thorough, and true, even in the least of 
 his zoological studies ; and it was to this resolution, 
 to the invincible patience with which he built up his 
 knowledge of the detail of species after species, and to 
 his hearty sympathy with wild animals, that his ulti- 
 mate unequalled success in the most difficult part of 
 his profession was due. 
 
 Solicitude and patience in the conquest of ele- 
 ments has generally been a sign of a logical mind, and 
 often a sign of genius. Wolf knew perfectly well 
 that he had much to learn in art which could only be 
 learnt in the schools, and though everything seemed 
 to drag him in a contrary direction, he determined to 
 begin over again. 
 
 Early in 1847 he broke off a career which I 
 always like to think of ; happy, congenial, and sue- 
 
Spizaetus nanus. 
 
AT SCHOOL AGAIN 
 
 49 
 
 cessful in the highest degree, to take his place, as 
 he puts it, "among the small-boys at the Antwerp 
 Academy." He voluntarily deserted work such as 
 that he had been doing for Kern, where he had a 
 free hand and could follow his bent ; fired his farewell 
 shot at Roe Deer and Black-game ; and after four 
 pleasant years at Darmstadt, betook himself to school 
 again. 
 
 He soon passed into the life-class ; and there he 
 settled down with his usual determined application — 
 every nerve strained, and every sense on the qui vive y 
 to make the most of his time. He says he wished to 
 study painting ; but as there was no school for animal- 
 painting, he had to paint what he could, that is to say, 
 from human models. " If I had remained at Antwerp 
 " I should have been led away into a different groove 
 " altogether — perhaps figure and landscape. I felt 
 " loth to part with my natural history, and yet I was 
 " led to believe, by all my surroundings, that figure and 
 "landscape were the only worthy kinds of art." He 
 knew also that he was liable to be influenced, not only 
 by the personality of the professors, but by the 
 example of the students ; so he took refuge in the 
 zoological gardens. 
 
 Perhaps, for a short time, lured by some mental 
 ignis fatuus, he may have intended to throw in his 
 lot with the figure-painters, without altogether desert- 
 ing his first love. 
 
 Now it came to pass that, about this time, Dr. 
 
5o LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Kaup went over to England, on ornithology intent. 
 As far as Wolf was concerned, the first-fruits of this 
 visit soon appeared in the form of a commission from 
 John Gould, then well known on the Continent, for 
 a small water-colour drawing. The subject (almost a 
 miniature), was " Partridges dusting," and this was 
 probably the first of our friend's works in colour 
 which had been seen in England. But English 
 ornithologists were getting to know that a young 
 German had arisen who had done some fine work for 
 Professor Schlegel ; and when Dr. Kaup was at the 
 British Museum he was questioned as to the where- 
 abouts of the artist who had drawn the Falcons in the 
 Traitd. The result of this was that Wolf received a 
 letter, which, on translation, proved to be an invitation 
 to London. The late Mr. D. W. Mitchell asked for 
 his help in completing the illustrations of an impor- 
 tant work on the Genera of Birds, then in the course 
 of completion by that indefatigable ornithologist Mr. 
 George Robert Gray. Wolf said to himself, " Wait a 
 "bit ! I must study here nine months more at least, 
 "before I leave." So he declined the invitation, and 
 set his palette in peace. 
 
 I have seen some of the oil life-studies which he 
 did at Antwerp, and they seem to me to show con- 
 siderable promise. At all events, he had completely 
 overcome the early inability to cover a large surface. 
 
 It may occur to us to wonder why, in the course 
 of his career at the schools of Darmstadt and 
 
HE LEAVES FOR LONDON 
 
 Antwerp, he was not smitten with the desire to seek 
 his fortune as a zoological artist at Berlin. That it 
 was not so is an example of the smallness of the pegs 
 on which great matters sometimes hang, and also an 
 example of prejudice. He says, " It is very curious 
 " that I never had any inclination to go to Berlin. It 
 " was simply because the Berliners I had met were 
 " men I did not care for — talkative, laying down the 
 " law &c. I might have had to fight some duels if I 
 " had gone there. But if the Franco-Prussian War 
 " had broken out earlier, and Germany had got to be 
 " what she is now, I might probably have remained 
 " there — might have gone to Berlin, where there is 
 " also an appreciation of careful work." 
 
 Fate, who had plucked the little " bird-fool " from 
 the farmyard, and filled him with loathing at the 
 mere smell of Limburg cheese and sauerkraut, was 
 not going to have all her work undone by the 
 Antwerp professors. Just in the nick of time (namely 
 in 1848), "Sceptre and Crown did tumble down," 
 and all over Europe, says Wolf, " the artists hung 
 " up their palettes and took to rifle-shooting. I made 
 "up my mind to see what London was like, so here 
 " we are." He packed up his studies and firearms, 
 and embarked with his belongings, all and singular, 
 in a London steamer ; thus bringing to an end the 
 second era in his life. 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IT was one of those February days when the 
 London soot falls in the shape of a cold, black 
 drizzle upon a million umbrellas and a sea of 
 slime — a day when the bespattered wayfarer falls 
 out with what he chooses to call his native air, 
 that Joseph Wolf got his first glimpse of British 
 architecture ; and he was not impressed by it. Of 
 our tongue he was utterly ignorant ; but he was burly 
 and canny enough to escape a fleecing by the river- 
 side, and to keep an unflustered eye on his gun-cases 
 and trunks. 
 
 When he had joined the Antwerp Academy he 
 had made up his mind to master the mystery of flesh- 
 painting and solid colour quite at leisure ; and now 
 we find the student bumping in an unsavoury four- 
 wheeler towards a very different career from that he 
 had pictured to himself! 
 
 At The Museum he was cordially welcomed by 
 Mr. Mitchell (who was able to converse with him 
 in French), and was straightway carried off to take 
 possession of some temporary quarters at No. 14 
 Howland Street, Fitzroy Square. This was a far 
 
"THE GENERA OE BIRDS 
 
 better neighbourhood than it is now ; and, finding it 
 to his mind, Wolf afterwards settled down per- 
 manently in the parlours of No. 17. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell was determined to counteract the 
 depressing effect of the weather, and on the very first 
 evening, he made up a little party for the theatre ; 
 including Mr. Triibner the publisher (then with 
 Messrs. Longmans), who acted as interpreter. 
 
 Next day Wolf was installed in the Insect Room, 
 and began his work for Gray's Genera of Birds ^ auto- 
 lithographs which are certainly notable, though purely 
 scientific. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell, in his '• Postscript by the Illus- 
 trator," writes as follows : — 
 
 " It is perhaps scarcely necessary to state that the illustrations of 
 * l this Book have no claim to be considered as works of art. My con- 
 " stant object has been to represent as closely as possible those charac- 
 " teristic variations of form which are relied upon by ornithologists 
 "as the distinctive marks of generic separation. When I accepted 
 " the office of Secretary to the Zoological Society and found myself 
 " no longer able to devote to the completion of the series of plates 
 "the time which the work demanded, I was fortunate enough to 
 " obtain the assistance of Mr. Wolf of Coblenz ; 2 and I have the 
 "pleasure of believing that, as I thus secured the best available 
 " talent in Europe as a substitute for my own pencil, my friends will 
 " have no cause for regret that the latter part of the work has been 
 *" entrusted to another hand.— Montague Street, August 29, 1849." 
 
 1 The Genera of Birds, Comprising their Generic Characters, a notice 
 of the Habit of each Species, and an extensive list of Species, referred to 
 the several Genera. By George Robert Gray, F.L.S. Illustrated by 
 David William Mitchell, B.A., F.L.S. &c. Secretary to the Zoological 
 Society of London. In 3 volumes, 1 844-1 849. Longmans. 
 
 2 He did not then know Wolfs native place. 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 If we turn over the three volumes, after reading 
 this, and compare the illustrations by the veteran 
 naturalist with those by the young, self-taught artist of 
 twenty-seven, we shall at once see a difference, and 
 shall agree pretty cordially that the friends of the 
 former had little cause to regret his relinquishing the 
 work. It will be unnecessary to warn those who wish 
 to study these drawings, that only eleven or so of the 
 hundred and eighty-five coloured plates are of Wolfs 
 doing, and fifty-nine out of the hundred and forty- 
 eight plates of detail. It will be equally unnecessary 
 to recommend a comparison of such a performance as 
 Plate No. 7 (Aquiline?) with the sound workmanship 
 and artistic feeling of Wolf's Cacatuince (Plate 105, 
 Vol. 2) Corvince (Vol. 2), (Plate 76, Vol. 2) ; or 
 Charadrince (Plate 145, Vol. 3). 
 
 Even if the volumes be turned over very rapidly, 
 the difference will strike the eye ; for each of the 
 heads (no less than 345 in number), in Wolf's plates is 
 a portrait 1 instinct with life and individuality. This is 
 the case whether it is the head of a tiny Humming 
 Bird, or of a large species such as a Flamingo or 
 Swan ; and it is especially noteworthy that while Mr. 
 Mitchell often copied conscientiously the " distortions 
 of the bird-stuffer," Wolf, in no single instance, even 
 suggests a stuffed specimen. It is in this power of re- 
 vivifying a dried skin, and not merely revivifying, 
 but showing the most characteristic and beautiful 
 attitude and expression of the living bird or animal, 
 
"THE GENERA OF BIRDS" 
 
 that he stood alone then, and appears to stand alone 
 now. 
 
 Such of the feet and detail of wings as he drew 
 upon stone with his own hands are also excellent ; 
 but, unfortunately, in most of the plates which contain 
 the best portraits, these details appear to have been 
 delivered over to " Hulmandel and Walton's new 
 Process " ; a process which we will hope died an 
 early death. 
 
 As a piece of unwavering devotion to nature, of 
 unmercenary industry, and of skill in differentiating 
 specific character, these bird portraits of Wolfs are 
 remarkable. Of this work he says, " If I hadn't felt 
 the importance of it, I couldn't have done it." It is 
 evident now, how directly profitable the self-imposed 
 labours at Darmstadt — the constant watchfulness and 
 elaborate records of measurements, had already be- 
 come. Without the industrious habits and the enthu- 
 siasm which had long ago formed themselves into a 
 second nature, he might have qualified himself to pro- 
 vide "figures" for this book, but he could not have 
 adorned it to such a degree. It was well for him that 
 this, his first undertaking in England, was connected 
 with a work prepared in so painstaking and able a 
 manner. Professor Newton, in his most interesting 
 article on Ornithology in the Encyclopedia Britannica y 
 says of it : — 
 
 "The enormous labour required for this work seems scarcely to 
 " have been appreciated ; though it remains to this day one of the 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " most useful books in an ornithologist's library .... to have con- 
 " ceived the idea of executing a work on so grand a scale as this 
 " . . . . was itself a mark of genius . . . ." 
 
 By constantly drawing at The Museum the young 
 German became acquainted with a good many men 
 of science ; and he took to some of them at once. 
 Professor Westwood, for instance, used to talk to him 
 in French, at a time when his knowledge of English 
 w r as chiefly confined to certain exercises in The Vicar 
 of Wakefield which his master set him. In addition 
 to this well-known entomologist, he of course made 
 the acquaintance of many other scientific men ; and 
 on the occasion of one of the country excursions of 
 The Entomological Society he met, for the first time, 
 William Yarrell ; who so far unbent, as to sing a comic 
 song, to feast with the rest of them on strawberries 
 and cream, and even to join in a little rifle practice. 
 
 One day, soon after Wolf's arrival in England, he 
 was introduced, at the Zoological Gardens, to a man 
 small in stature, but by no means small in mind, who 
 was engaged on some dissecting. This was Mr. 
 Bartlett, now known far and wide, in a hale and 
 vigorous old age, as the Superintendent of the Zoo- 
 logical Gardens, and for his most extensive zoological 
 knowledge. He asked Wolf to visit him, and the 
 invitation being accepted, the artist found that his 
 new friend was a naturalist, living in College Street, 
 Camden Town, where he was often to be found 
 skinning birds, or busy in the interesting work of his 
 
SCIENCE AND ART 
 
 57 
 
 profession. The acquaintance, in spite of the early 
 difficulty of communication, ripened ; and it has lasted 
 ever since ; each of the men appreciating the other's 
 energy and talent. 
 
 It was at the Gardens, too, that Wolf first made 
 friends with Mr. H. E. Dresser, then (in the fifties), a 
 lad beginning the study of natural history. As they 
 became intimate, the artist would often turn up on 
 Sunday at Mr. Dresser's home at Norwood, fully 
 enjoying the comfort there, and absence of cere- 
 mony. 
 
 I regret to say that a few of the men of science 
 Wolf came across filled him with wonder, just as 
 Dr. Kaup had done in setting up the Sparrow-hawk. 
 He says, " Some of the ornithologists don't recognise 
 " nature — don't know a bird when they see it flying. 
 " A specimen must be well dried before they recognise 
 " it." He found also (which to him was much more 
 serious), that his instincts and knowledge as an artist 
 were at a discount among many of his new friends, 
 thoroughly able men and good fellows as they were ; 
 and it grated upon him. " Among the naturalists," 
 he complains, 4 'there are some who are very keen 
 "about scientific correctness, but who have no artis- 
 " tic feeling. If a thing is artistic they mistrust it 
 " There must be nothing right in perspective. There 
 " must be nothing but a map of the animal, and in 
 " a side view. They are like those other naturalists 
 " who only know a bird when they handle the skin. 
 
58 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " It is impossible, for instance, for a mere museum 
 " man to know the true colour of the eyes." 
 
 Few who are not thoroughly familiar with the 
 technical training, to say nothing of the talent, neces- 
 sary to form an accomplished artist ; who have never 
 fruitlessly endeavoured to sound the depth of the 
 general ignorance about art, even in the case of many 
 highly educated men, will be able to read between the 
 lines of these complaints. The learned naturalist 
 would very properly smile at an outsider who scouted 
 the idea that any special training was needed in 
 the writer of one of those admirable monographs or 
 papers which show such accuracy and patient re- 
 search. Yet, strange to say, when he comes to the 
 illustrations he often considers himself much more 
 competent to decide on their handling than a man 
 who has spent the best years of his life, not only in 
 the study of all branches of art, but of zoological art 
 particularly. 
 
 And woe be to this unhappy man if he follows out 
 the refinements he has been many years in mastering, 
 or obeys the laws of perspective or chiaroscuro. The 
 result of this state of things may be seen in many a 
 scientific work ; but it has not always been the case. 
 A few ornithologists, for instance, have proved them- 
 selves most appreciative and kindly employers of the 
 artists upon whom, as they know, they depend so 
 much for the interest and value of their labours. 
 But Science and Art, though ostensibly united under 
 
Eleonora's Falcon. 
 
SCIENCE AND ART 
 
 59 
 
 the auspices of a government department, have, in 
 certain branches, been well nigh divorced from each 
 other. 1 The fault is not on one side ; and the more 
 we apply ourselves to study the subject, 2 the more 
 shall we incline to the opinion that Art has been very 
 greatly to blame. Artists have sneered at Science, 
 and have treated her simplest laws with open ridicule. 
 They have considered themselves far above such 
 things as the trammels of draughtsmanship ; or even 
 the superficial knowledge of elementary human ana- 
 tomy. They have looked down from the sublime 
 pinnacles of landscape art with openly avowed con- 
 tempt upon the man who has devoted himself to any 
 but the regulation animals and "the regulation nest of 
 a Chaffinch with Hedge Sparrow's eggs." They have 
 eagerly turned aside to welcome " Impressionism " 
 into their very midst ; and have shaken their tresses 
 not only at "the objects of natural history," but at 
 Nature. 
 
 There is little doubt that both Science and Art 
 have suffered and will suffer from this mutual hostility 
 or contempt. If the time should ever come when 
 
 1 This is exemplified by a very amusing article in The Field, once or 
 twice a year, on the Sporting subjects at the picture galleries ; an article 
 full of vigour and sense, by a thoroughly competent naturalist, who fight? 
 a good fight, all the year round, against the nauseous popular-natural- 
 history anecdote and the marvel-monger. 
 
 2 It has been a source of the greatest regret to me that I had not 
 studied the subject as I ought when I wrote the sketch of Wolf's life some 
 years ago. Had I done so I should not have written as I did. It is a 
 subject of which it is essential to consider both sides ; but unfortunately 
 it is easy to lose all patience in considering either. 
 
6o 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 they are really united, the closer that union becomes 
 the more valuable will be those works in which both 
 have to take a part. 
 
 At the time Wolf came over, English ornitho- 
 logists had standards of several kinds by which to 
 judge representations of birds and mammals. A few 
 of these standards were high ; but, for the most part, 
 and even in the great encyclopaedias brought out 
 regardless of cost under the auspices of the elite of 
 Science, some of the zoological illustrations showed 
 every conceivable elaboration of vileness that could be 
 foisted upon nature by outrageous artistic empiricism. 1 
 Among the ornithological artists then in repute there 
 can hardly be mentioned one who could be depended 
 on for an accurate and life-like representation of a 
 specimen to which he had been unable to get access 
 while it was living, or at all events in the flesh. Of 
 Bewick, Professor Newton writes : — 
 
 " Fully admitting the extraordinary execution of the engravings, 
 " every ornithologist may perceive that as portraits of the Birds, 
 " they are of very unequal merit. Some of the figures were drawn 
 " from stuffed specimens, and accordingly perpetuate all the imper- 
 " fections of the originals ; others represent species with the appear- 
 
 1 Speaking of Allen's Naturalists' Library, a reviewer in The Daily 
 Graphic says : — " As illustrative of the relative advance of knowledge in 
 " these matters, [butterflies and monkeys] it is interesting to note that 
 " while the old series of plates in ' Butterflies ' remain intact with a few 
 "additions, those, without exception, in the old 'Jardine' volume on 
 " monkeys have been discarded, and an entirely new series substituted. 
 " The others, ' with appropriate inscriptions' says Dr. Sharpe, would have 
 "formed a very good instalment of a Series of ' Comic Natural History' 
 " volumes, as they were, in fact, nothing but a set of extraordinary carica- 
 " tures of monkeys." 
 
POWER OF REVIVIFYING 
 
 61 
 
 " ance of which the artist was not familiar, and these are either 
 " wanting in expression or are caricatures ; [Note. This is especially 
 "observable in the figures of the Birds of Prey. Newton] but those 
 " that were drawn from live Birds, or represent species which he 
 " knew in life, are worthy of all praise." 
 
 The same writer, speaking of a French ornitho- 
 logical work, continues : — 
 
 " The plates in this last are by Barraband, for many years re- 
 " garded as the perfection of ornithological artists, and indeed the 
 " figures, when they happen to have been drawn from the life, are not 
 " bad ; but his skill was quite unable to vivify the preserved specimens 
 " contained in museums, and when he had only these as subjects, 
 "he simply copied the distortions of the ' bird-stuffer.'" 
 
 As I have said, it was in this respect, even thus 
 early in his career, that Wolfs art was unique. He 
 was an unconscious co-worker with Nitzsch and 
 Sundevall, but not a disciple. By means of his 
 devotion to the study of external characters (not 
 neglecting anatomy), and the logical evolution of 
 principles from well classified facts, he had, at last, 
 become capable of revivifying species, either birds 
 or mammals, of which he had never seen more than 
 the skin, or a specimen preserved in spirits ; and I 
 should say that hardly an instance can be found in 
 which he was led far astray by a preserved speci- 
 men. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell, then, had had his choice ; and he 
 found that he had cause to congratulate himself on 
 the result. As will be seen, he ultimately brought 
 our friend plenty of work, besides the illustrations for 
 the Genera. Some time afterwards he had to deliver 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 a series of lectures on ornithology, and he commis- 
 sioned Wolf to furnish the illustrations, in the form of 
 large water-colours eight feet by five. Among these 
 subjects were Cranes ; a Goshawk striking a Rabbit ; 
 and "a lot of Ducks dashing into the water, with a 
 Peregrine whipping past." Wolf worked his hardest 
 at these designs while the lectures lasted, finishing 
 two or three a week, out of a total of a dozen. They 
 were very freely executed, partly with a sponge, and 
 partly with large brushes. 1 A well-known picture- 
 dealer had to strain them on canvas ; and scenting 
 money with the keen picture-dealer nose, he gave 
 the painter two boards, with a commission for small 
 replicas of the Peregrine and the Goshawk subjects. 
 " Those boards," says Wolf, many years afterwards, 
 " are knocking about my studio still, and very dirty 
 4< they are. I had always an aversion to do anything 
 4 ' for a dealer, and I would sooner have died of 
 " starvation than have run to one." It is fortunate 
 for Wolf that he was never driven to one with the 
 scourge of that direst form of necessity which has 
 blasted many a painter, bitterly striving after higher 
 things than pot-boilers. 
 
 Much as he got to like some of the scientific men, 
 Wolf was resolutely determined not to become a mere 
 scientific draughtsman. He naturally felt that he 
 had more in common with members of his own pro- 
 fession, and soon numbered a good many among his 
 
 1 These drawings afterwards became the property of Professor Owen. 
 
Astur Griceiceps. 
 
WORK FOR OTHER ARTISTS 
 
 63 
 
 friends. At The Museum he had already made the 
 acquaintance of that accomplished lithographer G. H. 
 Ford ; a man who, in spite of his skill in representing 
 reptiles and fish, utterly failed in the revivifying of 
 preserved specimens of other orders ; such for 
 instance is the Chiroptera. He saw with pleasure how 
 Ford would patiently labour for weeks over a draw- 
 ing ; and of course he appreciated the thorough-going 
 nature of the workmanship that so aroused Darwin's 
 enthusiasm ; 1 but he saw also where Ford stopped 
 short. 
 
 Up to the present time he had known compara- 
 tively little of the ways of artists, and he was surprised 
 to find how eager some of them were to get him to 
 put in their animals. 
 
 The following incident shows how completely 
 ignorant he was of this system of borrowing. One 
 day he had just finished a great flight of gulls in one 
 of his friends' drawings, and was resting, very tired, 
 when a visitor was announced. The visitor gazed at 
 the drawing, and then said, " There is no other man 
 
 " who can put in gulls like you, H ." " H said 
 
 " nothing, but / said ' Good-bye,' and it was ' Good- 
 " ' bye ' for any more gulls and things." In after years 
 Wolf became familiar with this kind of thing, and 
 even found artists, here and there, (such as his friend 
 Thomas Woolner, R.A.) ready and even anxious to 
 acknowledge his help in a substantial way. 
 
 1 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 He has also become familiar with flattery in its 
 sincerest form ; but sometimes he is apt to growl 
 when he encounters a particularly strenuous attempt at 
 copying some bird or beast of his. He says " I have 
 " seen some of my gulls flying about in fellows' 
 " pictures at the Academy," and says it with a laugh 
 which proves that he takes it, after all, as he takes 
 most things — pretty easily. There are certain excep- 
 tions, however, and he boils over at the recollection 
 of one particular instance, because his designs, after 
 being handed over to the publisher, appeared as the 
 work of a man who professed the most sublime con- 
 tempt for natural history. 
 
 The tide of his fortunes which had turned almost 
 imperceptibly in Dr. Rtippell's study some eight years 
 before, now flowed swiftly. Long before Wolf was 
 by any means perfect in his knowledge of English, he 
 became acquainted with Mr. William Russell (a well- 
 known accountant), who brought Sir Edwin Landseer 
 to see him. His studies were pinned thickly to the 
 walls ; and finding the room thus papered, Sir Edwin 
 was keenly interested. This was the first of a series of 
 visits to Wolf by Sir Edwin and his brother Thomas, 
 who both formed a very high opinion of him. 
 
 Mrs. Russell was a Campbell and related to the 
 Duke of Argyll, who was then, as Wolf puts it, 
 " mad for birds." The artist was introduced to the 
 Duke, who became a patron in the best sense of that 
 perverted word ; kind, appreciative, and keenly inter- 
 
DISTINGUISHED EMPIOYERS 
 
 ested. In The Reign of 'Law, published as long after- 
 wards as 1867, there are several most careful diagrams 
 by Wolf, illustrating the " machinery of flight," and 
 a kindly acknowledgment of their authorship. 
 
 The pencil sketch, a small reproduction of which 
 I have given, was made from a Blackcock which he 
 shot at Inveraray, and is interesting from the fact that 
 it was done in ten minutes. 
 
 Sketch of a Blackcock as he fell 
 
 Through Mr. Russell he was also introduced to 
 the Sutherland family, and to the Duke of West- 
 minster ; who, like the Duke of Argyll, became an 
 occasional visitor at No. 17, Howland Street. 
 
 If the wiseacres of Moerz, who shook their heads 
 at the V oge If anger s folly, could have known all this, 
 and if they could have counted the guineas that gently 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 trickled into his exchequer, they would probably have 
 said that they had always predicted his success — 
 had seen from the very first that there was something 
 uncommon about the boy. 
 
 Success in art, to say nothing of other professions, 
 has always depended to a certain extent upon the 
 prestige acquired by patronage. Now Wolf had, all 
 along, looked upon patronage, in its usual sense, with 
 dislike ; and, fortunately, he had contrived to keep 
 himself free from it. What many men, therefore, 
 would have regarded as the gayest feather in their 
 caps he, rightly or wrongly, ranked second to the 
 unaffected approval of a brother artist. 
 
 Perhaps, of all his artistic laurels as apart from 
 those bestowed on him by Science, the most honour- 
 able are represented by the admiration of the Pre- 
 Raphaelite " Brotherhood " for his work ; and so 
 young a painter who could number its members among 
 his champions had good cause to congratulate himself. 
 Wolf s art, in fact, was entirely free from the conven- 
 tionality and mendacity against which the Brother- 
 hood girded ; and the attribute which probably 
 appealed to their sympathy was his evident determina- 
 tion to do every work as perfectly, conscientiously, 
 truthfully, and patiently as it could possibly be done — 
 to maintain an unswerving faithfulness to nature. 
 Moreover, he was no believer in dogmas, or systems, 
 or schools ; and would have refused to follow any 
 artist, or the Brotherhood itself, further than his own 
 
THE PRE-RAPHAELITES 
 
 67 
 
 reason allowed him. He says, " I always hated what 
 " they call ' style' in art. The moment you get into 
 " that you become unnatural." 
 
 At the suggestion of Mr. F. G. Stephens, when I 
 was publishing my former sketch of Wolfs life, I 
 wrote to the late Mr. Woolner, and to Mr. W. M. 
 Rossetti, with the view of learning from each of them 
 " The Brotherhood's" opinion of the work in 
 question. They kindly permitted me to quote their 
 replies, which were as follows. Mr. Woolner 
 wrote : — 
 
 " I cannot speak in words of Wolf as highly as he deserves, and 
 u I am rejoiced that you seem resolved to do his splendid abili- 
 ties justice. I remember fighting his battles as far back as 
 "1848, when many persons were inclined to disallow his high 
 "originality and vivid truthfulness; and I doubt, even now, if 
 " there are a great number who appreciate his works as they ought 
 " to be admired." 
 
 Mr. Woolner, who was six years younger than 
 Wolf, remained his friend in after life, and was one 
 of the few (as I have said), who, while sometimes 
 availing themselves of his help, anxiously sought to 
 offer him proper remuneration. 
 
 Mr. W. M. Rossetti wrote to me as follows : — 
 
 " It is quite true that my brother admired Wolf's pictures and 
 " drawings heartily. Wolf began exhibiting in London soon after 
 "the Pre-Raphaelite movement began in English art, and all the 
 " Pre-Raphaelites, including my brother, were delighted with his 
 " acute and minute observation, and delicate precision of ren- 
 " dering." 
 
 Probably Wolfs greatest achievement is that 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 while he realized the ideal of men such as these, he 
 more than satisfied the demands of the most accom- 
 plished and learned zoologists (who speak of him 
 again and again as simply " unrivalled "), to say 
 nothing of the enthusiastic praise from " the greatest 
 hunter ever known in modern times." 
 
 Mr. J. E. Gray used to say to him, " No one can 
 put an animal together as you can ; " and Professor 
 Newton, in the article I have quoted, refers to him as 
 " the greatest of all animal painters.'' Sir Edwin 
 Landseer, on one occasion, said of his brother artist 
 that he must have been a bird before he became a 
 man ; and that he had never seen the expression of a 
 bird rendered as Wolf did it. 
 
 It is partly due to the wide grasp I have de- 
 scribed that Wolf's fortunes prospered, and also that 
 he never allowed the sunshine of success to blind him. 
 He did not lower one jot his high standard of finish 
 and care with the increase of commissions ; or even 
 begin to affect artistic dress. He was a diligent, 
 unaffected student still, as he has remained through- 
 out life — his habits simplicity itself, with just a dash 
 of homely Bohemianism about them. 
 
 He would get up very early on a spring morning 
 and buy a nest of young Bullfinches in Covent 
 Garden Market, or explore the seductive alleys of 
 Leadenhall ; or, later in the year, he would sow a 
 patch of mustard and cress in a neglected corner of 
 the back yard. Now, when his crop looked " tempt- 
 
Germain's Polyplkctron. 
 
JOHN GOULD 
 
 69 
 
 nig," he betook himself to a poulterer's, and picked 
 out the finest Partridge he could find. He then laid 
 it tenderly on the mustard and cress, and sat down to 
 make a study, for the sake of the contrast of colour. 
 " It was a very good lesson," he says, " and I came 
 " to the conclusion that all these sombre-coloured 
 " birds looked particularly beautiful among fresh 
 " green." 
 
 It is impossible to turn over his portfolios without 
 being struck by his happy treatment of sombre- 
 coloured species. He took much more pleasure in 
 revealing the latent beauty, the gentle harmonies and 
 gradations of some unobtrusive species, by means of 
 the subtleties of his art, than in painting the members 
 of the more gorgeous orders. 
 
 Among the most interesting of Wolf's reminis- 
 cences of these early days in England are those 
 connected with John Gould, whose pronounced, 
 rugged personality he conjures up by means of many 
 anecdotes. It is a portrait less smooth and pleasing, 
 but infinitely more striking than that generally current. 
 
 I have already mentioned that he had painted a 
 little water-colour for the ornithologist while he was 
 yet in Germany. The two men were introduced to 
 each other after the artist had been in London about 
 a fortnight ; Gould (long since a widower), being 
 about forty-four years old, and the other's senior by 
 sixteen years. They seem to me to have been so 
 totally opposite in disposition that real intimacy was 
 
7° 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 impossible. Had it not been for their common scien- 
 tific enthusiasm, and for Gould's wisdom in cultivating 
 a man who could be immensely profitable to him, 
 friendship of any kind would have been difficult ; for 
 Wolf says that Gould " was a shrewd old fellow, but 
 the most uncouth man I ever knew." This opinion 
 is endorsed by a few to whom Gould's rough manners 
 (and sometimes equally rough tongue) and method of 
 doing business are well known. 
 
 Born in 1804, Gould was the son of an under- 
 gardener, who, fourteen years later, was fortunate 
 enough to secure a situation in the Royal Gardens at 
 Windsor. Here, says Mr. Sharpe, 1 the boy " picked 
 " many a bunch of dandelions for Queen Charlotte's 
 " dandelion tea," and effectually taught himself the 
 elements of taxidermy, which, it is said, he turned to 
 account by stuffing birds for the Eton boys. Leaving 
 an under-gardener's situation in Yorkshire, he re- 
 turned in 1827 to London, and secured an appoint- 
 ment at The Zoological Society. " He is remembered 
 " in these early days," writes Mr. Sharpe, "as a man 
 " of singular energy with a good knowledge of the 
 " art of mounting animals." As an example of this 
 knowledge Mr. Dresser tells me that Gould stuffed 
 for King George IV. the first Giraffe that ever came 
 over to England. 
 
 In 1829 Gould married, and to his wife's zeal and 
 self-sacrificing devotion it is evident that he owed 
 
 1 Analytical Index to the Works of Jolm Gould. Sotheran 1893. 
 
JOHN GOULD 
 
 V- 
 
 much of his after success. His own industry, en- 
 thusiasm, and perseverance were beyond praise ; but 
 without this timely help, and the ceaseless labour of 
 a long-suffering slave, one Prince (called by courtesy a 
 44 Secretary "), the result might have been different. 
 
 How Gould prospered, everyone knows. We are 
 told that when he left England for Australia he had 
 made 7,000/. by his publications ; and afterwards his 
 subscription list at one time amounted to i43,ooo/. 1 
 
 As for a bargain, artistic or otherwise, no one 
 could drive a keener. 
 
 It was chiefly Wolf's knowledge of scientific detail, 
 and his willingness to impart it, which attracted Gould 
 in the first instance, and also his singular facility in 
 designing good attitudes and groups ; matters of 
 which Gould knew little or nothing. 2 
 
 Wolf says that Gould never knew very much 
 
 1 His subscribers, as contained in a prospectus dated January 1, 1866, 
 amounted to a total of 1008, divided as follows : Monarchs, 12 (The 
 Queen and Prince Consort each taking an entire set of ten works) ; 
 Imperial, Serene, and Royal Highnesses, 11 ; English Dukes and 
 Duchesses, 16 ; Marquises and Marchionesses, 6 ; Earls, 30 ; Counts, 
 Countesses, and Barons, 5 ; Viscounts, 10 ; Bishop (Worcester), 1 ; 
 Lords, 36 ; Honourables, 31 ; Baronets, &c, 61 ; Institutions and 
 Libraries, 107 ; Miscellaneous, 682. The subscribers, as divided among 
 the ten works, were as follows : Birds of Great Britain (@ ^78 150) 397 ; 
 Century of Himalayan Birds, 328 ; Birds of Europe (@ £76 8 o) 282 ; 
 Birds of Australia (@ ^115 o o) 238 ; Birds of Asia, 207 ; Monograph 
 of the Ramphastidae, 213 ; Trogonidae, 167 ; Odontophorinse, 13 5 ; 
 Trochilidas, 296 ; Mammals of Australia (@ ^41 00) 146. 
 
 2 I am quite aware that his name is attached to hundreds of his 
 plates ; and that these plates are spoken of by authors who evidently 
 have no professional knowledge of art, not only as if they were Gould's 
 handiwork, but as being unsurpassed and unsurpassable. 
 
7- 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 about the feather tracts, and nothing of composition. 
 He liked to over-colour his things, and he used to say, 
 " There are sure to be some specimens brighter than 
 we do them." 
 
 In after years, when Gould lived at Great Russell 
 Street, he kept in readiness a box of fourpenny cigars, 
 and a number of sheets of drawing-paper tacked upon 
 a board ; for he was a very notable man for small 
 economies. When Wolf called, the board, a piece of 
 charcoal, and a cigar were produced, with a request 
 for a sketch or two — not at all as a matter of business, 
 but just in a friendly way. " I wish," said Wolf on 
 one of these occasions, " that you had told me before 
 " what species you would like done, because I have 
 ''studies of many." "Ah," said Gould, "you will 
 manage it." Our friend always did manage it ; and 
 part of the result was a series of life-size charcoal 
 drawings, together with a few water-colours, for The 
 Birds of Great Britain, which were drawn upon the 
 stone by a lithographic draughtsman, and vigorously 
 coloured. The series (as far as Wolf is concerned), 
 includes twenty-five of the Birds of Prey, fourteen 
 Ducks and other water-fowl, and sixteen other species ; 
 fifty-five in all, or thereabouts. I have looked through 
 his copy of this book with him, with the advantage of 
 his comments ; and though the plates for which he 
 did the sketches can. generally be picked out easily by 
 their superiority to the others in composition and 
 action, the seeing them once more after a long period, 
 
GOULD'S ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 73 
 
 in the full blaze of their colouring, somewhat disturbed 
 him. He growled over his pipe, as I turned over, 
 such comments as these. Of the Woodcock, " Much 
 " too red, and he must go and put in those blue-bells 
 "and things too! I can't be answerable for the 
 " colouring. Everything gets vulgarized." Of the 
 Hoopoe, " Look at that dreadful water he has put in 
 there ! " Stella's Duck was " Dreadfully hard, and 
 stripey and streaky." He was quite right. The 
 lithographic draughtsmanship and the colouring, of 
 which Gould was so excessively proud, are of a very 
 popular kind indeed. 
 
 Whatever drawings Wolf contributed to other 
 works of Gould's will be mentioned in the Appendix. 
 
 Touching the illustrations of Gould's works 
 Professor Newton's criticism (as is generally the case 
 on artistic matters) is very much to the point : — 
 
 " The earlier of these works were illustrated by Mrs. Gould, and the 
 "figures in them are fairly good ; but those in the later, except when 
 " (as he occasionally did) he [Gould] secured the services of Mr. Wolf, 
 " are not so much to be commended. There is, it is true, a smooth- 
 " ness and finish about them not often seen elsewhere ; but as though 
 " to avoid the exaggerations of Audubon, Gould usually adopted the 
 " tamest of attitudes in which to represent his subjects, whereby 
 " expression as well as vivacity is wanting. Moreover, both in drawing 
 " and colouring, there is frequently much that is untrue to nature, so 
 " that it has not uncommonly happened for them to fail in the chief 
 "object of all zoological plates, that of affording some means of 
 " recognising specimens on comparison." 
 
 Gould was indefatigable in his search after new 
 skins in the dealers' shops. If he found one, says 
 
74 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Wolf, " he would not betray his excitement but would 
 " say, ' I think I have that ; but I wish you would lend 
 " 'it to me to compare.'" If the dealer complied, a 
 sketch was immediately made and the skin was 
 returned. On these occasions, and in later years when 
 Wolf lived in Berners Street, Gould used to bring the 
 new skin, help himself to a cigar, and walk restlessly 
 about the room while the sketch was made ; or some- 
 times a water-colour drawing. Wolf says that 
 " Gould was the most restless fellow, who would 
 "never sit down except when he was fishing at 
 " Maidenhead, when he would sit for hours." 
 
 I have heard from a friend who knew Gould and 
 his character intimately, some most amusing stories of 
 his craving for new or rare skins of birds which he 
 did not possess ; and of his efforts (sometimes success- 
 ful, sometimes ingeniously baffled) to borrow them for 
 very indefinite periods. Wolf says, " I had the skin of 
 " a splendid young male Norwegian Falcon ; very 
 "dark — extremely so. It got into Gould's box, and 
 "never found its way out again." 
 
 The following anecdote is perhaps the most 
 characteristic of any. Dr. Severtzoff, who was then 
 engaged on the ornithology of Central Asia, came to 
 England with a letter of introduction to another well- 
 known ornithologist, who told me the story. This 
 gentleman, who shall be called " G." and who knew 
 Gould intimately, offered the use of some empty 
 cabinets in his rooms for the reception of the Doctor's 
 
GOULD AND SEVERTZOFF 
 
 75 
 
 collection of skins, which, as it included many new 
 and very rare species from Turkestan, was of great 
 value and interest. The offer was gladly accepted, 
 and that evening the more important birds were 
 stowed away. 
 
 Next morning it occurred to G. that perhaps 
 the skins might be interfered with. Knowing that 
 SevertzofT would not want to refer to them himself, 
 and having to leave for the day, he took the precaution 
 of locking the cabinets, and put the key in his pocket. 
 On his return, he found the Doctor awaiting him, who 
 said he had an amusing tale to tell. He had arrived 
 at the house the morning after the skins had been put 
 away, and was proceeding to unpack some other 
 boxes when Mr. Gould called, who sent up his name 
 with the message that he particularly wanted to see 
 Dr. SevertzofT if he was in the house : — " He did 
 come up," said the Doctor with his strong foreign 
 accent, " and he did talk to me, and did flatter me in 
 ''every way. He did tell me that I was a naturalist 
 "greater than Cuvier or Linnaeus, and I did begin to 
 " think what little bit of cheese I shall drop from my 
 "bill. He then did tell me he hear that I have with 
 "me all my rare birds of Turkestan, and that it was 
 " in the interests of science necessary that he should 
 " borrow and examine them. I did tell him that the 
 " birds were in the house, and he express himself most 
 " charmed, and did ask me if I would at once let him 
 "look at them. I then did go to the cabinets, but I 
 
7 6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " found that you, clever man ! had taken away the key. 
 " I then say to Mr. Gould that Mr. G. have taken the 
 " key away. That minute his face change. He go 
 "straight down the stairs, and at every step he say — 
 -'Damn Mr. G. V " 
 
 One day Gould was calling on Wolf in order to get 
 a sketch made and said, "Well, Wolf, I am going to 
 " have my hair cut, and when I come back, I can take 
 "the drawing away." On his return he exclaimed, 
 "Look here, what I've got!" and produced from his 
 handkerchief an egg of the Great Auk ! " Where did 
 you find that?" said the astounded artist. " In the 
 " German Bazaar. Whittaker [a naturalist] asked 
 " what he thought a good price, [naming a small sum] 
 "so I gave him a cheque, and here's the egg." 1 
 
 The existence of the rarity soon became known 
 among the collectors, one of whom called on Gould at 
 Great Russell Street. The egg was produced with 
 the remark that it was probably the last of the species 
 that would ever be for sale ; and what was then an 
 enormous price was asked for it. The collector 
 having, at last, consented to the terms, Gould said : — 
 " Wait a bit, sir ! This being probably the last Great 
 " Auk's egg which may be forthcoming, I have made 
 " up my mind that only a subscriber for one of my 
 
 1 Mr. Dresser, who well remembers the incident, says that the dealer 
 had already sent to Gould to say that he had the egg ; but that Gould pooh- 
 poohed the matter, and said the specimen was probably nothing more than 
 a double-yolked egg of another species. He afterwards, however, went 
 to see it, with the result related by Wolf. 
 
Bubo Fasciolatus. 
 
NOR IF A Y 
 
 11 
 
 " works shall have it." Even this being insufficient to 
 deter the enthusiast, he put down his name for The 
 Birds of Great Britain, and carried off the egg. 
 Wolf relates this anecdote with anything but approval 
 — as the exact opposite, in fact, of what he 
 admires. 
 
 In 1856, and therefore long before the completion ■ 
 of The Birds of Great Britain, the two friends sailed 
 for Norway on board the yacht of Mr. Bidder, 
 formerly The Calculating Boy, and then, Mr. Dresser 
 tells me, an eminent consulting engineer. Landing at 
 Christiania, Wolf and Gould went on alone, with an 
 interpreter. The artist had his drawing materials and 
 gun ; the ornithologist his skinning-tools ; but when 
 they came to practical work Wolf discovered that 
 Gould, learned as he was in birds, knew the notes of 
 comparatively few. 1 For his part he was soon able 
 to discover the Three-toed Woodpecker, the Red- 
 spotted Bluethroat and others, by his knowledge of 
 the notes of the adults. Of this last species, Gould 
 writes : — 
 
 " Mr. Wolf, who accompanied me to the celebrated Snee Haetten 
 
 1 This, I believe, is largely a matter of ear as well as constant practice. 
 For instance, I know a keen-sighted artist who formerly devoted himself 
 a good deal to British birds, but who is deficient in his knowledge of 
 their notes ; and can never, he says, acquire it to any great extent. On 
 the other hand, I also know an ex Royal Artillery officer, whose eyes 
 were so injured by an explosion that he cannot recognize any bird by 
 sight even at the closest quarters ; yet who is exceedingly well up in the 
 notes of all the species in his neighbourhood ; and, strange to say, 
 acquired much of his knowledge since his accident. 
 
78 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " range of mountains, on the ist of July accidentally discovered some 
 "young birds which were just forward enough to hop out of the nest 
 " — a great prize to me who had never before seen the bird at this 
 "age in a state of nature." 
 
 As a matter of fact, but for previously identifying the 
 note of the parents, Wolf would not have searched for 
 the nest. 
 
 The Gun, sketch-book, and knife were kept well 
 employed ; especially at the posting station of 
 Hjerkin ; where, in their farm-house lodgings, Gould 
 skinned the specimens that Wolf shot and drew. 
 Here they got some young Willow Ptarmigan, and 
 accomplished one of the chief objects of the journey, 
 by investigating the breeding habits of the Fieldfares ; 
 whose noisy colonies disturbed their rest even in the 
 nominal night. Gould writes : — ■ 
 
 " Desirous like Mr. Hewitson to see the Fieldfare in its native 
 "woods, I proceeded to Norway, for this and other reasons, in the 
 "year 1856, accompanied by Mr. Wolf. We found the bird breeding 
 "on the Dovrefjeld in abundance, and the only difference from 
 " Mr. Hewitson's description which we noticed was that all the nests 
 "we saw were placed among the stunted birch trees, but this was 
 "doubtless due to our being far above the pine-forests." 
 
 It was here that one of those little incidents 
 occurred that have always delighted Wolf. He was 
 out one day, sketching by himself, when he disturbed 
 a brood of Willow Ptarmigan ; one of which, with a 
 rapid grab, he succeeded in catching. Meanwhile all 
 the others had suddenly become utterly invisible. 
 When the captive saw its mother it began to call to 
 
A SEPARATE ROOM 
 
 79 
 
 her, and she came close up with her beak open, but 
 then retired. Wishing to discover how the young 
 had hidden themselves, Wolf liberated the one he 
 held, which instantly dived under the Reindeer moss. 
 He then retreated, and watched with his glasses. As 
 the old bird called, he saw the young ones emerge 
 one by one from their concealment, until all were once 
 more visible. 
 
 The friends had a fine large bedroom, and the 
 simple people of the house thought that breakfast 
 might be laid in this room. Such a suggestion 
 aroused Gould's dignity (never very sleepy), and the 
 interpreter was summoned in haste. The hostess was 
 solemnly informed that breakfast must be laid else- 
 where, and this being immediately done, Gould's 
 anger was appeased. For a time all went well ; but 
 presently, behind an unnoticed curtain, an old woman 
 burst into a fit of coughing. They had got their 
 breakfast in a separate room — the bedroom of the 
 ancient grandmother of the family. Gould flew into a 
 passion, but could not help laughing at the way he 
 had been tricked. 
 
 He was very anxious to get a young Capercaillie ; 
 and at one of the farms where they stayed he 
 offered a substantial reward. When they were on the 
 point of leaving some labourers presented themselves, 
 produced from a small piece of paper a dead Thrush, 
 and claimed the reward, little thinking who it was 
 they were trying to cheat. Gould threw the Thrush 
 
So 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 in the spokesman's face with a laugh, in which the 
 men heartily joined. 
 
 It was on this journey that Wolf first saw 
 Ptarmigan in their breeding plumage ; and the cocks, 
 he says, were nearly as dark as Black-game. After- 
 wards he found them equally dusky at Guisachan, Sir 
 Dudley Marjoribanks' place in Inverness-shire. 
 
 Of the ornithologist's opinion of Wolf's artistic 
 powers, Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe gives an instance 
 in his Analytical Index to Gould's works, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " It was always a real pleasure to see the delight which animated 
 "the old naturalist when, in his invalid days, I took him some 
 " startling new form of bird such as Bulwer's Pheasant, to be figured 
 " in his ' Birds of Asia.' On the latter occasion he exclaimed that 
 " there was only one man in the world who could do justice to such 
 " a splendid creature, and that was Mr. Wolf ; who, at his request, at 
 " once designed a beautiful picture which appeared in the ' Birds of 
 " 'Asia.' Some of the finest pictures of the Raptorial Birds in the 
 " ' Birds of Great Britain ' were also drawn for Mr. Gould by Mr. 
 » Wolf." 
 
 Not long after his first arrival in England (to 
 retrace our steps for a time), Wolf had received from 
 Gould a second commission ; and the subject he chose 
 was Woodcocks seeking Shelter. It was sent to the 
 Royal Academy of 1849, and the artist received his 
 varnishing ticket. He was pleased to find his little 
 picture well placed ; but he knew nothing of the rules, 
 and went home quite ignorant that it was on "the 
 line." Some time afterwards, he found he was in- 
 debted for this good fortune to Sir Edwin Landseer, 
 
Leucopternis Princeps. 
 
WOODCOCK SUBJECTS 81 
 
 who had not only saved the picture from the chalk 
 cross about to be put upon it by the foes of " The 
 Objects of Natural History," but had hung it where it 
 was. Commercially it was a hit ; for commissions for 
 Woodcocks flowed merrily in, and years afterwards the 
 subject appeared in startling chromo-lithography. Of 
 these versions Wolf says, " All were Woodcocks on 
 " their nests, you know. I didn't want to do the legs. 
 
 I had never seen them on their legs, and I wanted 
 " to do them as well as possible, as I had actually 
 " seen them." As for the size of the versions, he 
 naively confesses there were so many of them that 
 in time "they got to be circular, and about a foot in 
 diameter." 
 
 It will be observed that it did not occur to him to 
 compile, or to evolve the legs. At that time he was not 
 familiar with the structure of the legs of living Wood- 
 cocks ; so he painted the birds sitting, as he " had 
 actually seen them." 
 
 A Woodcock on its nest was not only one of his 
 most successful subjects, but a great favourite with 
 him. I have seen an elaborate version of it which 
 must have been done not long after the original 
 sketches were made in the Odenwald. In most of 
 the designs a Robin is present, just as in after 
 years he found pleasure in associating Goldfinches 
 with Partridges in the snow. He says, " I have 
 " been doing those Goldfinches with Partridges, 
 " over and over again, and the Robin with the 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " Woodcocks ; and so you go on making a fool of 
 " yourself." 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Mitchell introduced Wolf by letter to 
 old Lord Derby (the thirteenth Earl), who had made 
 Knowsley a bye-word with naturalists by reason of its 
 superb menagerie and museum. Whatever the most 
 lavish expenditure, the influence of the head of a 
 great house, untiring foreign collectors and corre- 
 spondents, extravagant enthusiasm, and dogged per- 
 tinacity could do to enrich the collections, living and 
 dead, had been done. There was, perhaps, nothing 
 to equal them at that time, and I suppose that, in 
 many respects, they have not been surpassed. 
 
 W T olf had never seen a copy (out of the hundred 
 privately printed in 1846) of Mr. J. E. Gray's Glean- 
 ings from the Menagerie at Knowsley Hall. If he 
 had, he would have been to some extent prepared for 
 what awaited him ; but, in any case, when he arrived 
 and took up his quarters in a wing of the Hall, he 
 must have been deeply impressed with the sights in 
 the menagerie. 
 
 He found his new employer very deaf, and in his 
 speech, he says, somewhat resembling the gobbling of 
 a turkey-cock. As plain English was rather a puzzle 
 to him still, direct communication under such circum- 
 stances was difficult. The ancient Earl was wheeled 
 about amongst his paddocks and aviaries in a Bath 
 chair ; giving his orders to the keepers, 1 or to the 
 
 1 One of the keepers was " Young Scott," afterwards " Jumbo's 'j 
 attendant. 
 
KNOWSLEY MENAGERIE 
 
 83 
 
 artists who, from time to time, had worked his will 
 (such as the well-known Waterhouse Hawkins, or 
 Edward Lear), through Thompson, who was after- 
 wards superintendent of The Zoological Society's 
 Gardens. As for Thompson, having received a 
 general order to give Wolf every possible facility, he 
 did his best to act as interpreter of the broken; Eng- 
 lish on the one hand, and the gobbling on the other. 
 
 Judging by the elaborate coloured illustrations in 
 the Gleanings, the standard of zoological art was not 
 high at Knowsley ; and if, when he received the list 
 of the Antelopes and birds he was to begin with, 
 Wolf's object had been to outstrip his predecessors, 
 he would not have had a very difficult task. 
 
 He describes the menagerie as covering more 
 ground than the present Zoological Gardens in 
 London, and says that there were many Antelopes in 
 large paddocks, to say nothing of the Elands which 
 the Earl was the first to introduce into Europe. No 
 better idea can be formed of Lord Derby's keenness in 
 his favourite amusement, or of a place which must 
 have had a considerable indirect influence on Wolf's 
 subsequent work, than by reading the Earl's notes 
 as quoted by Mr. J. E. Gray. Of the Elands he 
 writes : — 
 
 " The principal item that I obtained from the expedition upon 
 " which I sent Mr. Burke into the Interior of South Africa was, as 
 " far as I know, for the first time brought alive into Europe. Of this 
 "interesting species I received three individuals in November 1842, 
 " but unfortunately only one of them was a female. ..." 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " By the way I am sorry to tell you that my Eland cow has to- 
 "day produced another calf and another male. Alas ! I could 
 "have wished much it had been of the other sex, but it is very 
 " strong and healthy and I hope we may in regard to it parody 
 " Cranmer's consolation to Henry the Eighth on Elizabeth's birth. 
 " 'This bull promises cows hereafter.' March i, 1845." 
 
 " I know you will be glad with me to hear that Mrs. Eland has 
 "at last mended her ways, and has this time produced a young 
 " lady ; so that now I begin to flatter myself that even without fresh 
 "negotiations we may look on the breed as established in this 
 " country. I now possess, therefore, of this kind, four males and 
 "two females. . . . 1845;" 
 
 " My five Eland and four Wapiti make a very pretty herd, and 
 " as yet agree very well ; but when Mr. W. gains his full head, we 
 "must not expect it. They will be separated before then. May 31, 
 "1845." 
 
 Under the head of Oxen he writes of Anoa 
 depressicornis : — 1 
 
 " I like the Anoa much as a curiosity, but it is certainly horrid 
 "ugly, though I will make Hawkins draw it, as I know no figure 
 " from the life. . . . Jan. 3, 1847." 
 
 Of the American Buffalo, of which Lord Derby 
 had a herd, he says : — 
 
 " Did I tell you that the Bison had calved ? . . . The young 
 " Bison is a female and very odd-looking I am told, of a yellowish 
 " colour. I have not yet seen it. . . . Miss Bison progresses vastly 
 "well. June 1846." 
 
 " We have had an alarm about the Bison, who has got out of his 
 " paddock and into the open park, having fairly swum over the great 
 " water. Very luckily he has been got back again without any 
 " mischief being done. July 7, 1846." 
 
 It was not only the quadrupeds that troubled the 
 
 1 The Wild Cow of the Malays, " An animal which has been the cause 
 of much controversy, as to whether it should be classed as an ox, buffalo, 
 or antelope." Wallace. 
 
KNOWSLEY MENAGERIE 
 
 85 
 
 Earl by breeding at their own discretion, and the 
 vexation expressed by some of his notes is amus- 
 ing. For instance, he writes: — "It is rather pro- 
 " voking our Emu will not sit, while at Wentworth 
 " the male is wanting to sit and has no eggs. John 
 " thinks of sending our eggs to them." Other birds 
 were more sensible :— 
 
 " My black swans," writes the Earl, " are proceeding famously. 
 "A pair I have on the Kennel Dam bred late in last year, and out 
 " of six eggs hatched four cygnets, of which one died, and the 
 " remaining three are now about four months old. They are, of 
 " course, still with their mother, who however has now six more 
 " eggs, and is beginning to sit again. . . . March 10, 1846." 1 
 
 I have no space to describe many of the curiosities 
 of Knowsley — the breeding of the herds of Llamas, 
 Alpacas, Guanacos, Wild Asses, Zebras, and Ante- 
 lopes. On every side there were objects of interest. 
 There was a tandem in which a mule between 
 Burchell's Zebra and an Ass was driven ; and a small 
 cart was drawn by a double mule. 2 
 
 1 At that time the breeding of the Black Swan was, of course, watched 
 with interest by naturalists. Wolf mentions that at the request of Mr. 
 Samuel Gurney, M.P., he went down to Carshalton to make studies for a 
 large oil picture of these birds with their brood in the snow. By degrees, 
 he says, their domestic arrangements conformed with our spring-time. 
 
 A reproduction of this picture, or one of the sketches for it, appeared 
 in The Band of Hope Review of Jan. 1, 1863, with some comments, 
 including the following : — " Mr. Gurney informs us that during the last 
 seven years, these Australian birds have had even sixteen broods of 
 young ones ; sometimes three in one year ! In the coldest winters the 
 eggs have been laid in a nest constructed of rushes on the snowy bank of 
 the ice-covered stream. . . ." 
 
 2 This little animal was only eight hands high, and was " The offspring 
 of a mule (the produce of a male Ass and a Zebra) with a bay mare Pony? 
 It was " Iron grey, with a short narrow cross band on withers, very faint 
 
86 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 One of the most interesting of the Earl's notes 
 gives the history of a certain notable Red Deer stag. 
 Born at Knowsley in 1819, and regularly hunted in 
 Surrey for some years from 1823 without the 
 slightest injury, he was returned to his native park 
 and lorded it over all the other deer. Being wounded 
 by a rival, he was doctored by a keeper, and thence- 
 forth became more or less tame. In 1842 he was 
 painted by Mr. Richard Ansdell, who was then doing 
 some work in the menagerie, and after a gradual 
 decline he died at the good old age of twenty-five. 
 For the last two or three years of his life he was often 
 led by his old friend the keeper to the yard where he 
 had been doctored ; and " when there, if he could find 
 " an opportunity by the door being open, he would 
 " often enter the kitchen and lie down like a dog 
 " before the fire." 
 
 Wolf must have found the Museum at Knowsley 
 scarcely less astonishing than the menagerie. Its 
 presiding genius was then Louis Fraser, who was the 
 " Naturalist to the Niger Expedition," and for whom 
 his patron (no doubt more with an eye to the collec- 
 tions than the diplomatic service), afterwards got 
 the appointment of " Vice-consul for the Kingdom of 
 Dahomey." 
 
 During Wolfs visit, his old friend Dr. Kaup 
 
 indications of stripes on the sides, and more distinct dark stripes on out- 
 sides of the hocks and knees. Tail bushy from the base like a Horse. 
 Head heavy, mane brown and grey." 
 
KNOWSLEY MENAGERIE 
 
 87 
 
 received an invitation to Knowsley, and the Doctor's 
 attempts to express in polite English his admiration 
 of what he found there, not only gave Thompson 
 plenty to do, but more than once disturbed the dignity 
 of the footman who wheeled the Bath chair. 
 
 We find in The Proceedings of The Zoological 
 Society for 185 1 a communication from the Doctor in 
 which he speaks enthusiastically of the " noble collec- 
 tion " which contained more than 14,000 specimens 
 of stuffed birds, besides unnumbered skins ; a 
 "colossal library" in which no work of importance 
 was wanting; and "aviaries of magnificent living 
 birds from every zone of the world." 
 
 It was in this " Eden," as the Doctor called it, 
 that Wolf spent two months ; and with what profit 
 may be imagined. Here he laid the foundation of 
 his sound knowledge of the Antelopes, and laboured to 
 increase the learning which was gradually making him 
 familiar with the zoology, not only of Europe, but of 
 every country. 
 
 He had not long left Knowsley when its enthu- 
 siastic owner was gathered to his fathers. Some of 
 the drawings (which were half imperial), were still 
 unfinished, but the successor to the title courteously 
 permitted the completion of the commission ; and 
 ultimately, I believe, the whole series found its way 
 to the Liverpool Museum. 
 
 Wolf's acquaintance with the noblemen I have 
 named led to other visits to their country seats. He 
 
88 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 travelled, for instance, direct from Knowsley to 
 Inveraray; and another time he accompanied the 
 present Duke of Westminster (then Earl Grosvenor) 
 into the west of Sutherlandshire, where he was much 
 struck at first by two things, the magnificent scenery, 
 and the complete indifference to rain among the 
 natives — rain to the persistence of which the surfaces 
 of some of his water-colour sketches bear witness to 
 this day. It was on one of these occasions that he 
 made a sketch, at the Earl's desire, for a large char- 
 coal drawing illustrating a strange penchant for 
 salmon on the part of some cows. Two or three fish 
 had been landed and laid in a clump of bracken 
 behind a small bush in a meadow, where they were 
 afterwards sought for in vain. Gould, who was stay- 
 ing there at the time, hinted that one of the keepers 
 might be guilty ; but they laid the blame upon the 
 cattle. It was resolved to test the correctness of this 
 curious theory, and one afternoon a fresh salmon was 
 brought from the larder and placed in the same field. 
 The cows soon found it out and lost no time in 
 feasting. 
 
 In his boyhood, and long before he ever saw a 
 book on ornithology, Wolf had dreamed a dream of 
 small fur-footed birds which he encountered on the 
 sides of a rugged mountain, but of which he knew not 
 the name. It was while he was staying one August 
 at Lord Grosvenor's place at Loch Stack, in the west 
 of Sutherlandshire, that the dream was fulfilled in 
 
PTARMIGAN 
 
 detail. In quest of the Ptarmigan he went up the 
 mountains of Foinaven and Arkle while the birds 
 were still in grey plumage. Knowing the extra- 
 ordinary effect of the weather on their habits he had 
 chosen a fine, calm day for the climb ; so that, under 
 the foresters guidance, he was able to shoot what 
 specimens he required, after he had well studied what 
 he saw, and proved the great difficulty of distinguish- 
 ing the game from its surroundings. 1 
 
 In many of Wolf's sketches, the Ptarmigan are 
 crouching under rocks, or on the snow, while a 
 Golden Eagle glides by without seeing them ; or, in 
 other cases, snatches a victim from the pack. The 
 episode occurs so often that it is evident he took an 
 especial interest in the marvellous power of conceal- 
 ment — in the contrast between the huge irresistible 
 robber and the small quarry which cheat the hungry 
 eye. Wolf says : — " It was a favourite subject. I 
 loved the solitude of the grand surroundings." 
 
 1 Lord Walsingham, in his most interesting account of these birds, 
 quotes from Mr. E. T. Booth two notable instances of this difficulty : — 
 " After a long and futile search for the nest of the bird his dog, [Mr. 
 " Booth's] moving less than a yard from where he had been lying, actually 
 " resettled itself on the back of a sitting bird, which formed almost the 
 " centre of a group of men and dogs which had been reclining around it 
 " unawares for some length of time. . . . The same day another sitting 
 " hen was discovered through one of the pannier straps falling on her 
 " back between the legs of the pony as the lunch was being repacked, 
 "after a protracted search for the nest everywhere except under the 
 "pony." Badminton Library Shooting, pp. 38-41, vol. 2. The first of 
 these instances would appear to be a good example of the way a sitting 
 bird completely loses its scent. I think it is Mr. Tegetmeier who, in 
 
go 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 It has always seemed to me that the Tetraonidce are 
 a family which was a great favourite with the artist. 
 From the first, he enjoyed learning the habits of the 
 species he knew ; and it is evident from the number 
 of studies, more or less elaborate, of Ptarmigan, 
 Grouse, Capercaillie and others, that he also enjoyed 
 drawing them ; especially with such surroundings as 
 the Scotch mountains or the Scandinavian forest. 
 Capercaillie, especially, he has shown in many an 
 interesting episode ; furiously fighting, stalked by the 
 shooter while " playing" on the summit of a dead fir, 
 or done to death by a Goshawk. 
 
 The opportunity of studying at leisure the habits 
 of the Golden Eagle, especially its nesting, was, even 
 then, not common ; but through Professor Newton's 
 kindness Wolf was able to pay a spring visit to Black 
 Mount, on the estate of a nobleman near Glencoe. 
 Here, under the guidance of an old keeper, he could 
 watch a couple of eyries day after day. 
 
 One result of these observations will be found in 
 plates F and G of Ootheca Wolleyana, edited by the 
 Professor ; lithographs of exceptional interest, as 
 showing the eyrie and the young birds with a back- 
 ground of the wildest kind, whence the parents bring 
 the result of their foraging. This book also contains 
 a lithograph after a drawing of Wolf's which Pro- 
 fessor Newton says was the only representation of the 
 
 pointing out the reason for this singular fact, states that the bird is 
 scentless until she has left the nest with her brood. 
 
GUIS A CHAN 
 
 91 
 
 adult female Jerfalcon at that time published in 
 England. 1 
 
 It was at the late Lord Tweedmouth's (then Sir 
 Dudley Marjoribanks), that Wolf was able to enlarge 
 this experience of the Golden Eagle ; and while he 
 was Sir Dudley's guest at Guisachan in Inverness-shire 
 (a place bosomed in the kind of scenery he loved 
 best), he watched one of the birds beating its 
 preserves on the mountain side for several consecu- 
 tive days. By this time the reader will know what 
 Wolfs watching amounted to. 
 
 It was at Guisachan too, that he was introduced to 
 the Osprey's home and family, and made some careful 
 studies, which bore abundant fruit. 
 
 Sir Dudley gave his guest a commission, among 
 others, to paint five upright oil panels nine feet high ; 
 the subjects being An Osprey's Nest ; Otter and 
 Herons ; Greenland Falcon surveying the flight of 
 some wild Swans overhead ; and a Snowy Owl dash- 
 ing down on some Ptarmigan. 
 
 It will be seen that Wolf was indebted to Scotland, 
 not only for many of his best subjects, but for some 
 
 1 He writes as follows : — " I have here to express my thanks to 
 " Mr. Wolf for a beautiful picture, which he was good enough to paint for 
 " me from one of the birds to be mentioned hereafter. A reduced copy 
 " of it executed by Mr. Jury under the artist's immediate superintendence, 
 " embellishes this work (tab. C) and I think cannot fail to afford pleasure 
 " to naturalists ; as, excepting Herr von Wright's figure in the Tidskrift 
 "for Jtigere ... it is the only representation of the adult female Gyr- 
 " falcon that has been published. Of its accuracy I need say nothing, for 
 " that is guaranteed by the painter's name." 
 
9 2 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 very interesting experiences denied to the ordinary 
 traveller, and even to the ordinary sportsman. But 
 his experiences were not always connected with 
 natural history ; for at one time we find him hanging 
 on for his life while he is driven about rugged 
 Sutherlandshire roads by the young Marquis of 
 Stafford, at a pace which threatens an effectual end 
 to an artistic career ; or he complacently smokes his 
 lordship's cigars, and defies the attempts to make him 
 ill on a rough coasting voyage ; or, again, he shoulders 
 his gun and takes his place on the moors. 
 
 Although, at this time of his life, he had plenty of 
 opportunities for sport, he cared very little for these 
 brilliant shooting parties ; and his memory went back 
 to old Baur, and the exciting days among his good 
 friends the foresters. 
 
 Nevertheless, if these visits to Scotland were not 
 altogether to his mind they were very profitable 
 indirectly. Little by little, he had acquired the power 
 of seeing a vast amount that either altogether escapes 
 the man untrained in observation, or leads him on an 
 utterly false scent. He knew how and where to look ; 
 and, above all, how to interpret truly what he saw. 
 Thus he may be described as possessing senses quite 
 different from those which the ordinary traveller 
 brings to bear ; and so it was, that the lovely cloud 
 effects over the Scotch scenery, besides the fauna, had 
 a great influence on much of his subsequent work. 
 Just as the grove of fantastic fir-trees at Darmstadt 
 
PlTHECIA MONACHUS. 
 
"GRAND VISITS 
 
 93 
 
 left its mark on his compositions, so did the rugged 
 outlines, and the wreathing mists of the highland 
 mountains. Here too he sometimes found his favourite 
 grove reproduced on a larger scale. 
 
 Now though Wolf was by no means a shy man, 
 still less an unpolished one, he was essentially homely. 
 His early life had been spent among the homeliest 
 surroundings, in a district of independent people and 
 peasant proprietorships. To his homeliness, the free 
 life of a bachelor artist, and the career of a self-made 
 man who owed no man anything, had added that 
 almost inevitable Bohemianism and impatience of 
 ceremony which, perhaps, flourish nowhere so luxu- 
 riantly as in an atmosphere of turps and varnish. 
 Moreover, a singularly unconventional mind that had 
 been so independent of the aristocracy of art, and had 
 obeyed its own laws alone, instinctively, I fear, grew 
 to rebel against aristocracies in general. So, what 
 with one thing and another, Wolf disliked these 
 " grand visits" as he calls them. He thoroughly and 
 heartily appreciated his hosts' kindness, and he 
 respected their greatness ; but, by degrees, he got 
 to resent the very crow of their Cock Grouse and 
 Pheasants. 
 
 Two or three summers ago we were sitting, the 
 artist and I, in the cool of a June evening on the 
 bank of a Surrey river. Birds innumerable were deep 
 in their sunset chorus. Far and near, they filled our 
 ears with a grateful melody, so softened that we 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 could hear every note of a Willow Wren's monotonous 
 little chant in an alder-bush close by, and even the 
 splash of a fat trout, busy with his supper. Suddenly, 
 close by, there clanged out the strident crow of one 
 of the squire's cock Pheasants. The charm was 
 broken, all the associations conjured up in such a 
 place were dispelled like a smoke-wreath, and Wolf 
 burst out : — " I hate a Pheasant — so aristocratic you 
 " know, so oriental. His call seems to say, ' I am a 
 " ' Pheasant ; and I am under the protection of Lord 
 " ' So-and-so ; and I may come into your garden and 
 " ' scratch it all to pieces if I like, and you mustn't 
 "'touch me.' Put that down." ''You want a few 
 Goshawks here," he continued, "to thin down those 
 Hares and Pheasants over there." Accustomed in his 
 youth to a neighbourhood where the Birds of Prey 
 were comparatively abundant, he is somewhat given to 
 amuse himself with the idea of the sudden descent 
 of a few Goshawks upon the coverts of our English 
 squires. 
 
 As to the chief of the works resulting from the 
 industrious Scotch holidays, they abide, for the most 
 part, in the collections of the noblemen who commis- 
 sioned them ; and have not been seen by the public. 
 
 Few more pleasant and profitable tasks could be 
 undertaken by the lover of zoology than to have 
 to search through The Proceedings of The Zoological 
 Society of London, and few tasks more humbling. 
 
SCIENTIFIC WORK 
 
 95 
 
 The papers will seize upon his attention one after the 
 other in spite of himself ; and in a range of no less 
 than thirty-two years he will find these papers 
 frequently illustrated by the hand of such a master, 
 that there, at all events, he will see how the union of 
 Science and Art can be happily brought about. The 
 reader, as he takes down volume upon volume, will 
 wonder, perhaps, how some of these great naturalists 
 can, in the course of a natural life, have acquired such 
 a wealth of accurate knowledge, together with the art 
 of communicating it in a clear, attractive, yet perfectly 
 unassuming way. Even if he has not already formed 
 a pretty definite opinion as to the value of the labours 
 of the popular purveyor of anecdotal natural history, 
 he will probably feel less inclined to say with a certain 
 ornithological writer who omits all mention of Gray, or 
 Dresser, or Macgillivray's History of British Birds 
 from his list of desirable books : — " Without our Rev. 
 " F. O. Morris of Nunburnholm, we should be lost 
 " indeed ! " 
 
 If Joseph Wolf had done no other work in Eng- 
 land than that which he did for The Zoological 
 Society, he would have deserved a pre-eminent place 
 in the history of that branch of art ; and from Science 
 herself, no little gratitude. 
 
 The greater part of this work consisted of what, 
 for brevity's sake, I shall, as before, call auto-litho- 
 graphs — lithographs, that is, from Wolf's own hand, 
 though some of his drawings were lithographed 
 
9 6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 (as they are always coloured), by other persons. 
 Almost as soon as The Society decided to illustrate 
 its Proceedings it had secured his help. After two 
 plates by Richter and Waterhouse Hawkins, we find 
 his first auto-lithograph, 1 Ptilocercus lowii, illustrating 
 a paper by Mr. J. E. Gray on a new genus of insecti- 
 vorous mammalia, which was read on the 8th of 
 February 1848, with William Yarrell in the chair. I 
 am bound to say that neither the animal nor the tree- 
 trunk on which it stands is in any way worthy of 
 the artist ; a criticism which has very seldom to be 
 made. From this time to the middle of 1880, Wolfs 
 work appears, more or less interspersed with the 
 work of other artists. Sometimes, indeed, it is found 
 side by side with drawings, such as G. H. Ford's 
 reptiles, which, as far as mere draughtsmanship goes, 
 are faultless. 
 
 Of Wolfs auto-lithographs in The Proceedings 
 there are between 330 and 340 ; no less than 282, 
 or thereabouts, being executed from 1850 to 1865 
 
 1 This lithograph, like many of Wolf's designs in The Proceedings, 
 is very badly copied by wood-engraving in an edition of Brehm's 
 Tierleben, published in 1876. The woodcuts have recently reappeared 
 in Lydekker's Royal Natural History. In a review of a volume of this 
 book in The Field of June 1, 1895, we read (touching the eulogy of the 
 "illustrations of G. Miitzel and others in the preface), "Two large wood- 
 " cuts of the great ant-eater are given, one from the well-known deline- 
 " ation of Mr. Wolf. This is remarkably accurate, and, at the same time 
 " artistic. The other, which is signed ' G. M.,' is as absurd as can be 
 " conceived. . . . The illustrations, which are mostly taken from Brehm's 
 " Tierleben, may be artistic, but they do not even approach, much less 
 " rival, those of Wolf and Keulemans ; and many of them are ludicrously 
 " inaccurate." 
 
Dactylopsila trivirgata. 
 
HIS AUTO-IITHOGRAPHS 
 
 97 
 
 inclusive. From about this time onwards they 
 diminish in number, for other much more important 
 work monopolized his time, and he most willingly 
 relinquished the duty. Yet, even then, he did not 
 refuse his help, upon the advent of any animal of 
 exceptional rarity or interest. 
 
 The lithographs were frequently preceded by 
 careful water-colour sketches painted direct from life ; 
 a series of which is still in the artist's possession. 
 In one case there might be a beautiful mammal or 
 bird to work from, in the perfection of health and 
 condition ; in another, nothing but a dried skin 
 which had lain for years unrecognised at The British 
 Museum ; and in a third case, a specimen of some 
 hideous rarity reeking from an unsavoury barrel of 
 spirits. Moreover, at one time (notably in the year 
 1867), a desire for retrenchment seems to have pos- 
 sessed the Publishing Committee ; and Wolf's work 
 suffers as severely as the rest from the coarse and 
 mechanical colouring. 
 
 Thanks to my friend's kindness, I am most fortunate 
 in possessing, among many of his other auto-litho- 
 graphs, a large series of uncoloured proofs from those 
 in The Proceedings ; and in looking at the best of them, 
 over and over again, I never fail to feel very great 
 regret that they have not been more widely known, 
 in this state, to the art-loving public who love also 
 animal life. So perfect are some, that there is, as it 
 were, a physical pleasure in looking at them, and they 
 
 H 
 
9 8 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH 'WOLF 
 
 convey so well the sense of colour that its absence is 
 not noticed. 
 
 These drawings are necessarily unequal in interest 
 and execution ; and, as the artist points out, a few of the 
 early ones are certainly " wooden" ; but the best show 
 to perfection his literally unrivalled knowledge, and 
 his unrivalled skill in applying that knowledge. 
 
 Not only are the general forms, textures and 
 surfaces rendered with perfect truth (with no further 
 surrender of artistic " feeling " than followed as a matter 
 of course in carrying out the behests of Science), but 
 learned draughtsmanship and minute analytical know- 
 ledge are found in minor details. The watchfulness of 
 a Sundevall to detect specific character is found in 
 conjunction with the artistic culture and high train- 
 ing that, although they are severely curbed, are rarely 
 led astray into mere map-making, and never into the 
 choice of a common taxidermist's attitude. This is 
 the more remarkable, because, as Wolf says, "You 
 " have to put in the attitudes according to what you 
 "have to show." 
 
 As instances of his thoroughly sound analytical 
 knowledge, an accurate rendering of the feather 
 tracts of the different species of birds may be men- 
 tioned ; the little hands of the Lemur oidce ; the 
 feet of the Falcons and Hawks ; and the expressions 
 of the mammals. Indeed, one of the most astonish- 
 ing points is the faithfulness and skill with which the 
 exact expression of the face of each species, whether 
 
11 THE EXPRESSION OF LIFE 
 
 bird or beast, is caught, in a range embracing many 
 utterly different orders. 
 
 The result is the perfection of art as applied 
 (under most difficult restrictions), to science ; and 
 having said this I can say no more. Wolf himself 
 sums up his opinion of this work in his usual simple 
 way. " I did it as I saw it." It is at another time 
 that he asks me to print upon the title-page of his 
 biography a favourite truth of his, " We see distinctly 
 only what we know thoroughly." Speaking gener- 
 ally of his work, he said to me recently, " The great 
 ''thing I always aimed at was the expression of 
 " Life. In animals the ear is the great organ of ex- 
 pression — but Life! Life! Life! — that is the 
 " great thing ! " 
 
 It must be remembered that these drawings have 
 passed the ordeal of the most learned and exacting 
 criticism, often calling forth expressions of approval 
 from the Secretary, and the members whose papers 
 they adorned. The care, a measure of the know- 
 ledge, a measure of the power of drawing are, of 
 course, not peculiar to Wolf, but are to be found in 
 the best work of some of his brother draughtsmen ; 
 but these very men are the readiest to acknowledge 
 the truth, that in the perfection of all these qualities, 
 and in some qualities peculiarly their own, his works 
 stand utterly alone. 
 
 At a meeting held on December 12, 1865, a paper 
 was read by Mr. J. H. Gurney, senior, on a species of 
 
 H 2 
 
IOO 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Harrier from New Caledonia. u I propose," said the 
 ornithologist, " to assign to this new species the 
 " name of my friend Mr. Wolf, to whose talented 
 " pencil all students of zoology, and especially those 
 " who study the Birds of Prey, are so greatly 
 " indebted." The paper was illustrated by the artist's 
 drawing of the species ; but, unfortunately, the name 
 was incorrect. Mr. Dresser says, " Circus wolfi, I am 
 " sorry to say, must sink into a synonym of Circus 
 " gouldi ; as it turned out not to be a new species." 
 
 It is interesting to ascertain how long the artist 
 took to do such drawings on the stone as these. This 
 we can learn in his own words. " You have no idea," 
 he says, " how quickly I did those things. I used to 
 " wait till I had about a dozen illustrations for The 
 "Proceedings accumulated, with the skins, etc., and 
 " then I set myself to do a hard day's work, and spent 
 " an hour on each drawing with my watch in front of 
 " me." On one occasion he did no less than twelve 
 complete drawings on the stone in one day ; the 
 subjects, however, being single small birds. " This," 
 he says, "was because I knew all the detail so well, 
 " and if you know a thing you can do it quickly. I 
 ' k would not rest till all the drawings were done in the 
 " day, and then I went out for a walk, very tired, and 
 " sometimes very giddy from the hard work. When 
 " the proofs came home from the printer's, I had to 
 " sit another day to do the patterns for the colours. 
 " It was hard grinding, mind you." 
 
HIS BACKGROUNDS 
 
 loi 
 
 Perhaps it was at the time I have mentioned as 
 being marked by a falling off in the illustrations, 
 the authorities had determined that, in future, the 
 backgrounds should be plain, not coloured. Wolf 
 attached very great importance to these backgrounds. 
 They were well thought out and admirably drawn ; and 
 he had often relied upon them to enhance the beauty 
 of the animal, by means not only of the composition, 
 but of the complementary colours. The prohibition 
 was therefore unfortunate, if it was not rather short- 
 sighted. He says, " The background is always of 
 " the highest importance — the indefinite ; but there 
 " are many people who think this quality laziness on 
 " the part of the artist. They want everything made 
 " out." What was really wanted was probably a well- 
 executed and thoroughly correct elevation of the 
 animal. As Wolf says, " The animal is 1 figured* 
 That is the term." 
 
 If any person thinks that Wolfs invariable solici- 
 tude about his backgrounds is a mere fad, and that 
 the authorities were right, let him read in the daily 
 papers of March 14, 1895, the report of <4 The Living 
 Pictures Case." Mr. Alma Tadema, R.A., . . . 
 " asked if he seriously maintained that one person in fifty paid any 
 " regard to the backgrounds thought that certainly every one must 
 " have noticed the backgrounds along with the rest of the pictures." 
 
 " Counsel tried to get Mr. Tadema to agree that a picture might 
 " have more than one background without injuring its effect, but 
 " Mr, Tadema refused to accept this theory. 1 One picture — one 
 " ' background ' was his view. 1 1 have often altered a background in 
 " ' the course of painting a picture,' he said, ' in order to come nearer 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " ' to the meaning of the idea I designed to convey, but once a back- 
 " ' ground has been finally decided on you cannot alter or destroy it 
 " 1 without destroying the significance of the composition.'" 
 
 The Transactions of The Zoological Society, 
 
 unlike The Proceedings, were published at irregular 
 
 intervals. They contained : — 
 
 " Such of the more important communications made to the scientific 
 "meetings of the Society as, on account of the nature of the plates 
 " required to illustrate them, were better adapted for publication in the 
 " quarto form. The numerous and elaborate papers of Professor 
 "Owen on the Anthropoid Apes, and on the various species of 
 " Dinornis, all form part of this series." 1 
 
 Wolfs contributions to the illustrations of these 
 notable volumes amount, as far as I have been able to 
 ascertain from the British Museum copy, to twenty- 
 seven ; only a dozen or so being lithographed by 
 himself. 
 
 To the general reader, The Transactions will be 
 less attractive than The Proceedings, as he will have 
 neither the ability nor the inclination to study the 
 more abstruse papers. Some, however, are of 
 general interest. Among the drawings, those of the 
 Gorilla, the remarkable Balczniceps, and the Aye Aye 
 should be studied. This last, a weird-looking and 
 most interesting animal, was stated to be " one of 
 the greatest rarities ever possessed by The Society." 
 It was chosen as the subject of an elaborate mono- 
 graph by Professor Owen in The Transactions ; but I 
 think the finest portrait out of several drawn by Wolf 
 is that forming the central figure of a group of 
 
 1 Guide to The Society's Gardens. 
 
THE RHINOCEROSES 
 
 103 
 
 Madagascar animals, an auto-lithograph illustrating 
 an article by Mr. Sclater in the first volume of The 
 Quarterly Journal of Science. A careful life-size 
 chalk sketch of the Aye Aye after death, which the 
 artist kindly gave me, is perhaps even more interest- 
 ing than the other representations. 
 
 The last of Wolfs drawings to be found in The 
 Transactions (lithographed by Mr. Smit), were from 
 life, and are accompanied by a paper " On the 
 " Rhinoceroses now or lately living in the Society's 
 " Menagerie " by Mr. Sclater, who says, " The main 
 "object of my remarks on the present occasion is to 
 " illustrate the very beautiful drawings by Mr. Wolf 
 " now before us." The first of these represents 
 Rhinoceros unicornis : — 
 
 " Of this huge animal the first specimen obtained by the Society 
 "was a male purchased on the 28th of May, 1834, from Captain 
 " Fergusson for the sum of ^£1050. ... It died in November 1849 
 " and was dissected by Professor Owen. . . . The second male was 
 "got in exchange for an African elephant from the Jardin des Plantes 
 " in 1865 and was the original of the water-colour drawing taken by 
 "Mr. Wolf in 1872. He is of enormous size, and measures about 
 " 5' 3" in height at the shoulder and io' 6" in length along the back 
 " from the top of the nose to the root of the tail." 
 
 Of his drawing of the Black Rhinoceros Wolf 
 says, " I had secured one day's work ; and, on coming 
 " next day, to my great astonishment I found the 
 " animal really black. They had oiled him all over ! 
 " Luckily I had got most of the colouring the previous 
 "day." 
 
 The last of the four drawings is a portrait of one 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 of the most interesting sitters which Wolf ever had — a 
 female R. lasiotis ; and it was executed in 1872, from 
 the only specimen then known. Mr. Sclater quotes 
 from a Calcutta newspaper an account of her capture. 
 Found in a quicksand completely exhausted with her 
 efforts to escape, she was dragged out by some two 
 hundred men, by means of ropes made fast to her 
 neck, and was then tied to a tree. Next morning the 
 now vigorous Rhinoceros made such efforts to escape 
 that her captors were frightened, and sent for help. 
 Accordingly a Captain Hood and another started with 
 eight Elephants, and after a march of sixteen hours 
 came up with the animal. She proved to be rather 
 more than four feet high, with a smooth skin like a 
 pig, and two horns ; and .she proved also to be a 
 tartar. After a general stampede of the terrified 
 Elephants, a rope was with difficulty made fast to the 
 Rhinoceros's hind leg, and secured to one of them. 
 At this juncture she roared, and the whole of the 
 Elephants fled once more, the noose, fortunately, slip- 
 ping. She was, however, eventually secured between 
 them, and began her march to Chittagong. Two 
 large rivers had to be crossed, over which the Rhino- 
 ceros was towed between Elephants, for she could 
 not swim, and could only just keep her head above 
 water by paddling like a pig. Thousands of na- 
 tives thronged the march in ; the temporary bamboo 
 bridges invariably falling in with the crowds which 
 collected upon them to watch the Rhinoceros crossing 
 
" THE IBIS 
 
 the stream below. Arrived at the end of her journey 
 effectually tamed, the captive was freed in an en- 
 closure ; soon fed from the hand, and might have 
 been led about by a string. 
 
 The Council of The Society, after some unsuccess- 
 ful negotiations, purchased the animal on its arrival in 
 England, for 1250/. ; and as it was ultimately found to 
 be a distinct variety, it was named R. lasiotis, from 
 the fringe of long hairs on the edges of its ears. 
 
 It was not for many years that Wolf was asked to 
 draw another Rhinoceros ; and then the request came 
 from so eminent a hunter that there must have been a 
 strong reason for declining. " I was asked," says the 
 artist, "to draw an almost extinct animal, the White 
 "African Rhinoceros. The man who asked me said 
 " that the only difference between that species and 
 " other Rhinoceroses was that it had a mouth like a 
 " cow — a broad muzzle ; whilst the others had over- 
 " hanging, pointed lips. But I was sure that the 
 " animal must have had other distinctions in the body, 
 " which were not noticed, and in which the difference 
 " was more striking. I declined to do it because I 
 " did not know enough about the animal." 
 
 Similar in size and treatment to his auto-litho- 
 graphs in The Proceedings, Wolfs contributions to 
 The Ibis range from the first number in 1859, to 
 1869, and include some seventy-five drawings of new 
 or rare species. 
 
 Illustrating a paper by Messrs. A. and E. Newton 
 
io6 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 on the Birds of St. Croix, Wolf's first drawing re- 
 presents a weird-looking, curious bird — the Bare- 
 Legged Owl (Gymnoglaux nudipes) in the act of 
 capturing a lizard. In the same volume is this note 
 by Mr. J. H. Gurney on Pel's Owl (Scot ope Ha 
 pelt) : — " Having lately been presented with a living 
 " specimen of this extremely rare Owl by Col. 
 " O'Connor, C.B., by whom it was recently brought 
 "from the River Gambia, I have requested Mr. Wolf 
 " to draw the bird from life." 
 
 This was a somewhat sinister present, for it was 
 believed by the natives that this was a bird of pecu- 
 liarly evil omen, bringing dire disaster upon the heads 
 of those who kept it in captivity. 
 
 Among Wolf's drawings in The Ibis will be found 
 some of the best examples of his Hawks and Falcons, 
 including a very pretty family group of the Eastern 
 Red-footed Hobby (Erythropus amurensis) and other 
 beautiful species drawn with that consummate skill, 
 and taste, and accuracy, which, by common consent of 
 ornithologists, had earned him so great a reputation in 
 connection with the Birds of Prey. 
 
 Mr. Dresser tells me that having, in 1869, secured 
 the services of Mr. Keulemans in illustrating his Birds 
 of Europe, that gentleman " took Wolf's place in The 
 Ibis, Wolf being very glad to resign in his favour." 
 
 At first sight it may seem singular that an artist 
 capable of turning out such perfect work as that he 
 had been engaged upon for this periodical, and for The 
 
The Eastern Red-footed Hobby. 
 
NATURALISTS AND ART 
 
 107 
 
 Zoological Society, should have wished to relinquish 
 it. How easily and rapidly he did it we have seen ; 
 and it does not look like the workmanship of a 
 man whose heart was elsewhere. Yet such was the 
 case. The love of art — the desire to revel in its mys- 
 teries and to grapple with its most alluring difficulties, 
 which had drawn him away from the free, happy life 
 at Darmstadt to the Antwerp Academy, were still 
 burning. The consciousness that, for the most part, 
 artistic refinements were entirely thrown away on the 
 naturalists and perhaps resented by them as impairing 
 the accuracy of the drawings, disturbed him still. He 
 says: — ''There have been very few among all my 
 " acquaintances among naturalists who could appre- 
 ciate a drawing if it were ever so well done; and 
 " sometimes the better it was done, the less they liked 
 " it. . . . There are naturalists who think a stuffed 
 " Falcon superior to the best picture which can be 
 "painted. How can you expect respect as an artist 
 "from a man like that ? The scientific work consists 
 " merely of portraits of single figures. I was never 
 " satisfied with this, but tried to express action and 
 "life — to make the animals do something by which 
 "you could give the picture a name. . . . You know I 
 " make a distinction between a picture in which there 
 "is an idea, and the mere representation of a bird. 
 " Before you are able to make mammals or birds do 
 " what you like (which very few can manage), you have 
 " to work hard. ... I did not enjoy the zoological 
 
io8 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " work, and always wanted to get rid of it ; but, of 
 "course, I did my best, whatever I did. I even put 
 "up a gallery in my studio in order that nobody who 
 " called to see my pictures or drawings should catch 
 " me at the other things." He goes on to tell me 
 a significant little story. A friend of his was once 
 praising his work to a museum official. " Ah ! " said 
 the man of science, " Mr. Wolf is too much of an 
 " artist to do drawings as we like them." " So among 
 " the artists," he says, " I shall be called a ' naturalist,' 
 " and among the naturalists, an ' artist.' But when my 
 " friend told me that story I felt very proud." 
 
 I have heard him say more than once, with all 
 the emphasis of his most firm convictions, " Some of 
 " the naturalists with regard to art are perfect babies ; 
 " and that is why I did not like working for them." I 
 must confess that I keenly regret this strong feeling 
 on Wolf s part ; the more so as I know that it is by 
 no means an imaginary grievance. The reality of it has 
 in some cases been proved up to the hilt, and needs 
 not the circumstantial evidence, the inimitable little 
 anecdotes which he occasionally repeats, to say 
 nothing of the evidence gaily paraded in many a work 
 on natural history, including the most recent. It is 
 rare to meet with such sound criticism as that of 
 Professor Newton, and correspondingly common to 
 find indiscriminate praise lavished on illustrations of 
 all degrees of merit or no merit whatever, in a way 
 which approaches the ludicrous. 
 
"ZOOZO GICA L SKE TCHES 
 
 109 
 
 That the mutual hostility or indifference I have 
 already alluded to should continue to intervene 
 between Science and Art is sad ; and that the talent 
 of such an artist as Wolf should be so curbed and 
 fettered by the requirements of his scientific work that 
 he keeps it rigidly distinct from that which, in the 
 proper sense, is artistic, and finally does it, so to 
 speak, in secret, is still more sad. When the man of 
 science accords to the artist a small measure of that 
 respect which he justly claims by reason of his own 
 life-long study and devotion, a better day will dawn ; 
 though it will have dawned too late for the one man 
 who has united, as they have never before been 
 joined, the best attributes of Science and Art. 
 
 We learn from Mr. Sclater that : — 
 " In the year 1852 the Council of The Zoological Society, impressed 
 "with a sense of the great value of an accurate artistic record of the 
 "living form and expression of the many rare species of animals 
 " which exist from time to time in the menagerie, resolved to com- 
 " mence the formation of a series of original water-colour drawings 
 " to illustrate the most interesting of these subjects. For this purpose 
 "the Council was fortunate enough to secure the services of Mr. 
 "Joseph Wolf, who may be fairly said to stand alone in intimate 
 " knowledge of the habits and forms of Mammals and Birds." 1 
 
 Sometimes, in addition to these drawings, a study 
 
 1 Preface to the Zoological Sketches. First Series. Graves 1861. 
 Perhaps it may not be generally known to admirers of Wolfs designs that 
 the stones of both series of Zoological Sketches are in existence, and that 
 the separate coloured plates can be got at the publishers' at a cost of 7s. 6d. 
 each. The following are fine examples of this phase of the artist's work : 
 First Series, The Bassaris ; The Greenland Falcon, The Horsfield 
 Kaleege ; The Mantchurian Crane. Secoitd Series, The Markhore ; 
 The Saddle-backed Stork ; The Shoe-bill ; The Indian Wood Ibis. 
 
no 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 was made of some animal in the Gardens which had 
 reached a high degree of perfection ; and of such 
 animals Wolf says, " I delighted to do them more 
 " than the others ; for sometimes, when they arrived, 
 " they were in a miserable state, and I hardly knew 
 " what to make of them. I used to do two or three of 
 " these drawings in a day, if the material were good. 
 "All these were vignettes only; but I took care to 
 " get the true character of the animal. By that time I 
 " had thorough confidence in my work. It is then you 
 "do your best." 
 
 The drawings referred to hang partly in the 
 Picture Gallery at the Zoological Gardens, and partly 
 in the Society's Lecture Room at Hanover Square. 
 Some of the former have suffered severely by a too 
 continuous exposure to bright light ; I should fear 
 even to sunlight ; but many remain uninjured, from 
 which it is possible to form an opinion. What this 
 opinion is depends on the artistic training of the 
 critic, and his power of detecting the unobtrusive 
 touches of nature which give the vitality and individu- 
 ality in which Wolf revels ; and partly on his love for 
 natural history. What will be found in the best of 
 these subjects is a series of some of the most rare or 
 most beautiful animals in the world, brought before us 
 so naturally, in the full perfection of their vigour and 
 wild, unpersecuted life, that the art which brings them 
 — which so deftly conceals the fact that they are cap- 
 tives in London, is, for a time, forgotten. Fifty of 
 
"ZOOLO GICA L SKE TCHES " 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 these drawings were reproduced in hand-coloured 
 lithography, by other artists, and published in parts 
 from 1856 to 1 86 1. A second series followed from 
 1 86 1 to 1867. The letterpress, begun by Mr. 
 Mitchell, was continued, after his death in 1859, by 
 Mr. Sclater, from whose preface I have quoted. Al- 
 though, of course, losing much of their refinement by 
 translation, the Zoological Sketches, as they are called, 
 are striking even at first sight ; some of them, per- 
 haps, a little too striking ; and, in default of the ori- 
 ginal drawings, they are well worth much study. 
 
 Touching a very curious sky introduced by the 
 lithographic draughtsman, Wolf said, "And then 
 " they did the clouds you see ; one — two — three — 
 " four ! They weren't even asked for that." No one 
 but an artist can realize what an artist suffers when a 
 translation of some of his best work in colour is thus 
 attempted. The first things that are sacrificed are 
 those very qualities he values most highly. Having 
 no means of putting himself light with the public he 
 remains for ever in the wrong, and is praised or 
 blamed for much with which he has had absolutely 
 nothing to do. Probably many people thought that 
 these coloured lithographs were the work of Wolfs 
 own hand, clouds and all. In spite of their inferiority 
 to the original drawings, Professor Newton writes of 
 the Zoological Sketches as follows : — 
 
 " Though a comparatively small number of species of birds are 
 "figured in this magnificent work (seventeen only in the first series 
 
ii2 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " and twenty-two in the second), it must be mentioned here, for 
 "these likenesses are so admirably executed as to place it in regard 
 "to ornithological portraiture, at the head of all others. There 
 "is not a plate that is unworthy of the greatest of all animal 
 " painters." 1 
 
 In the same category as the Zoological Sketches 
 must be placed the elaborate monographs of the 
 Pheasants, the Birds of Paradise, and the Felidce by 
 Mr. Daniel Giraud Elliott. A Prospectus of the 
 Phasianidce printed in The Ibis in 1869, runs as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Birds so showy and attractive should be worthily represented, 
 "and the author has the satisfaction to announce that the plates 
 " will be drawn from original paintings executed expressly for the 
 " present work by Mr. Joseph Wolf, whose characteristic delineations 
 " of Birds have justly earned for him a world-wide reputation. The 
 " lithography will be entrusted to Mr. J. G. Keulemans, who is fast 
 " establishing himself as a first-rate draughtsman of animal life ; thus 
 " it will be seen that the author has spared no pains or expense to 
 " secure the best available talent in the world." 
 
 These volumes form an edition de luxe ; that is to 
 say they in every way promote the discomfort of the 
 would-be reader ; who, in heaving them up upon the 
 table, involuntarily wishes that the author's expenses 
 had not been quite so liberally allowed. In the Birds 
 of Paradise alone there are some 112 square feet 
 of illustrations distributed among thirty-seven species, 
 and in the Pheasants 246 feet, to say nothing of the 
 Cats. It is a large superficies of zoological art, to 
 say the least of it. The birds, for the most part, are 
 life-size, and the tails are as deftly manoeuvred as the 
 
 1 Article " Ornithology," Encyclopedia Britannica, ix. ed. 
 
ELLIOTT'S MONOGRAPHS 
 
 ladies' trains at a Drawing-room. So many gorgeous 
 plates of species that are often yet more gorgeous 
 are somewhat overpowering. We turn them over 
 with fear and trembling. 
 
 Next to the Birds of Prey, Wolf is admitted to be 
 facile princeps in delineating the Gallinaceous birds, 
 and himself considers them one of his strongest 
 points. It is easy to see from these volumes of 
 Pheasants that this is the case. 1 
 
 It is almost a relief to turn from the Pheasants and 
 Birds of Paradise to the. more sombre colouring of 
 the Cats ; a most interesting tribe, whose varied 
 expressions of cunning, intense ferocity, or well- 
 simulated meekness are admirably rendered ; whose 
 beautiful coats and mighty muscles bring into play the 
 artist's rare power of modelling, of foreshortening, 
 and placing in faultless perspective the various 
 markings. 
 
 Although it is as much to the illustrations as to 
 the letterpress of these monographs that Mr. Elliott 
 owed their subsequent reputation, a would-be student 
 of Wolfs work should be warned against accepting 
 them, any more than the Zoological Sketches, as 
 
 1 The dedication of the Phasianidcz runs as follows : — " To my friend 
 " Joseph Wolf, Esq., whose unrivalled talent has graced this work 
 " with its chief attraction, and whose marvellous powers of delineating 
 " animal life render him unequalled in our time." The author adds 
 in his preface a somewhat similar eulogy, " and is sure that all 
 " naturalists will join him in acknowledging that Mr. Wolf is the only 
 "one who has succeeded in elevating to its proper position in art both 
 " ornithological and mammalogical illustration." 
 
 I 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 thoroughly or even fairly representative ; because it is 
 work which, under no circumstances, will bear transla- 
 tion with impunity even by such skilled hands, to say 
 nothing of the addition of colouring done at a low rate 
 of remuneration. 
 
 All possible care was certainly taken that the 
 translations should be good ; and Mr. Elliott used 
 frequently to take his friend in a cab to the residence 
 of the lithographic draughtsman, that Wolf might 
 correct, with his own hands, the drawings on the stone. 
 A comparison with the original charcoal sketches, and 
 that alone, will show why any attempt at translation 
 must necessarily fail. I think it is doubtful whether 
 the artist himself could have transferred to the stone 
 all their refinement and vigour. 1 They depend on 
 subtleties which, in all probability, no other living 
 man could fully understand, much less translate. 
 
 The differentiating between the merits and peculi- 
 arities of Wolf's own handiwork, in whatever material, 
 and those of the work of his translators is, to one who 
 has received the higher education of an artist, an easy 
 matter ; but it seems to have been a stumbling-block 
 to some persons not so qualified, in spite of undoubted 
 scientific attainments. 
 
 If it be a relief to turn from Mr. Elliott's Pheasants to 
 
 1 Wolf, on reading this paragraph in the proof, remarked, " You can't 
 " transfer all the vigour. It never comes back again. In the next 
 " attempt you may get a different inspiration. Equally good, perhaps, 
 "but not the same." He spoke thus touching all his own translations. 
 He speaks yet more strongly of those by other hands. 
 
Reeves' Pheasant. 
 
DRESSER'S "BIRDS OE EUROPE" 115 
 
 the Cats, it is still more so to sink into a chair with a 
 volume of Mr. H. E. Dressers Birds of Europe ; one 
 of the most fascinating, comfortable, and useful books 
 a lover of birds can covet. It takes, of course, an 
 ornithologist to appreciate the incalculable value of a 
 work such as this, 1 but we can all appreciate the interest 
 of the descriptions and the vivacity and truthfulness of 
 attitude in the fifteen designs which Wolf did for his old 
 and intimate friend. The chief of these are to be found 
 in the family Falconidce ; and the designs were boldly 
 sketched on a large scale in Wolf's favourite " char- 
 coal grey ; " being afterwards lithographed by the 
 same artists who were responsible for the lithography 
 of Elliott's monographs. Through Mr. Dresser's 
 kindness, I am able to reproduce two of the originals. 
 The designs for the title-pages are also Wolfs doing, 
 and I regret that they are so. 
 
 1 " As a whole," writes Professor Newton, " European ornithologists 
 " are all but unanimously grateful to Mr. Dresser for the way in which he 
 " performed the enormous labour he had undertaken." 
 
n6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT is not clear how Joseph Wolf became generally 
 recognised as anything more than an eminent 
 specialist who had chiefly devoted himself to 
 illustrating books on Falconry, and to zoological 
 drawings. Yet the transition to the work which 
 followed was natural enough. At the beginning of the 
 fifties he began to draw in earnest for some of the 
 London publishers ; leading off, as far as I know, with 
 four auto-lithographs for Mr. A. E. Knox's Game 
 Birds and Wild Fowl: their Friends and their 
 Foes. This was one of the occasions on which he 
 formed a firm friendship w T ith an author, which was 
 only ended by death. He travelled down with Mr. 
 Van Voorst, the publisher of this charming book, on 
 a visit to Knox at his fine old home near Midhurst ; 
 and he describes him as "a tall, gentlemanly-looking 
 " man, full of amusing stories — a sportsman but not 
 " ostentatious about it." The visitors were taken by 
 their host to see the pictures at Petworth House ; 
 u He was a funny fellow," says Wolf, " who could 
 " make all sorts of faces, and he imitated the old 
 " housekeeper who guided us." 
 
CHRO MO- LITHOGRAPHS 
 
 117 
 
 Among his ornithological curiosities which Knox 
 pointed out (such, perhaps, as his " Chelsea Hospital " 
 of stuffed birds which had been maimed in various 
 ways by shot), were some specimens which had been 
 set up by Gould when he was a gardener's boy ; pro- 
 bably at the time he stuffed for the boys at Eton. 
 
 The illustrations to the Game Birds, although most 
 interesting, will hardly compare favourably with the 
 best of the artist's later work ; and one of them is 
 certainly unfortunate in treatment. 
 
 Reluctantly passing over the second edition of the 
 same author's delightful Ornithological Rambles in 
 Sussex, in which he avails himself of " the gifted pencil 
 of Wolf," and not at all reluctantly omitting the 
 distressing copies of our friend's work in Knox's 
 Autumns on the Spey, we shall do well to study a 
 most spirited design of a Goshawk striking a Gazelle 
 in Burton's Falconry in the Valley of the Indus. 
 
 In 1853-4, chromo-lithography claimed a victim 
 in Wolf. The Poets of the Woods and Feathered 
 Favourites (published by Bosworth) are a collection of 
 quotations from the poets touching our British birds, 
 each volume illustrated with twelve reproductions 
 from small, circular, water-colour drawings. 
 
 This is another case, and a notable one, where the 
 attempt to reproduce Wolfs work in colour, amounted 
 for the most part to a libel, or, as he calls it, "a 
 fiasco " ; and, to those who do not know his original 
 
n8 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 drawings, an emphatic warning is necessary to that 
 effect. 
 
 Mr. Dresser possesses some of the originals, 
 which came into his hands in a singular way. The 
 publisher entrusted them to an auctioneer to sell, 
 who promptly failed ; and all trace of the man and 
 the drawings was lost. Subsequently they appeared 
 in one large frame at a city dealer's ; who, in selling 
 them to Mr. Dresser for a nominal sum, and in 
 ignorance of their authorship, informed him that he 
 had bought them over the counter of his shop, loose 
 in an envelope. 
 
 Never did a more tasty plum fall into the mouth 
 of a collector ; for the drawings are gems, glowing 
 in the most delicately harmonious colouring, and full 
 of refinement in draughtsmanship ; witness the little 
 pictures of the Green Woodpecker and the Ring 
 Doves. As for the chromo-lithographs, they are 
 pretty, it is true ; a few are very pretty ; but they do 
 not fairly represent Joseph Wolf ; and the marvellous 
 rococo borders that surround them would offend the 
 taste of a fairly well-educated cheesemonger. 
 
 Mr. Dresser has a few drawings uniform in size 
 and treatment with those I have mentioned ; and the 
 subject of one is parrakeets. Wolf says " I did them 
 " because I liked them. At that time they were new. 
 " I put them on a bunch of dark grapes, which I 
 " believe they never touch/' They appear to belong 
 to another series of which I know nothing. 
 
"LAKE N GAMI" 
 
 £1 9 
 
 The only other instance I know of a series of 
 circular chromo-lithographs from Wolf's drawings, is 
 an edition of Cock Robin. In his portfolios other 
 circular subjects sometimes occur, and he does not 
 seem to have found himself hampered in any way by 
 that rather unpleasant shape. The composition is 
 always skilful enough to avoid any appearance of 
 cutting down, or cramped work. He was also 
 given at one time to rounding off the top corners 
 of his subjects. On my objecting to this on one 
 occasion, he naively admitted that he sometimes did 
 it to escape the difficulty of filling them up ; but 
 this, of course, was early in his career. He says, 
 " Sometimes a subject is not fit to be done upright. 
 " Then I do it round. What I hate most is a lozenge- 
 " shape, or a round subject bursting out in one place 
 " like a rotten egg." The American fashion of mixing 
 up the design with the letterpress, he nauseates. 
 
 Possibly the artist was dispirited by the mechanical 
 translation of his work, for next on the list after 
 Bosworth's volumes, we find one illustrated by no less 
 than thirteen lithographs from his own hand — litho- 
 graphs far superior to any in Knox's works. Lake 
 N Garni by C. J. Andersson 1 was, as far as I know, 
 the first book of adventure and sport with which 
 Wolf was connected. He was given free scope, the 
 text was interesting, and he got on well with the 
 
 1 Hurst & Blackett, 1856. The imprints of several of the litho- 
 graphs, incorrectly ascribe them to Wolf, an error not found in the list 
 of illustrations. 
 
i2o LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 author, so that he enjoyed the work. Indeed, so 
 good were his opportunities, that on one occasion 
 the traveller actually crawled upon the studio floor 
 with his rifle, that some sketches might be made quite 
 truthful in detail, for his figure in " Unwelcome 
 Hunting Companions." 
 
 Among the most interesting illustrations are the 
 furious charge of a Black Rhinoceros, a night scene ; 
 and a perfect contrast to this is a group of browsing 
 Koodoos. 1 But perhaps the best of these striking 
 pictures of African wild animals is that representing 
 the approach of a herd of thirsty Elephants to a pool 
 already thronged with other game : — 
 
 " The accompanying plate," says the author, "represents one of 
 " those numerous and exciting scenes that I have witnessed at night, 
 " at the water, when lying in ambush for game. There is one fact 
 " — a fact that has hitherto escaped the attention of the African 
 " sportsman — connected with this illustration that makes it particu- 
 " larly interesting, and which induced me to designate it ' The 
 " Approach of Elephants.' The animals are just appearing above the 
 " distant hill. If the spring or pool, as the case may be, be of small 
 "extent, all the animals present will invariably retire from the water 
 " as soon as they are aware of the presence of the elephants, of whom 
 " they appear to have an instinctive dread, and will remain at a re- 
 " spectful distance until the giants have quenched their thirst. Thus, 
 "long before I have seen or even heard the elephants, I have been 
 " warned of heir approach by symptoms of uneasiness displayed by 
 
 1 Koodoos by a pool in the evening, with a few Zebras, form the subject 
 of a charming composition painted in water-colour for one of the artist's 
 many kindly and appreciative sportsman friends, who writes to him as 
 
 follows : " Mr. is very much taken with the drawing and told me he 
 
 " tried in vain to find faults, and congratulated me on being the happy 
 " possessor of ' the only good picture of the most beautiful animal in the 
 "world which I quite endorse." 
 
NIGHT SHOOTING 
 
 121 
 
 " such animals as happened to be drinking at the time. The giraffe, 
 " for instance, begins to sway his long neck to and fro ; the zebra 
 "utters subdued, plaintive cries ; the gnoo glides away with a noise- 
 " less step ; and even the ponderous and quarrelsome black rhino- 
 ceros, when he has time for reflection, will pull up short in his 
 " walk to listen ; then, turning round, he listens again, and if he feel 
 "satisfied that his suspicions are correct, he invariably makes off, 
 " usually giving vent to his fear or ire by one of his vicious and 
 " peculiar snorts." 
 
 The subject is one after Wolf's own heart ; who, 
 always fond of night scenes or twilight, must have 
 entered enthusiastically into the pleasure of depicting 
 such a romantic episode. 
 
 There is a passage or two in Tropical South 
 Africa by Galton, Andersson's companion, dealing 
 with nocturnal sport, which so happily and exactly 
 suggest the kind of nocturnal subjects Wolf would 
 have loved to design, had he come across them, that I 
 will quote them : — 
 
 " It is one of the most strangely exciting positions that a sports- 
 " man can find himself in, to lie behind one of these screens or holes 
 " by the side of a path leading to a watering place so thronged with 
 "game as Tunobis. Herds of gnus glide along the neighbouring 
 "paths in almost endless files : here standing out in bold relief 
 "against the sky, there a moving line, just visible in the deep 
 " shades ; and all as noiseless as a dream. Now and then a slight 
 " pattering over the stones makes you start. It jars painfully on the 
 " strained ear, and a troop of zebras pass frolicking by. All at once 
 "you observe twenty or thirty yards off, two huge ears pricked up 
 "among the brushwood ; another few seconds and a sharp solid horn 
 " indicates the cautious and noiseless approach of the great 
 " rhinoceros. Then the rifle or gun is pushed slowly over the 
 " wall . . . and you keep a sharp and anxious look out through 
 " some cranny in your screen. . . ." 
 
122 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " A rhinoceros is a sulky, morose brute, and it is very ridiculous 
 " to watch a sedate herd of gnus bullied by one of them. He runs 
 ''among them and pokes about with his horn while they scamper 
 " and scurry away from him in great alarm. He surely must often 
 " kill them. 
 
 " For my own taste I should like to spend nights perched up in 
 " some tree with a powerful night glass watching these night frolics 
 "and attacks. I really do not much care about shooting the 
 " animals, though it makes a consummation to the night work, as 
 "the death of the fox does to a fox hunt, but it is the least pleasur 
 " able part of the whole. Great fun seems to go on among the dif- 
 " ferent animals ; jackals are always seen and are always amusing ; 
 " their impudence is intolerable ; they know that you do not want 
 " to shoot them ; and will often sit in front of your screen and stare 
 "you in the face. Sometimes, whilst straining your eyes at the 
 " dimly seen bushes around you, the branched stem of one gradually 
 "forms itself into the graceful head of some small antelope. The 
 "change is like that of a dissolving view, the object being under 
 " your notice for a minute, yet you could not tell when it ceased to 
 " be a bush and became an animal. . . ." 
 
 When I read these passages to Wolf he said, 
 " Simply splendid ! I have had the same sensation 
 " watching for deer just before the morning twilight. 
 " You hear the click, click, click, of the hoofs, gradu- 
 " ally approaching, or passing by, just as the case 
 " may be, until the deer gets your wind and stands 
 " still. It is curious how they will stand at night even 
 " close to a road, perfectly still, and relying on not 
 " being seen. They come very near before you see 
 " well enough to shoot, and then you try to get the 
 " broadside, and fire with your heart in your mouth, 
 " for fear of missing." 
 
 Wolf did not always find authors so pleasant and 
 
/ 
 
 The Pallid Harrier. 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S " TRA VELS r 
 
 123 
 
 appreciative as Andersson. On leaving a publisher's 
 office with a gentleman whose book on hunting he 
 was to illustrate, he ventured to ask a question about 
 an animal he knew the other must have met with. 
 He was answered thus. " That's nothing to do with 
 " you. What you have to do is to get those right 
 " which you have in hand." When he speaks of this 
 kind of man Wolf repeats an old German saying, 
 which, being interpreted, is this: "They go to work 
 1 ' with an artist like a swine with a beggar's bread - 
 " bag." 
 
 In 1857 appeared Livingstone's Missionary 
 Travels in South Africa ; a book defaced rather than 
 illustrated by a number of Wood-cuts so atrociously 
 engraved, and, for the most part, so utterly wanting in 
 good qualities, that it is very small praise to pronounce 
 the twelve by Wolf the best of them. 1 He had ex- 
 pected intellectual translation ; but he now learnt, for 
 the first time, what an ill-paid British wood-engraver 
 could achieve in that way. Thanks chiefly to that 
 engraver, his version of the celebrated incident of the 
 Lion's attack upon Livingstone is simply grotesque. 
 If we did not know upon whom to lay the blame, it 
 would seem incredible that the same artist could pro- 
 duce " The Approach of Elephants," " The Koodoo," 
 and " Unwelcome Hunting Companions " in Lake 
 
 1 There is no acknowledgment of their authorship, but they will be 
 found facing pages 13, 26, 27, 56, 71, 140, 142, 210^242, 498, 562, and 
 588. 
 
124 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 N Garni, and only a year afterwards, such coarse and 
 unhappy work. 
 
 Among the reasons why the Livingstone illustra- 
 tions were a failure were, perhaps, firstly that the 
 author was so ignorant of art that the subjects he pro- 
 posed were the most impossible ; and, secondly, that 
 he altogether lacked the power of vivid verbal 
 description. Wolf says, " I used to go to see 
 u Livingstone at Sloane Street ; and he would pro- 
 " pose subjects ; but there was no handle to what he 
 " said. He had a thing in his mind that couldn't be 
 " illustrated. I couldn't make pictures of what he 
 " thought would be the best subjects. I didn'-t feel 
 " the inspiration to work with Livingstone as I did 
 "with Oswell." 
 
 Livingstone had made a sketch of what he 
 thought was a new species of monkey ; but it was so 
 " aw fit I" as Wolf calls it, that nobody could tell 
 from the sketch, for what it was intended. This the 
 publisher was happily dissuaded from reproducing. 
 The artist still has in his portfolios two or three of 
 his original sketches which were submitted to Living- 
 stone ; with questions as to particulars, and answers 
 in the author's handwriting. 
 
 Passing over sixteen illustrations by Wolf in an 
 edition of y^sop out of the hundred all ascribed to 
 Tenniel on the title-page, we come to Captain Dray- 
 son's Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs ; published 
 by Routledge in 1858. On the title-page of my copy 
 
The Marsh Harrier, 
 
HIS ACADEMY PICTURES 
 
 it is said that this book is " Illustrated by Harrison 
 Weir from designs by the Author." There are, how- 
 ever, only eight illustrations, all of which are by 
 Wolf ; and they had nothing whatever to do with the 
 author's designs. " Elephant-hunting in the Bush," 
 " Sharp Practice," and " The Red Buck and the 
 Sporting Leopard" are the best. In the last of 
 these, the engraver (as we shall often find in parallel 
 cases) has carefully cut a light halo round the fore- 
 most Buck, that there may be no mistake about the 
 outline. It is curious how often this pernicious 
 officiousness in clearing up everything that the artist 
 has intentionally left doubtful, or in non-relief, or sub- 
 dued occurs in wood-engraving. The determination 
 to cut away the wood round dark or middle-tint forms 
 — to sharpen everything up, seems to be a kind of 
 irresistible mania which seizes the engraver, just as 
 the opposite mania to obscure, and besmirch, by 
 means of his fatal retroussage, rages within the mind 
 of a printer of modern etchings. 
 
 As I have now reached the close of the first decade 
 of Wolfs residence in England, I will postpone, for 
 the present, the account of his further successes as an 
 illustrator. 
 
 There should be included in this ten years' work 
 eight oil pictures, 1 which were exhibited at the Royal 
 Academy after the "Woodcocks seeking shelter." 
 
 1 These were as follows. 1850. " Autumn " [Wounded Woodcock], 
 " Wild Boar " [Kitcat, landscape way. A moonlight landscape, strikingly 
 
126 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 One or two of these pictures are still in the artist's 
 possession ; and in spite of most careful drawing and 
 good composition they have possibly helped to give 
 an impression to others besides myself, that oil is not 
 the material in which he most excels, although it is as 
 an oil-painter that he prefers to be known. The best 
 of his works in water-colour, and particularly those in 
 charcoal, chalk, or charcoal grey have, in fact, com- 
 pletely spoilt some people for his oil pictures ; and the 
 change of material seems to me to be followed, in 
 some instances, by a palpable change of style. There 
 are, however, numbers of his best works in oil w r hich 
 I have never seen. 
 
 " The Proud Bird of the Mountain" bears a quota- 
 tion from Grahame's Birds of Scotland, where Wolf 
 found descriptions of his favourite birds and favourite 
 scenery. From his well-worn copy he has taken 
 many a subject ; and in The Poets of the Woods, 
 already mentioned, there are eight quotations from 
 Grahame. Some exceedingly careful studies were 
 made for the Eagle's plumage ruffled by the storm. 
 
 A large picture called " Jerfalcons striking a 
 
 poetic]. " Winter " [A dying partridge. Upright about 24" high]. 1851. 
 "The Falcon's Nest" [Upright and 3 or 4 feet high. Purchased by the 
 Duke of Argyll and afterwards burnt at Inveraray]. 1853. " The Happy 
 Mother." " The Mourner" [A Dove with destroyed nest. Circular and 
 18" in diameter]. "The Proud Bird of the Mountain " [Golden Eagle in 
 a snow-storm. A quotation from Grahame's Birds of Scotland. Upright. 
 Purchased by the Duke of Westminster]. 1856. "Jerfalcons striking a 
 Kite." As only one more oil picture was ever exhibited at the Academy, 
 I will include it, to make the list complete. 1863. "Wapiti Deer and 
 Scenery at Powerscourt Park." 
 
HIS FALCON PICTURES 
 
 127 
 
 Kite" failed to sell at the Academy. It was after- 
 wards bought by a well-to-do gentleman-farmer, and 
 finally found its way into the collection of Lord 
 Lilford. The picture was reproduced in The Field 
 of January 10, 1890, and was exhibited at the Sports 
 and Arts Exhibition in the same year, under the 
 title " Kite Hawking with Northern Falcons on a 
 Suffolk Heath." Wolf says, however, " I never 
 thought of a Suffolk Heath at all." The birds are 
 all life-size, and the actions of the Falcons are very 
 vigorous. Mr. Harting, in his interesting article in 
 The Field describing this glorious sport, speaks of this 
 work as " one of the finest bird pictures ever painted 
 by Joseph Wolf." This may be the opinion of 
 a falconer and naturalist, but it is not one in which 
 every artist would coincide. The picture has points 
 of affinity with a group of Wolf s works which he says 
 were purposely treated ornithologically, and it does 
 not show the full strength of his power of composition. 
 A few of them, representing Falcons, appeared in the 
 Sports and Arts Exhibition ; but he was very sorry 
 to see them exhibited, and describes them as " The 
 hardest things I have ever done." I have always 
 feared that some people have known him chiefly by 
 such works as these ; by his hard, semi-scientific 
 pictures. If this is the case, if they have lacked 
 the knowledge necessary in order to appreciate the 
 draughtsmanship, the truth and vivacity of attitude, and 
 the skill with which the markings obey the perspective 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 and modelling — merits which, by common consent of 
 the best judges, place Wolf at the very head of 
 draughtsmen of the Birds of Prey-— they will have 
 formed a totally false conclusion. They will not suspect 
 that the same painter who has produced these hard 
 and rather severely treated pictures of birds, naturally 
 revels in artistic qualities and subtleties which are very 
 different. 
 
 It is indeed unfortunate that while many of his less 
 successful achievements are widely known, and trans- 
 lations or parodies of others in which all the qualities 
 he most valued are wanting, his best and really re- 
 presentative works are known only to the purchasers 
 and their friends, and to the few who were privileged 
 to see them on the easel. 
 
 He holds that the hardness of some of the sub- 
 jects I have alluded to is chiefly due to the unpic- 
 turesque nature of Falcons, and says that the Eagles 
 are far more picturesque and consequently easier to 
 paint. 
 
 " Look at a Falcon's feather, and look at an 
 " Eagle's feather," he says. " An Eagle's feather is a 
 ' 'beautiful honest brown, light grey and white at the 
 "base; whilst the Falcon's has a certain number of 
 " cross markings to its entire length, which have to be 
 " given, in order to make it a Falcon's feather. Then 
 " the spottiness throughout the bird does not admit of 
 " broad handling. This is what misled you once into 
 " saying that some of my Falcon subjects were hard 
 
Golden Eagle. 
 
 (A Sketch for a Picture.) 
 
EE A THERS 
 
 " and tight. 1 It is easy to paint an Eagle soft and 
 " feathery. None of the spotted Falcons, Peregrine, 
 " Norwegian, or Iceland, are picturesque birds. One 
 "can't handle them broadly. A Goshawk is more 
 " picturesque than the Falcons, and the Sparrow-hawk 
 " than the Peregrine." 
 
 " Then people say, ' He knows how to paint 
 " feathers.' 2 There is no sense whatever in this — 
 " none whatever. They have no idea of the differ- 
 " ence in feathers. For instance, an Owl's feather is 
 " a soft, fluffy thing, whilst a Falcon's is hard. One 
 " floats in the air, and another falls to the ground so 
 " that you can hear it. The tail of a Woodpecker is 
 " as stiff as a piece of whalebone. The feather of an 
 " Owl is a ghost — you can hear nothing. But when 
 " an Eagle or a Lammergeyer folds up its wings, they 
 " rattle like cardboard." 
 
 " When I came to the smaller birds like Jays and 
 " Bullfinches I enjoyed doing their feathers. They 
 " are split feathers, and they almost dissolve them- 
 " selves into hairs. You do not see any outline to 
 " them. In the Owls they would not appear so very 
 " soft if the feathers were plain ; but the markings 
 " are zig-zag and zig-zag, and dots, and all sorts of 
 " small marks, which make the whole bird look beau- 
 " tifully blended and soft in appearance." Speaking 
 
 1 He forgets that he himself has made the admission of a certain 
 hardness in a few pictures. 
 
 3 At the end of this volume will be found Professor Newton's testi- 
 mony as to Wolfs skill in " pterylosis." 
 
 K 
 
i30 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 of another artist Wolf continued : — " His feathers 
 " used to be too wide. That amounts to something, 
 " if you only get six in when you ought to have a 
 " dozen. When I began to study, I used to measure 
 i( the feathers with a pair of compasses, and I had no 
 " difficulty then in getting the right number into their 
 " place. After you have been doing it in this way, 
 " carefully, for a time, it comes quite natural to you. 
 " For instance, in drawing an Eagle's tail spread, I 
 " had no occasion to count the twelve feathers. They 
 " came right by themselves." 
 
 From feathers it is an easy transition to flight, and 
 the representation of motion in birds. Here, also, 
 every word Wolf has to tell us carries the greatest 
 weight, if only by reason of the immense study he has 
 given to the question. He says : — " In the flight of 
 " birds you cannot give the relative rapidity of the 
 " movement of their wings. They always look soar- 
 " ing with the wings open. This is right with Eagles 
 " and Falcons and soaring species ; but with Par- 
 " tridges and others in which the wings flutter, it looks 
 " wrong if they are drawn in a hard way. It can only 
 r ' be done in the way the spokes of a moving wheel 
 " are indicated." Now it does not take the student of 
 his work long to discover that whatever species of 
 bird he represents in the act of flying, seems to fly, 
 and further, that it flies in its absolutely natural 
 manner. The Vultures in " Morning " (the dead Lion 
 subject), do not approach in the same manner as the 
 
FLIGHT 
 
 Hooded Crows in " Hunted Down"; and the Ptar- 
 migan dashing up before the Alpine blizzard are 
 perfectly distinct from the Wild Geese which scurry 
 overhead in the wildest terror and confusion at the 
 report of the fatal shot. In nature we have rarely 
 a doubt about the species which flies rapidly by 
 us. The outlines of the head, the tail feathers, and 
 primaries are clear cut against the sky ; and, if the bird 
 is near enough, we scarcely need the characteristics of 
 the flight to help us. How Wolf transfers all this to 
 his canvas, how he secures the sense of various kinds 
 of motion so successfully, the soaring, the fluttering, 
 the laborious, the easy, it is hard to say ; but that he 
 does secure it, can, I think, be proved. 
 
 There are certain artists who treaf their birds so 
 il artistically " that it is sometimes an effort, if not an 
 impossibility, to distinguish the species (which to me is 
 the most objectionable form of artistic affectation ; the 
 affectation which is more repulsive, and sickening than 
 any other in the world), and pterylography is utterly 
 unknown to them. The feathers, indeed, look as 
 if they had purposely been brushed the wrong way to 
 give " breadth." There are others whose elaborate 
 drawings leave no more doubt as to the identity of 
 the species than the well-wired, well-smoothed, staring 
 specimens in the second-rate naturalists' shops. It 
 seems to me that Wolf has hit the happy and intensely 
 difficult middle course, completely avoiding these two 
 errors. That is to say he gives the impression of 
 
I 3 2 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 life (as he has always striven to do), and with the look 
 of life, the look of motion. How has he done it ? 
 "/ cannot tell you how I did it, at all," he replies. 
 " It is so subtle that you cannot explain. Of course 
 " a laborious flier would have his head forward and 
 " down like the Gallinaceous birds. Then they work 
 " heavily with their wings, and their hind quarters 
 
 Laborious Flight 
 
 " seem heavy and down a little — not a horizontal line. 
 " For instance the flight of an Osprey rising from 
 " the water with a weight would appear laborious. 
 f 4 Without] the weight he would fly in a more hori- 
 tk zontal position." 
 
 My sketch of the ten years' work, imperfect as it 
 is, would be deficient if it did not include a series of 
 
O SWELL 
 
 i33 
 
 eleven or more designs in chalk, 1 done for the great 
 hunter, Mr. William C. Oswell, to illustrate his African 
 adventures. Wolf thoroughly enjoyed this work, 
 and about two years ago he spoke to me of Oswell as 
 follows : — " He could describe to you scenes so pictu- 
 " resquely that you could draw them at once. I 
 " never heard anybody describe more clearly, or who 
 
 Easy Flight 
 
 " was more capable of explaining a situation. You 
 " could see that it was all truth, and you could see 
 " picture after picture. He did not mind telling you 
 "if he missed clean. As he was telling the story, I 
 " composed it in my mind, as I thought it would come 
 
 1 They have been reproduced in the Badminton Library Big Game 
 Shooting. 
 
!34 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 u best, and he generally said ' Capital ! ' He paid me 
 " a visit about six years ago. He was a nice fellow, 
 " upon my word ! The nicest of all that kind of 
 " fellows I have met, and a most gentlemanly man. 
 "He was very much astonished when he saw me at 
 " work ; but Livingstone was too ignorant of art to 
 " be astonished at anything. Oswell saw I was inte- 
 41 rested in guns, and he lent me his io-bore Purdey, 
 ".'with the stock all scratched with wait-a-bit thorns. 
 " I had it in my studio for some time." 
 
 If the reader refers to the Badminton volumes on 
 Big Game Shooting, he will find a piece of testimony 
 touching Oswell's descriptive powers similar to that 
 I have quoted. Preceding his intensely interesting 
 chapters on South Africa, is a short notice of the 
 hunter ; and, in his own introduction to his narrative, 
 he pays a warm tribute to Wolfs genius. 
 
 In the former, Sir Samuel Baker says : — 
 " One man alone was left who could describe from personal experi- 
 " ence the vast tracts of Southern Africa and the countless multitudes 
 "of wild animals which existed fifty years ago. . . . This man, thus 
 " solitary in this generation, was William Cotton Oswell. . . , No 
 " one could describe a scene more graphically, or with greater vigour ; 
 " he could tell his stories with so vivid a descriptive power that the 
 " effect was mentally pictorial : and his listeners could feel thoroughly 
 " assured that not one word of his description contained a particle of 
 " exaggeration. 
 
 "... . He was accepted at that time as the Nimrod of 
 " South Africa, ' par excellence,' and although his retiring nature 
 " tended to self-effacement, all those who knew him, either by name 
 " or personal acquaintance, regarded him as without a rival ; . . . 
 
OS WELL 
 
 135 
 
 " the greatest hunter ever known in modern times, the truest friend, 
 " and the most thorough example of an English gentleman." 
 
 This magnificent man writes as follows : — 
 " I have often been asked to write the stories of the illustrations 
 " given in the chapters on South Africa, but I have hitherto declined, 
 " on the plea that the British public had had quite enough of Africa. 
 " ... As I now stand mid-way between seventy and eighty, I 
 "trusted that I might, in the ordinary course of nature, escape 
 "such an undertaking ; but in the end of '91, the best shot, sports- 
 " man and writer that ever made Africa his field— I refer to my good 
 " friend Sir Samuel Baker — urged me to put my experiences on 
 "paper. . . . 
 
 " The illustrations are taken from a set of drawings in my pos- 
 " session by the best artist of wild animal life I have ever known — 
 " Joseph Wolf. After describing the scene, I stood by him as he 
 " drew, occasionally offering a suggestion or venturing on two or 
 " three scrawling lines of my own, and the wonderful talent of the 
 " man produced pictures so like the reality in all essential points, 
 "that I marvel still at his power, and feel that I owe him most grate- 
 " ful thanks for daily pleasure. . . . Many of the scenes it would have 
 "been impossible to depict at the moment of their occurrence, so 
 " that even if the chief human actor had been a draughtsman he 
 " must have trusted to his memory. Happily I was able to give my 
 "impressions into the hands of a genius who let them run out at the 
 " ends of his fingers. They are rather startling, I know, when looked 
 " at in the space of five minutes, but it must be remembered that they 
 " have to be spread over five years and that these are the few acci- 
 " dents among numberless uneventful days. I was once asked to bring 
 " these sketches to a house where I was dining. During dinner the 
 "servants placed them round the drawing-room and on coming 
 " upstairs I found two young men examining them intently. 
 " 1 What's all this ? ' one asked. ' I don't know,' the other replied. 
 " ' Oh, I see now,' the first continued, 'a second Baron Munchausen ; 
 " ' don't you think so ? ' he inquired, appealing to me. We were 
 " strangers to each other, so I corroborated his bright and certainly 
 " pardonable solution ; but they are true nevertheless. I have 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 "kept them down to the truth. Indeed, two of them fall short 
 " of it." 
 
 Whatever their artistic merit may be, or the rank 
 they hold among Wolf's works, the sketches which 
 were at once so life-like and deliberately true as to 
 give such a man as Oswell daily pleasure for many 
 years — which were done under his eye and under the 
 direct inspiration of his marvellous descriptive powers, 
 are (even in the little process blocks) of great interest. 
 Such a hunter and such an artist will never again 
 work in conjunction. 
 
 Gordon Cumming was a sportsman of a different 
 stamp, and Wolf severely censures the slaughter 
 which made the reputation of such hunters. He did 
 not illustrate Cumming's books ; but drew, neverthe- 
 less, a series of large designs for his lectures. But so 
 much did he revolt against the bloodshed described 
 by Cumming, that one day, when he felt particularly 
 angry, he caught up a bit of charcoal and made the 
 sketch a reproduction of which the reader will see. 
 It was intended as a kind of counterblast or protest 
 against the popular notion of sport, and the general 
 tendency of Cumming's anecdotes. These are the 
 words in which Wolf imagines that writer would have 
 described the incident : — " On coming into the neigh- 
 " bourhood of our waggons, our dogs gave tongue in 
 " a clump of bushes. I walked on, and there was a 
 " savage Lioness ! I knocked her over with my first 
 <! barrel ; and then I found that she had cubs, which 
 
SPORTING SUBJECTS 
 
 i37 
 
 " were instantly torn to pieces and greedily devoured 
 " by our hungry dogs." 
 
 Sport, in its aspect of needless butchery, Wolf 
 loathed at all times, and even for sport as prac- 
 tised by Oswell and Sir Samuel Baker (whose for- 
 bearance so disgusted his American hunters), he grew 
 to have less and less toleration. As years went 
 on, and he became more familiar with the life-history, 
 the beauty, and the languages of wild animals, his 
 love for them increased, till the time came when he 
 hung up his guns and rifles, and would kill no 
 longer. 
 
 Like most men of strong character he can hate 
 most vehemently, and there are few things that he 
 hates more intensely than the sporting picture pure 
 and simple. He says : — " I hate sporting subjects. 
 " The ordinary sporting things, where the proper cut 
 "of a shooting-coat seems the chief object, are detest- 
 " able. Whenever wild animals come into contact 
 " with man they are in fear of death, and appear ill at 
 " ease. How would an unarmed man look, painted 
 " with a Tiger confronting him?" 
 
 In the artist's own sporting subjects (in which, I 
 must confess, I take great delight), the sportsman is 
 distant and the game is close — so close, in most 
 instances, as to appeal to our sympathy by the pathos 
 of death and mutilation. As a further protest, he 
 drew a pair of subjects suggested by a passage in 
 Grahame's Birds of Scotland. In the first of these a 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 large covey revel in the early sunshine of a fine first 
 of September, in all the plenitude of their vigour 
 and beauty. The sequel shows a few survivors at 
 twilight, calling in vain for their dead brethren, while 
 the eyes of one wounded bird are closing for the last 
 time. 
 
 Wolf not only thinks our innate craving for sport 
 and the insatiable desire to kill, a relic of a savage 
 condition, out of keeping with the exalted culture and 
 civilization we claim, but he girds at the superficial 
 character of the average sportsman's knowledge of 
 animals, and in this he keeps step with Knox. He 
 says, " They have no desire to know about a thing. 
 Their only desire is to kill it." 
 
 He fairly boils over (as he can do, now and then, 
 to some purpose) at the accounts of indiscriminate 
 big-game shooting, either to feed the enormous 
 retinue of the wealthy sportsman, or, worse still, 
 when hundreds of magnificent beasts are left to rot, 
 and still shot down, till species after species is exter- 
 minated. The man who " sports " in this way he 
 compares unfavourably with a Marten-cat in a hen- 
 house, which kills on till there is nothing left alive. 
 Touching a young man who was about to betake him- 
 self on a " shooting trip " to Africa, he growled, when 
 he was gone, " I hope that when they have to go 
 " somewhere by boat, a Hippopotamus will upset 
 " them, and that they will have to swim ashore, 
 " leaving all their rifles at the bottom of the Zambesi. 
 
MATERNAL AFFECTION 
 
 139 
 
 " It has become a recognised thing even in novels, 
 " that when a fellow is disappointed in love, he goes 
 " out to America or Africa to shoot big game." He 
 goes even further than detestation of sport, and refuses 
 to believe many of the stories touching the innate 
 ferocity of certain species, and of their unprovoked 
 attacks. Of man's unprovoked attacks on certain 
 species he learnt a notable instance from Mr. Bartlett, 
 who told him that sailors have been known to land 
 on islands densely peopled with Penguins ; to kill 
 or stun a sufficient quantity with sticks ; and then to 
 set fire to their oily bodies, "for a lark." He says, 
 " When a schoolboy sees, an unfortunate Owl in his 
 " power, turning its eyes upon him in fear of death, 
 " he takes it for ferocity and stones the bird." 
 
 He admits, of course, that maternal affection 
 entirely alters a pacific disposition. There is a 
 reason, he says, for the occasional ferocity of some 
 animals. "You are too near the nest." He tells 
 how a mother Partridge will attack a Crow, and 
 a farm-yard hen beat off a Kite, in defence of 
 their respective chickens ; both of which incidents 
 he has sketched with others of the kind. "It is a 
 " grand law in nature, parental affection. It is princi- 
 " pally maternal affection which keeps the world 
 " together, you know. 1 If anybody has a mind to 
 " think (or you may say the heart to think), he will 
 
 1 Of Wolf's keen appreciation and reciprocation of his mother's affec- 
 tion for him, and of her great influence over him, an old friend of his has 
 told me. 
 
140 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " never interfere with a mother when she is defend- 
 " ing her young." 
 
 In fact to sum it all up Wolf adds, " Then comes 
 "man, the most destructive and carnivorous animal 
 " in the world. Look at the Tiger. He is nothing 
 " compared with man. 1 Wild animals are more in 
 " fear than ferocious." Knowing also the dire severity 
 of the struggle for very existence among them, he 
 sees nothing so cruel in the depredations of the 
 Tiger, and for that matter nothing more ridiculous in 
 the strut of a Turkey-cock, than he can see, any day, 
 in the actions of his fellow-men. 
 
 Even among wild animals themselves, he depre- 
 cates the inevitable aggression of the strong upon 
 the weak. He repeats both by word and by brush, 
 "The aggressor shall not succeed" ; and he delights 
 to frustrate him in his pictures. He has loved wild 
 animals since he toddled about his mother's garden. 
 He deeply sympathizes with them and their perse- 
 cuted lives ; and though, to a certain extent, he once 
 gave way to the all-powerful instinct of sport in the 
 single form of shooting, he has completely changed. 
 He still cherishes his guns, and keeps them always in 
 his sight ; but he loves his wild friends better, and it 
 
 1 " A young terrier or kitten," writes Francis Galton in his book on 
 South Africa, " seems the most harmless and mildest of creatures, until he 
 "has been brought into contact with rats and learnt the luxury and taste 
 " of blood, and many an instance may be found along the distant coasts 
 " of this wide world where a year or two has converted the Saxon youth, 
 " who left his mother all innocence and trust, into as diabolical and reck- 
 " less a character as ever stabbed with a bowie-knife." 
 
HE LEAVES HOWLAND STREET 141 
 
 has come to this, at last, that if he sees a shooter at 
 work, he exults if he misses. 
 
 It is not always easy to discern any well-marked 
 eras in a life which, in the ordinary sense, is quite 
 uneventful. It runs on its course, in outward appear- 
 
 Joseph Wolf in the Fifties 
 
 ance, like a slow, sober river ; the reaches varied with 
 sun and shade, but never tumultuous and never stag- 
 nant. The ripples of its shallows are evident enough, 
 but the strength and direction of the deeper current 
 are hidden. Nevertheless, in the case of an artist, 
 
142 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 a removal from quarters where he has made a great 
 reputation forms a kind of era in his life. As the 
 studies on the walls are taken down, one by one, the 
 place seems to shrink to half its size. The cob- 
 webbed corners yield up treasures long since forgot- 
 ten ; and thrifty old spiders, who have outlived an 
 occasional " spring cleaning," sidle away to pastures 
 new. It is melancholy work ; but the painful effort 
 by which the poor Bohemian evolves some semblance 
 of order in his new home diverts his mind from the 
 dusty comforts he had got to love so well. 
 
 When Joseph Wolf was introduced by his solitary 
 English acquaintance into his first Howland Street 
 lodgings, probably few besides the ornithologists and 
 falconers had ever heard of him. In the more 
 abstruse branches of art, and in men, he was compara- 
 tively inexperienced ; and his fingers were only 
 familiar (but not too familiar) with the thaler of the 
 Fatherland. 
 
 When Joseph Wolf, in i860, lit his first pipe in 
 his new studio at 59 Berners Street, he had friends 
 enough for a prodigious house-warming. Besides 
 being looked up to as absolutely "unrivalled" — as 
 " the best available talent in Europe," by the most 
 distinguished men in Science, he was known to many 
 other people of great influence and taste, just as he 
 most wished to be known ; as an accomplished and 
 learned artist in oil and water-colour ; and so the 
 seductive crackle of the British bank-note (with which 
 
HIS CAGE BIRDS 
 
 i43 
 
 dulcet sound William Hunt was sometimes to be 
 beguiled when all other arguments had failed), was 
 familiar music. 
 
 His new home was much more convenient than 
 the old one, and he found himself master of three 
 comfortable rooms with the offices thereto. There 
 was a large north window, but no skylight ; and he 
 thinks it was due to this moderation in the lighting 
 of his studio, that his Berners Street works generally 
 gained by the light of exhibitions. 
 
 One of his first cares was to provide his favourite 
 hobby with suitable stabling. At that time it was 
 cage-birds, and so he gradually surrounded himself 
 with aviaries. 
 
 From the very first, and long before he had defied 
 the whole school in defence of the nestlings, he had so 
 peculiar a love of birds that it apparently led to reci- 
 procation. There is nothing at all extraordinary in 
 this ; for, over and over again, it has been proved not 
 only that animals will respond in a remarkable degree 
 to the kind treatment of a man who has learnt their 
 language and taught them his, 1 but that wild birds 
 
 1 I was talking to a well-known authoress (whose sympathy with 
 animals and eagerness to respond to their advances somewhat resembles 
 Wolf's) on the subject of this responsiveness. She said it was singular 
 that, in the case of such wild birds as Sparrows, their familiarity and con- 
 fidence never got beyond a certain point. They would crowd round for 
 their accustomed meal day after day, but any incautious movement 
 scattered them. But these birds, it must be remembered, were birds of 
 experience, and already accustomed to the fierce fight for existence. 
 Had they never known hunger and thirst, or danger, they would probably 
 have behaved differently. Wolf himself says, "A single sparrow you 
 
144 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 intelligently treated, will even rival in tameness th'ose 
 reared from the nest. 
 
 After he had set up his aviaries, he soon got to 
 be on the best of terms with the inhabitants. The 
 Whitethroats would take their meal-worms from his 
 hand ; and in time they got to associate it with their 
 dinner. When he was painting in oil they used to fly 
 down upon his palette, hop upon the brush-handles, 
 and peer between his fingers for the insects they were 
 used to rind there. But his greatest triumph was in 
 the management of his Nightingales. When they were 
 let out they would crowd upon the meal-worm box, so 
 that their big master had to push his hand among 
 them to lift up the rags in which the larvae were bred. 
 He says, " They were no more afraid of my hand 
 " than a kitten was. ... I have had a Nightingale 
 " sitting on my boot and singing, so tame they 
 "get." 
 
 At this time the artist did some drawings for a 
 professor of Dublin University, who called one day 
 when a Nightingale was singing magnificently in its 
 closely papered cage. Never having heard the song 
 before, the learned man asked what bird it was, and 
 when Wolf told him, he said he was disappointed. He 
 had gathered from what he had read that it was much 
 more wonderful ! "If ninety-nine people out of a 
 " hundred," says Wolf, " hear a Nightingale singing in 
 
 " might get tame enough, but when there are so many of them there are 
 " too many eyes." 
 
HIS CAGE BIfiDS 
 
 i45 
 
 " the day-time, they don't know it. They think a 
 " Nightingale's song must be at night." 1 
 
 He had in his studio a big bath for his birds, and 
 describes the morning squabbles to get sole possession 
 of it as most amusing. First a Chaffinch (who was the 
 tyrant of the aviary), flew down and bathed in solitary 
 pomp. Then followed, perhaps, a Bullfinch or a Gold- 
 finch ; and afterwards a couple of Nightingales, 
 sparring together. By and bye, when the bathers were 
 all wet and draggled, they would flutter across the 
 carpet, and dry themselves by twos and threes on the 
 fender-rail before the fire. 
 
 Having once to draw some Redstarts, Wolf put 
 upon the table two or three stuffed specimens from a 
 museum, set upon small wooden stands. This threw 
 a tame Robin into a fluster ; and, on being released 
 from his cage, he first flew down and sang to them, 
 but finding out his mistake, he got very angry, and 
 began to knock the impostors over. 
 
 It is not often that an artist's studio rings with the 
 songs of Nightingales and Blackcaps ; and it is still less 
 
 1 It is singular that a song which is the quintessence of joyousness 
 should have been so often described as melancholy, plaintive, and even 
 doleful. " A melancholy Bird ? Oh, idle thought ! " 
 
 " It is curious," writes Mr. Harting in his Summer Migrants, " how 
 "wide-spread is the belief that the Nightingale warbles only at eve. The 
 " reason, no doubt, is that amidst the general chorus by day its song is 
 " less noticed or attended to." 
 
 This author does not include among our nocturnal songsters the 
 Hedge Sparrow and the Blackbird. Few things are more impressive than 
 a chorus (near and distant) of two or three of these last magnificent singers 
 at a still, warm midnight, as I have heard it. 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 often that he consults them on matters artistic ; but 
 on one occasion Wolf found them rather flattering 
 critics. He had finished, and finished very highly, 
 an oil picture of a Peregrine. He says, " I had a 
 " large cagefull of birds at that time, and when the 
 "picture was done I thought I would try its effect 
 " upon them. So I showed it to them, and at 
 " first only one took any notice. Then all of them 
 " saw it, and there was quite a commotion among 
 "them. The Serin Finch lay all along the perch, 
 " and the Chaffinch hid himself down by the board 
 <l at the bottom." 
 
 On another occasion he had an exceedingly 
 realistic life-size study of an Alpine Hare standing on 
 the floor at the foot of an easel, when a friend came in 
 with a couple of Bassett Hounds. Both of them 
 made a rush at the Hare, and were grievously puzzled 
 when they discovered their mistake. Wolf says "It 
 li is not as difficult a thing to astonish animals with a 
 " picture as people suppose, if it is tolerably well 
 u done." Whether he tried any experiments of this 
 kind on a lovely Silver Marmoset which came on a 
 visit from the Zoological Gardens I do not know. 
 His drawing of this little animal is one of the best in 
 The Proceedings. 
 
 Year by year he had assiduously kept up his com- 
 munication with his kindred, although there was not 
 very much in common between them, and they knew 
 next to nothing of his work and its success. Nearly 
 
The Silver Marmoset. 
 
HIS HO LI DA YS 
 
 47 
 
 every summer he travelled, formerly by a Rhine 
 steamer and then by rail, to visit his native village. 
 There, everything was somewhat modernized, but still 
 sleepy and peaceful, in spite of the advent of the iron 
 road, here and there. " One of my brothers," says Wolf, 
 "only once got into a railway train, to go from one 
 "village to another, and was astonished to find how 
 "quickly he got there." 
 
 The old people of the place were glad enough to see 
 the young man from London, with outward and visible 
 signs upon him of great prosperity ; and how many 
 men would have yielded to the temptation to boast of 
 that prosperity ! Wolf took exactly the opposite 
 course. Simple at heart, he relapsed quite naturally 
 into simple village ways ; and wandered about with 
 his butterfly net or opera-glasses. As for his work in 
 England, he kept very quiet about it ; for he says that 
 he knew nobody in the whole neighbourhood, from 
 the parson to the labourer, would understand it. His 
 brothers had a hazy sort of notion that it was Joseph's 
 bird-painting that had worked such wonders ; and 
 when they approached him on the subject of building 
 a second house, close to the old one, and found him 
 quite willing to advance the money without security, 
 there, at all events, was a pretty convincing bit of 
 evidence that whatever trade he made his money by 
 he was a substantial tradesman. 
 
 The big cousin had long since departed to happier 
 hunting grounds ; and the old farmer had also been 
 
148 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 gathered to his fathers, full of years. Jacob, one of his 
 sons, had married, and was settled in a remote farm- 
 house on the hill-tops south of the Moselle, over- 
 looking a splendid woodland prospect. It was here 
 that the artist preferred spending the greater part of 
 his hard-earned holidays at harvest-time. He says, 
 " You don't see the beauty of the landscape in your 
 native place till you have been away from it. But 
 " when you come back, you say, ' Oh ! how beautiful ! I 
 " never saw that before ! ' Nevertheless, I had always 
 " dreamed, when I was a lad, of much wilder scenery 
 "than that of Moerz." 
 
 He used to get up at sunrise, and go out with his 
 glasses to watch the birds. He says, " I saw the 
 " broods of Carrion Crows, Magpies, and Kestrils 
 " actually playing — enjoying the moment. You could 
 ''see that it was pure enjoyment, as if they felt the 
 "poetry of the scene." 
 
 No bird detective can doubt the truth of this ; and 
 no one who has turned his telescope upon the throngs 
 of Jackdaws and Gulls on the sands of a remote 
 estuary on a hot September day, or upon a party of 
 Magpies in the South Devon hedges, can have failed 
 to be struck with the signs of exuberant joy. They 
 are thoroughly at ease and at peace ; replete, but not 
 too lazy for some burst of birdy horseplay, accom- 
 panied by a sudden babel of the wildest and quaintest 
 notes you can imagine. This is very different, as 
 our friend is so fond of showing, from the terrified 
 
SNOW SUBJECTS 
 
 149 
 
 dash of the sportsman's game ; a race for life before 
 the muzzle of the gun. 
 
 Those familiar with Wolfs works will easily call to 
 mind a number in which snow is represented. A pair 
 of Goldfinches sit in " Adversity," with the flakes 
 falling thickly around them ; or a couple of sour old 
 Boars flounder past one another in the forest, too 
 equal in prowess to adventure a midnight duel ; or, 
 again, a group of Chamois huddle under the thick 
 mantle of dwarf firs, while the Alpine storm rages, 
 and the Ptarmigan dash up to the same shelter. The 
 snow is often rendered with a true poet's feeling. 
 Sometimes it faintly blushes at the sun's kiss, thou- 
 sands of feet above the sea ; or sparkles in the moon- 
 light which dances among the mysterious, tangled 
 shadows of a forest ; and sometimes it hides itself 
 coldly in the cloud and mist of a dreary, Scandinavian 
 solitude. It will be noticed, too, that the snow has 
 nearly always the tracks of animals upon it ; not 
 aimless tracks, but as significant as they are in nature. 
 " I was always very fond of footmarks in snow," says 
 Wolf. " They tell a story. . . . Then I always saw so 
 " much more brilliance and light with the sun on the 
 " snow, and it made me feel cheerful. Then, too, there 
 " is the beautiful rounding of the animals by the 
 " reflection up from beneath of the snow. Altogether 
 " they look so well, and it does not interfere with the 
 " colouring." 
 
 The material for all this, and the much more 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 important knowledge without which all mere material 
 is useless, the artist has accumulated slowly ; and it 
 need scarcely be said that it was not accumulated in 
 London. I have told of his delight in the wildest 
 highlands of Scotland ; and it is probable that, as he 
 toiled up the mountains, he had as keen an eye to 
 the snow, and cloud, and mist — their contrasts and 
 affinities, as he had to the Ptarmigan or Eagles. 
 Some of the most careful of his snow studies were 
 made in Switzerland, where he spent a month for the 
 purpose ; and they were chiefly intended to record 
 " the relative tones of warm and cold." 
 
 Wolf also loves a perfectly undisturbed surface of 
 snow, because he says that upon it " there is always 
 a mystery." As I shall perhaps have occasion to 
 reiterate, this is a quality in art, as in nature, which 
 strongly appeals to him. Complaining that the 
 employer for whom he had to do some drawings of 
 birds on wood had said that they must be "plainly 
 seen," he adds in disgust, " There are a great many 
 " artists now who do not understand the value of 
 " mystery in art." We shall find this quality realized 
 very perfectly in numbers of his works, especially in 
 some of his northern landscapes. These, for some 
 inscrutable reason, carry the mind far away to those 
 more awful solitudes where the White Bear sniffs 
 round the bones of many a valiant mariner ; or 
 the frozen dead lie under their shroud, hidden for 
 ever. 
 
HAND A 
 
 In addition to his visits to his kindred and other 
 occasional journeyings, Wolf kept up his acquaintance 
 with Sutherlandshire. At the Duke of Westminster's 
 desire he spent three days on the Island of Handa 
 (being fetched off at night), for the purpose of making 
 sketches as material for one of a series of drawings. 
 The Island is known to ornithologists as the rugged 
 nursery of many species of sea-birds, and the haunt of 
 a pair or two of Peregrines. Wolf was delighted with 
 what he saw ; and how much he contrived to see in 
 that short time (in spite of a dense sea-fog which 
 caught him unawares), we should hardly be able to 
 credit. 
 
 I asked him if he took his gun, and he said " No. 
 " I had found out that if you take a gun with you you 
 " don't work. Your mind is occupied with watching 
 " for something to shoot." Although unarmed, he had 
 a constant companion which was invaluable to him ; a 
 pair of powerful Ross opera-glasses. These, as an 
 aid to a keen vision which little escaped, and the 
 careful habits of the habitual stalker of living animals, 
 revealed, as it were, a new fauna. 1 
 
 1 The value of a small pair of really first-rate twelve-lens opera- 
 glasses of great magnifying power, carried ready focussed for instant 
 use, no lover of nature can over-estimate. Such an instrument should 
 not exceed six or seven ounces in weight in brass, and is somewhat 
 rare. I have found it in absolute perfection at the great optician's 
 Dallmeyer's. If furnished with a lanyard and a small curb-hook, it 
 can be carried in the pocket, or be suspended instantaneously from 
 the armhole of the waistcoat, where it will be out of the way and out 
 of danger. As Francis Galton points out, " opera-glasses are invaluable 
 " as night glasses ; for, by their aid, the sight of man is raised nearly 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 The drawings commissioned by the Duke were 
 in charcoal, about six feet high, and comprised the 
 following subjects. "The Island of Handa." "Sea- 
 gulls." "Herons and Otter." "Young Ospreys 
 feeding." "Ptarmigan on Foinaven " ; and "The 
 Peregrine's nest." This last is a particularly spirited 
 and original composition. The hungry scramble of 
 the young birds towards their mother above shows to 
 perfection the immature plumage, which is in the state 
 just before the time when the eyesses are removed 
 from the nest. 
 
 There were sundry other journeys made for a 
 certain definite purpose ; one, for instance, to the 
 breeding haunts of the Gannets on the Bass Rock. 
 The result of this trip was a good crop of sketches, 
 besides the last of the drawings just mentioned. Wolf 
 went with a brother artist, and for a week or so 
 worked diligently, being greatly pleased to find the 
 Peregrines on the Rock besides the rightful owners, 
 some marked specimens of which (we read in The 
 Ibis 1 ) had been known to breed there for forty years. 
 A visit to Lord Powerscourt's wild estate in Ireland 
 should be included in the special journeys ; a visit 
 made in order to secure studies from the Wapiti 
 living in the Park, from which the picture was painted 
 which was exhibited in 1863. It was in London that 
 
 " to a par with that of night-roving animals." Let those who doubt 
 this, try the glasses I have named upon a Barn Owl after dusk. 
 1 1866. "Dr. R. O. Cunningham on the Solan Goose." 
 
BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 !53 
 
 a sketch was made of his Lordship's gigantic and 
 notorious Red Deer head, well know r n (says Wolf) to 
 be spurious even then. 
 
 Returning for a while to the subject of Wolfs book 
 illustrations, we find that he always refers to his 
 relations with the Brothers Dalziel as satisfactory; and 
 their name will be seen on many w r ood-cuts after his 
 work which are as successful as we could expect any 
 translations to be of such very difficult originals. By 
 a good rate of remuneration (when they had the 
 power to control it) and, like the Whympers, by pains- 
 taking translation, they encouraged him when en- 
 couragement was useful, and rarely if ever drove him 
 to despair like some of the rank and file of the wood 
 engravers who attempted his work. 
 
 In 1858, and before he had left Howland Street, 
 he had taken part in illustrating a very pleasing 
 edition of Thomson's Seasons. He also contri- 
 buted rather more than forty designs to a series of 
 modern poets published by Routledge, which appeared 
 in the next decade ; namely, Wordsworth, Mont- 
 gomery, Eliza Cook, Sacred Poetry, and Robert 
 Buchanan's North Coast. There may, however, be 
 others of which I am not aware. These volumes are 
 distinguished by their singularly ugly exteriors, and by 
 the tasteful care with which the text and the wood-cuts 
 are printed and engraved — wood-cuts after the best 
 known artists of the day. In Wolf's case, indeed, the 
 engraving is sometimes as careful as any I have seen 
 
154 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 applied to his work, and some delicacies of tone and 
 drawing have survived. 
 
 Taking these volumes in the order I have named, 
 we shall find in The Seasons three designs worthy of 
 especial attention ; a Tiger stalking some Antelope ; 
 a covey of Partridges ; and a horseman attacked by 
 Wolves in a dreary pass of the Apennines or 
 Pyrenees ; a weird, moonlight tragedy full of imagina- 
 tion. The Wordsworth designs are less satisfactory, 
 and contain two (the Hares and gambolling Lambs), 
 which I can never bring myself even to tolerate. 
 To me it is a relief to turn from these to the Kite's 
 Eyrie in " The Deserted Cottage." Here, again, 
 we get a glimpse of the artist's favourite mountain- 
 ous landscape, with a few old firs clinging in 
 despair to the precipice which gave them a wretched 
 birth. 
 
 In the Montgomery, our friend divides his atten- 
 tion between such subjects as browsing Giraffes, or the 
 slaughter of a Zebu by a Tiger, and simple English 
 themes such as the nesting of our common birds. In 
 the pretty illustration of " The Wild Pink," where, in 
 the poem, the " blythe Swallow" builds on "yonder 
 ledge of quarried stone," Wolf plants the "pert 
 Sparrows" thereupon, but boldly substitutes a House 
 Martin clinging to its nest beneath ; evidently being 
 pretty confident that the general reader of poetry will 
 be none the wiser. His love for butterflies (which 
 sometimes crops up in unexpected places) is shown by 
 
BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 155 
 
 the introduction of a fine Peacock, basking on the wall 
 close to the nest. 1 
 
 Passing over the Sacred Poetry (but commending 
 it to the reader), we find in Eliza Cook's Poems a fine 
 design illustrating the lines on the Ruins of Babylon, 
 where an Eagle Owl screams at a couple of sleeping 
 Jackals and arouses them. In the next we have 
 the artist at his best. This represents a rookery in a 
 fierce March gale. The birds (with which we are on 
 a level), are rudely interrupted in their nesting, and 
 balance themselves, swinging and swaying to and 
 fro, while their plumage is roughened by the wind 
 which drowns their "loud caw caw." 
 
 This is not Wolf's only rookery, for (not to men- 
 tion the little one in Johns' British Birds), he 
 contributed a very pleasing version under the title of 
 " Rebuilding," to The Illustrated London News for 
 April 8, 1 87 1 ; the operations, both in the mansion 
 below and trees above, going on as peacefully as in 
 the other version they are disturbed. 
 
 One other book, Lyrics of Ancient Palestine, must 
 be added to the short list I have given, for the sake 
 
 1 If we wish for a foil to the illustrations I have named we may 
 find a very perfect one in the Montgomery, by W. Harvey ; a good 
 example of a kind of illustration once common enough and probably 
 admired enough, and not extinct even now. It is one of the illustra- 
 tions of " Greenland " and gives the impression of some thirty badly 
 stuffed and very doubtful made-up specimens of birds having been pinned 
 quite indiscriminately to a sheet. The apostle of this school of bird 
 caricaturists (we cannot call them ornithologists, or artists) is perhaps 
 Giacomelli. 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 of a solitary design of singular originality, " Sam- 
 son's Riddle." The Lion's skeleton lies on its side 
 beneath some bushes ; grim, and terrible, and perfect. 
 The swarm of bees boils up through the staring ribs 
 with such truth to nature that we can hear the loud 
 hum with which they laboured the livelong day, till 
 " out of the eater came forth meat." 
 
 While admiring the foliage with which Wolf sur- 
 rounds his animals, as we find it in these and other 
 volumes, and the skill with which it is at once 
 subordinated, and yet made essential to the principal 
 object, we may not notice the occasional occurrence 
 of the flowers or leaves of the large white con- 
 volvulus. They appear like the butterfly, the spray 
 of ivy, the bending reeds, and the acuminate 
 or lanceolate foliage, because they are an especial 
 favourite. Over and over again we meet with the 
 white convolvulus among the studies in Wolf's port- 
 folios ; and wherever he has settled down in London, 
 plants of this or some other variety have been found 
 climbing aloft. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. P. H. Gosse brought out his Romance 
 of Nahiral History, Now Wolf says this : — u People 
 " have a fantastical belief in natural history — in any- 
 " thing that is fantastical and marvellous. If you tell 
 them the real truth they are not interested. If you 
 " explain what appears marvellous to them, they no 
 "longer care for it. Hence the origin of books like 
 " Du Chaillu's. ... I wish I had not given way to 
 
TRUTH AND PHANTASM 
 
 !57 
 
 44 some authors by doing things as they wanted them 
 " — untrue, like the Gorilla throttling a negro with his 
 " hind foot ; dragging him up a tree and strangling 
 "him. Such untruth is awful! ... In the case of 
 " animal life far in the world where I have never been, 
 " to a certain extent I have been obliged to believe 
 " what I have been told. I believed it if what I knew 
 " and what I could see at the different Zoological 
 " Gardens, did not contradict it. But, as I have said 
 " before, there are very few people who can interpret 
 "truly what they see in nature." 
 
 ' The Gorilla subject is an illustration in The Ro- 
 mance, and happens to be one of those in which, 
 perhaps, the prima facie improbability does not offend 
 Wolfs love of truth more than what he considers to be 
 an exaggerated estimate of a wild animal's ferocity. 
 In spite of this, and. in spite of what he says, I think 
 it is in accordance with the fitness of things that he 
 should have been the author of most of the illustra- 
 tions of this work. While despising the chimerical 
 and fantastic side of natural history, and rebelling 
 vigorously against its untruthfulness, he, once again, 
 shows the nice balance of his mind and at the same 
 time reveals his nature by revelling in the romance 
 that is so real, in the poetry and glamour so unspeak- 
 ably beautiful in Nature and her children. We 
 should know little of his best work if we failed to see 
 its poetry ; and when was true poetry far distant from 
 romance ? 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 As has so often been the case with large-hearted 
 and large-minded men, Wolfs mind is swayed not 
 only by his intellect but by his affections. Simply 
 altering the name, I cannot do better than apply to 
 him the words I wrote of another artist. " Unless we 
 " can believe that a man's mind may be divided into 
 " two sharply-defined kingdoms or polities, the one 
 " ruled by his impulses, affections, and imagination, 
 4 ' the other by his intellect and reasoning power ; each 
 " kingdom being distinct, and sometimes able to act 
 " independently of the other, it is impossible to recon- 
 " cile all we meet with" in studying Joseph Wolf and 
 his work. 
 
 For instance. In Win wood Reade's Savage 
 Africa Wolf gives us a design the prima facie im- 
 probability of which is quite as great as that of the 
 Gorilla and Negro. Speaking of " A Flood in Sene- 
 "gambia" (the title of the wood-cut), Reade mentions 
 that he had the story second-hand, and that : — 
 
 " On this island [a few feet square] there were lying, huddled to- 
 gether, two Lions, a Leopard, some Monkeys and Hyaenas, two 
 "Antelopes and a Wild Boar. All of these they killed without difficulty. 
 " None of them took to the water. The Leopard only made an effort 
 " to escape by running up a tree. This is certainly an improbable 
 " story ; but to those who know how danger will stifle ferocity in wild 
 " beasts, it will not appear impossible." 
 
 This is a typical case. The one subject, an 
 improbable and hearsay version of the ferocity and 
 malice of a wild animal, Wolf detests. The other, 
 also hearsay, and also improbable, he loves, because 
 
TRUTH AND PHANTASM 
 
 !59 
 
 the animals are in pitiful straits, and their natural 
 ferocity is extinguished by their peril, so that they 
 appeal to our sympathy. 
 
 While he has never wilfully turned away from 
 what he believes to be true (except when compelled 
 to do so by the exigencies of illustrating), Wolf 
 knows, full well, the rashness of asserting anything to 
 be impossible ; and he is not so little-minded as to 
 allow his innate reverence for truth to hobble him in 
 the narrow paddock of possibility as fenced in by 
 ignorance. 
 
 His reason and his affections have kept one 
 another within bounds ; with the result that his art is 
 neither dull, prosaic, and matter-of-fact ; nor, contrari- 
 wise, fantastical and mendacious. It is true, and yet 
 often, in the highest degree, poetic and romantic. 
 
 Gosse mentioned three ways of studying natural 
 history, " Dr. Dryasdust's," the Field Observer's, 
 and the Poet's, but omits Joseph Wolf's, though more 
 excellent than all. This is possible only in the excep- 
 tional man ; for it unites a poet's imagination, keen 
 susceptibility, and mental culture, with a naturalist's 
 powers of close observation, and his sound inductive 
 knowledge, leading up to the discovery of those 
 immutable laws to which the strange, microscopic 
 antics of a Rotifer anchored to an atom of pond- weed, 
 are no less obedient than the body of the microscopist 
 himself. 
 
 In Sir James Emerson Tennent's Sketches of the 
 
i6o 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Natural History of Ceylon, published in 1861, will be 
 found a good many of Wolf's designs. They can 
 easily be distinguished ; and among the best of them 
 are those representing newly-captured wild Elephants 
 and their behaviour. The original sketches in ink 
 outline are far superior to the wood-cuts, and are 
 good examples of the vigorous artistic shorthand of a 
 
 Mode of Tying an Elephant 
 
 man whose knowledge of his subject is thoroughly 
 sound. This is a work which every lover of natural 
 history should try not only to place upon his shelves 
 but to read carefully. 
 
 In this and the preceding year, Wolf also illus- 
 trated, either wholly or in part, some half-dozen books 
 of sport, adventure and other subjects, none of which 
 call for any particular comment. 
 
JOHNS' "BRITISH BIRDS 
 
 161 
 
 In 1862 another excellent work illustrated by 
 Wolf was published, of quite a different kind. The 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, by keep- 
 ing Johns' British Birds in their Haunts in print for 
 thirty-three years, have done their best to make it 
 known to the public ; and it deserves to be known. 
 The descriptive matter is free from wearisome 
 
 His Struggles for Freedom 
 
 facetiousness such as that of Morris, and is pleasant 
 reading ; while it suffices for purposes of identifi- 
 cation. 
 
 The whole of the 190 illustrations were drawn on 
 the wood by Wolf. He says, " Some of them I took 
 "a liking to, and took pains with; but many were 
 " done merely for the money." More than once I have 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 heard him regret that the meagre price forced him 
 to do the drawings rapidly (even as rapidly as half a 
 dozen in a day), and secondly that many of them 
 were simply " murdered " in the engraving. " In that 
 " way," he complains, "having to do a thing cheaply, 
 " many a work is spoilt. The artist has not got his 
 " heart in it then. If you know that the employer not 
 " only knows nothing, but cares nothing for the kind 
 ''of thing you are doing, it influences you very much." 
 
 It needs but a glance, or, at the most, a com- 
 parison with a few of Wolf s auto-lithographs of birds, 
 to show how these drawings must have suffered ; but 
 we shall find, nevertheless, that, in early copies, 1 the 
 result is often very good. Probably with ample 
 time, ample payment, and the best possible engraving, 
 the wood-cuts would have been little miniatures fully 
 equal in truth and minuteness of finish and more than 
 equal in artistic beauty, to those which were painted 
 many years ago at Moerz. The illustrations of the 
 Birds of Prey and the Wildfowl seem to me par- 
 ticularly happy ; and while the latter have been 
 editorially alluded to in The Field as the best extant, 
 the former speak for themselves as the work of a 
 master of the scientific detail and the characters of the 
 order. 
 
 It has been my good fortune to go carefully 
 through this book with the artist ; and some of his 
 remarks may be of interest to the reader. To begin 
 
 1 The latest editions are worthless. 
 
JOHNS' "BRITISH BIRDS" 163 
 
 with, he himself is satisfied, for various reasons, with 
 the representations of the Birds of Prey, the Crested 
 Tit, Tree Sparrow, Linnet, Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, 
 Magpie, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Wryneck, 
 Wren, Ptarmigan, Bustard, Woodcock, Coot, White- 
 fronted Goose, Mallard, Lesser Tern, and a few 
 others. He says one of his faults then was that he 
 sometimes made the heads too big ; and he points out 
 this defect in the Goldfinch, Yellow Hammer (" eye 
 too far behind "), Woodlark, Spotted Flycatcher and 
 Jay. The Song Thrush, he says, looks as if he were 
 going to break a blood-vessel, and the Starling as if 
 he were going to be sick. Of the Cuckoo he remarks 
 that it never utters its note with an open beak as he, 
 and half a hundred others have represented it, but 
 produces it from the crop, like the Pigeons and 
 Hoopoes. The Blackbird is not good because the 
 beak is too far away from the eye. Of the Pied 
 Wagtail, "The cows are bad. I did not brace myself 
 " up. That might have been the third or fourth I had 
 " done that day." The Long-eared Owl he likes, 
 because it is a portrait of a pet bird he used to keep. 
 Among the actions he explains, is the crouching 
 attitude of the Skylark, which sees the bird of prey 
 behind ; while the Pheasants are disturbed by poachers 
 below. Always a friend to the friendless, he says he 
 likes the Greenfinch because it is generally so de- 
 spised ; but points out that to show its full beauty it 
 ought to be painted in a copper beech. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 On my asking him why the Ducks appeared to be 
 more finished than some of the other species, he 
 replied that it is owing to the smoothness of their 
 feathers. He merely had to put in the markings as 
 he would on a bit of paper. 
 
 If the Kite in Wordsworth's " Deserted Cottage" 
 be compared with the Common Kite in Johns' British 
 Birds, it will be seen that, save for the heads, the 
 attitudes are nearly the same. It is obvious that, as 
 the latter design had to be done hurriedly, there 
 was a considerable temptation to make it more 
 or less a replica of its predecessor. Yet we find 
 that no two feathers are alike. Each bird is 
 full of individuality and character of its own. Any 
 touch of conventionality would have destroyed these 
 qualities, and brought about a suspicious similarity 
 between the two. This is a point which should be 
 borne in mind in the study of this painter's works. 
 "It was far easier," says Wolf, " not to look at any- 
 " thing else, not to think of anything else. That is the 
 " only way in which you can keep that kind of thing 
 "original." Even in those drawings which were done 
 for The Proceedings of the Zoological Society, where 
 similar species recur, there is always sufficient, besides 
 the mere markings, to keep them distinct. There is 
 so strong an individuality as to amount to a portrait 
 of the specimen ; and this in spite of the fact that, 
 in some cases the only available model was a dried 
 skin. 
 
BALDWIN'S "AFRICAN HUNTING" 165 
 
 So completely are Wolfs bird designs creations as 
 opposed to compilations, that in no single instance has 
 he resorted to the expedient of propping up or suspend- 
 ing a specimen in the given attitude, to draw from. 
 
 No epitome of Wolfs work as an illustrator should 
 omit three auto-lithographs out of the six by him 
 in W. C. Baldwin's African Hunting} " An African 
 Serenade " is imaginative to a degree which is diffi- 
 cult to describe, because it deals, like several of the 
 other illustrations, with that romantic side of nature, 
 that thrills the mind, but is quite indescribable. On 
 the far side of a wide pool the fires of a kraal flare 
 and crackle in the midst of the black darkness — dark- 
 ness which seems almost tangible. Round the fires 
 the scared oxen are huddled ; for in the foreground a 
 troop of hungry lions, indistinctly seen, pour out roar 
 after roar which seem to make the air quiver and 
 the water ripple. On the distant margin of the pool, 
 and just discernible in the fire-light, a few curs im- 
 potently defy the awful voices. All else (and herein 
 lies the subtlety) is left to darkness, for the reader 
 to fill up as he will. This design was chosen for one 
 of the most impudent pieces of piracy among the 
 many perpetrated on Wolf s work. It is the frontis- 
 piece of a book published in 1868 under the title 
 of Cats and Dogs, and has been altered so little 
 
 1 Bentley 1863. In the first edition of this book all mention of Wolfs 
 work is omitted from the List of Illustrations ; and, on the title-page both 
 his names are wrongly given. 
 
i66 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 that I have known a child of nine greet it as the 
 original. 
 
 Partaking in some degree of the same qualities as 
 those of" An African Serenade," and thrilling as well 
 as delighting the mind, "Night Shooting" takes its 
 place among the smallest and the best of Wolfs auto- 
 lithographs. A Rhinoceros has already dropped in 
 its tracks to the hunter's rifle on the margin of the 
 pool ; besides one or two other dimly seen animals. 
 A huge Lion comes prowling round them, and, shot 
 through the heart, vaults, with a great roar, high into 
 the air, where he is seen against a faintly luminous 
 sky. I have had this little lithograph hanging up, 
 amongst works of other veteran artists, for several 
 years ; and it seems to me (like all Wolf's works on 
 my walls), to gain in beauty and suggestiveness 
 literally every day. Some people who have seen it 
 have remarked on the improbability of the greatness of 
 the leap (forgetting the very low horizon), and a few 
 have been touched by the singular poetry of the subject. 
 
 In the two designs I have just described (and in 
 many others), the artist proves himself as notable a 
 master of the Indefinite, and the glamour that lurks in 
 the Indefinite, as, in other works, he shows an equal 
 power over the Definite, even to the verge of photo- 
 graphic minuteness. A third design is noteworthy as 
 being the idealization of an African river-scene and as 
 showing how Wolf will sometimes give his imagina- 
 tion plenty of rein. The myriads of Flamingoes which 
 
WOOD'S "NATURAL HISTORY" 167 
 
 rise on the horizon in a dense cloud, and stand in 
 pretty groups under the tangled reeds, emphasize the 
 solid, repulsive hideousness of the Crocodiles and 
 Hippopotami, which are drawn with great realism 
 and care. 
 
 We must pass by Wolfs illustrations in Mr. H. W. 
 Bates' Naturalist on the River Amazons with a mere 
 glance ; but it was one of those works where artist and 
 author were in harmony. Bates, in those wild regions 
 which he described with such manly and self-denying 
 accuracy, was keenly alive to the romantic splendour 
 of nature and to the stupendous interest of nature's 
 laws. Never shedding unnecessary blood, his unpre- 
 tentiousness and humility were just such as would 
 appeal to Wolf. 
 
 The Rev. J. G. Wood's larger Natttral History 
 was in every way so well adapted to appeal to the 
 dabblers in popular science, and the lovers of mar- 
 vellous anecdotes of animals, that it has, I think, 
 remained in print to the present time ; and belongs to 
 that large class of books upon whose title-pages certain 
 publishers prefer not to print the date. In early 
 copies, thanks to the Dalziels' wisdom and liberality, 
 will be found some excellent translations of our friend's 
 designs — happy designs, because (knowing nothing 
 of the anecdotes) he was allowed to unite scientific 
 accuracy with artistic qualities in his own way. 
 
 If a concise piece of evidence were wanted of W olf's 
 all-round ability in zoological art, as a draughtsman of 
 
168 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 mammals, birds, and reptiles ; and as a skilled artist 
 capable of facing great difficulties of composition, it 
 would be found in the frontispieces of the first and 
 second volumes of this book, and in the capital 
 design in the third of " African Crocodiles at home." 
 Although the species which are represented are so 
 widely different, there are no signs of greater facility 
 in drawing one order of animals than another. In 
 the first volume (Mammalia) there are twenty-eight 
 of Wolf's designs, besides the frontispiece, and 
 in the second, twenty. At first sight the frontis- 
 piece of the third suggests his handiwork ; but, 
 like many more illustrations in this book and others 
 in which they worked together, it was done by his 
 friend Mr. J. B. Zwecker. At this time they lived in 
 the same house ; and though ten years Wolf's senior, 
 Zwecker (a native of Frankfort) was glad to avail 
 himself of his countryman's help, and of several intro- 
 ductions to publishers. It is said that his early studies 
 had been devoted chiefly to the Horse, and that a 
 certain " horsiness " may be discovered in his Ante- 
 lopes. Nevertheless, his work appears to me clever, 
 conscientious, and often both spirited and original. 
 
 A friend who knows, perhaps, as much as any man 
 of Wolf's large-heartedness and kindliness of disposi- 
 tion has told me how Zwecker, when he was dying 
 was indebted to his countryman's help and sympathy. 
 He died, and was buried with the money Wolf gave 
 for that purpose. 
 
CAMPBELL' S "LNDLAN JOURNAL" 169 
 
 Some of the Birds of Prey in the Natural History 
 were done in Wolf's studio by Mr. J. Browne, a 
 regular pupil of his. 
 
 Among the books to which he contributed illustra- 
 tions at this period (including Mr. A. R. Wallace's 
 most notable Malay Archipelago), Col. Campbell's 
 Indian Journal must certainly be included, if only 
 for the sake of the frontispiece, which, in my opinion, 
 is Wolfs finest Tiger. The great, supple brute 
 crouches in dense shade beneath a rock, covered with 
 tangled, flaunting creepers. He stares out fixedly into 
 the sunshine with contracted pupils, and save for the 
 tip of the tail which wags gently and so betrays his 
 excitement, he bides his time. I speak of the tail as 
 actually moving, and it does appear to move. The 
 sleekness and beauty of marking are so happily super- 
 imposed upon the tremendous muscular development ; 
 the modelling and perspective are so faultless, that 
 this auto-lithograph must always stand alone among 
 the artist's work. Touching the other subjects, 
 Col. Campbell says : — 
 
 " I think much credit is due to the talented artist Wolf, for 
 " having, with no other materials to work upon than my rough 
 " sketches, aided by my descriptions, managed to produce such ad- 
 " mirable portraits of the Sambur, Bison, and Ibex, three animals 
 "with which he was previously unacquainted, but which any Indian 
 " sportsman will at once recognise. The Tiger, being an old friend, 
 " he has treated as such, and, I think, done him ample justice." 
 
 Of Wolf's connection with the illustrated periodicals 
 I have no inclination to say much. It was a good 
 
iyo 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 sign that his work often appeared in them ; but how 
 his drawings were engraved years ago, long before 
 the days of any "mechanical process" save the most 
 mechanical of any, the process of the cheap engraver, 
 it is well not to enquire. I have seen many wood-cuts 
 from The Illustrated London News, Once a Week, and 
 other papers, that have little besides his initials to 
 associate them with Wolfs work. This is another 
 instance in which he appeared before the public at a 
 great disadvantage. How great, we can see in an 
 instant by comparing with the engravings any black 
 and white drawing of his, or even an auto-lithograph 
 done at that time. 
 
 It can hardly be imagined that the "J. W." which 
 appears in the corner of a glaring chromo-lithograph, 
 or some sickly, vapid piece of colour-printing can be 
 the hall-mark we are accustomed to find on the purest 
 metal. 
 
 There were, of course, some exceptions. For 
 instance, it was in The Illustrated London News that 
 one of the artist's most vigorous African subjects 
 appeared. A magnificent Lion has seized a mon- 
 grel from a caravan which has halted for the 
 night ; and as he is fired at from the waggon over 
 a pool, he launches himself with a few enormous leaps 
 towards the spectator and into the darkness. Some 
 curs, with their tails between their legs, bewail their 
 comrade ; and, by the glare of a flash of lightning 
 added to the glint of fire-light, the whole picture — the 
 
ILL US TRA TED PERIODICALS 
 
 plunging oxen, and the confusion of the camp — is 
 clearly but momentarily seen. 
 
 The sequel to this grim episode of African travel 
 might have been doubtful if the artist had never 
 drawn the companion subject which the reader will 
 see. The hurried snap-shot told ; and in the beautiful 
 morning twilight, far away from the scene of his last 
 foray, the Lion lies, while the Vultures glide up one 
 by one from the horizon, and settle cautiously round 
 him, till they are sure that his sleep has no 
 waking. 
 
 A search among old numbers of The Illustrated 
 London News, Once a Week, The Leisure Hour, The 
 Sunday at Home, and other periodicals will bring to 
 light a good many engravings after Wolf, all more 
 or less wanting in the chief beauties of his workman- 
 ship ; and some of them, such as Pheasant Shooting, 
 in The Illustrated, parodies so egregious that they 
 can hardly have failed to do him actual harm. Under 
 these circumstances, it is not extraordinary that when 
 the victim saw an engraving after his work in a shop- 
 window, he crossed over the road to avoid it. 
 
 In The Sunday at Home there appeared under 
 the title of " A Tropical Bathing Place," the identical 
 engraving, line for line, which afterwards took its 
 place in an important and beautiful work to be 
 presently noticed. Its first appearance was distin- 
 guished by colour-printing of the most alarming kind ; 
 a gratuitous stab at the artist's reputation among 
 
172 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 those who knew not his unspeakable loathing and 
 disgust at such crudities. 
 
 A large proportion of the engravings after Wolf in 
 The Illustrated represented the new or rare animals 
 which were added, from time to time, to the Gardens 
 of The Zoological Society. 
 
 A Wild Cat 
 
HIS CHA RCOAL DRA WINGS 
 
 173 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 IN the two preceding chapters I have briefly re- 
 viewed the scientific and illustrative sides of 
 Joseph Wolfs work ; which was done on wood 
 or stone as the case might be, either by himself or 
 translated by engravers and lithographic draughts- 
 men in a way which he rarely found very satisfactory. 
 Even the scientific work of this kind that he did 
 himself was done, it seems, against the grain. He 
 would not stake his reputation as an artist (a reputa- 
 tion which he cherishes), on this phase of his art ; 
 though, as a conscientious endeavour after truth, he is 
 quite ready to "swear to it." As for his illustrations, 
 though he regards them with more toleration, I think 
 he is rather indifferent. He rarely, if ever, found 
 men like Oswell, with whom he could work in perfect 
 harmony, and he could never brook the insulting 
 manner which a few authors thought fit to assume 
 towards him. 
 
 It is far otherwise with his large drawings in 
 charcoal, charcoal-grey, or chalk (a considerable number 
 of which were produced within the period we shall now 
 
174 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 have to consider), together with his more important 
 achievements in water-colour and oil. It is unfortunate 
 that the finest of these have not been seen and are not 
 likely to be seen by the public, for it is on them that 
 his fame as an artist should indisputably rest. Upon 
 the best of them, any competent critic would doubtless 
 agree that it would rest securely for all time. 
 
 He says of his scientific work for The Proceedings 
 and The Ibis, " I did it as I saw it." — as he saw it, that 
 is, with the bodily eye. He might with equal truth 
 say the same of the designs some of which I shall 
 " describe or allude to ; for before the charcoal touched 
 the paper, they presented themselves clearly to that 
 inner vision which is so distinct and so real in the 
 imaginative man. 
 
 Some of the most striking of his work, because 
 of its complete freedom from restraint, and because of 
 the use of his favourite material, charcoal, was done 
 in connection with The German Athenaeum. This 
 Society was founded about 1869, and had a very 
 unambitious origin. The members, numbering perhaps 
 a dozen or a dozen and a half, included Wolf and 
 others, who used to meet together in a quiet way in 
 Hanway Street. There was a Scientific evening, a 
 Lecture evening, a "Composition" evening, and a 
 Musical evening ; the science and music and art being 
 washed down with wine and beer in moderation, 
 amidst clouds of tobacco-smoke. Owing to the advent 
 of several good musicians, their special evening soon 
 
THE GERMAN A THENCE UM 
 
 175 
 
 assumed grand proportions, and the others were not 
 far behind. At last the subject given out for the next 
 ''composition" was "Farewell to Hanway Street," 
 and Wolfs version represented one of the members, 
 Dr. Striibing, grave and spectacled, with a fine large 
 umbrella under his arm, turning out the gas for the 
 last time. 
 
 Having thus outgrown the old room, the Society 
 migrated to permanent quarters in Mortimer Street, 
 where the monthly " Composition " evenings soon 
 rivalled those devoted to music. The subjects were 
 often suggested by a lover of antithesis, which in 
 some cases appears to have presented no difficulties to 
 Wolf, though in others it forced him to design two 
 separate subjects, as in the case of " Prosperity and 
 Adversity." To bring these into contrast, he painted 
 companion water-colours. In the first, two Goldfinches 
 are shown in the midst of an abundance of hemp-seed, 
 vigorously quarrelling. In the second, hunger and 
 cold have settled their grievances, and they sit close to- 
 gether on a dead thistle, while the snow falls around 
 them. Sometimes, says Wolf, the subjects were so 
 foggy that the artists could make nothing of them. 
 It was otherwise with " Strength and Weakness," 
 which he brings into striking contrast by a playful fight 
 between two huge Rhinoceroses in the jungle, close 
 to an Indian Axis Deer, and two tiny fawns in the 
 foreground. "Tame and Wild" shows a fight in 
 earnest. A bull Buffalo, roaming across the prairie 
 
T 76 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 with the herd, meets near a farmstead an unexpected 
 adversary in a powerful domestic bull, who leaves his 
 harem and dashes into a shallow pool to drive off the 
 stranger. Touching this subject the artist says, " To 
 " please the public it is necessary to show sympathy 
 "with domestic animals, but I would rather show it 
 " the other way — with wild animals, and I prefer to 
 44 represent them unpersecuted by man. . . . Man 
 " has no business to be near wild animals." 
 
 In " Repose and Restlessness," a few fat, lazy Sheep 
 are dozing in the sun, while, in a thicket of tall thistles, 
 a large flock of Goldfinches flutter, and hop, and spar, 
 with restless small-bird energy, to the evident astonish- 
 ment of an inquisitive lamb. The criticism has been 
 made in my hearing by one of those artists who cannot 
 look at a work of art without throwing back their 
 locks and gesticulating with their right thumb, that 
 there are too many Goldfinches ; that the subject would 
 be improved by cutting down, and so on. To this it may 
 be answered that Wolf's object has been exactly ful- 
 filled through enhancing the feeling of repose, and 
 conveying the idea of extreme restlessness to the eye, 
 by the flutter of a large flock of little birds, although a 
 flock of Goldfinches of such numbers may, in certain 
 districts, be rare. 
 
 One of the best of this series is " Surprise," where 
 two Hares, foraging over the snow, encounter a wild- 
 looking scare-crow, which seems to be solemnly warn- 
 ing them with uplifted arms. It is a still, frosty night, 
 
Surprise. 
 
THE FIDDLER AND THE WOLVES" 177 
 
 yet some snow is dropping from these arms ; for 
 crouched against the stake that supports the figure is 
 a Fox, quivering with hungry excitement. 
 
 " Joy and Sorrow" is another of the Athenaeum 
 sketches. A group of Cranes are disporting themselves 
 after their manner beneath the cloudy skies of Lap- 
 land. Some of them caper in an ungainly dance 
 among the cotton-grass, while others hail, noisily, an 
 approaching detachment of their friends. One solitary 
 bird, plunged into sorrow, mourns over his dead mate 
 lying on her nest. 
 
 "Youth and Age" shows us an old Red Deer 
 stag teased with impunity by some calves, and butted 
 at because his horns are in velvet. " Old Age," said 
 the artist as I turned over the drawing, " didn't want 
 to be worried ; and quite right too." 
 
 " The Fiddler and the Wolves" is a striking 
 moonlight subject, though a grim one. A poor 
 musician, trudging through the forest from town to 
 town, finds himself belated and surrounded. Despair 
 suggests the old experiment of the effect of music on 
 wild beasts. Never was such music ! The wails of 
 the tortured fiddle are answered by a dreary, dreadful, 
 long-drawn howl. One of the brutes puts up his 
 hackles viciously, and another sits down fairly puzzled 
 by the strange sounds. The fiddler's hat blows off, 
 and then, suddenly, a string cracks. Still the wretched 
 man plays on, till but one string is left. This is the 
 time chosen by the artist. Another moment and the 
 
 N 
 
178 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 last string may break ; the Wolves be choking over 
 the clothes and licking the blood from the snow. 
 The realism of the draughtsmanship of the animals' 
 expressions and actions gives a painful excitement ; and 
 our attention rapidly changes to and fro between the 
 disabled fiddle and the menacing eyes upon which it 
 is ill to look. 
 
 A contrast to this episode is "Grave and Gay," 
 in which a Long-eared Owl dozes in shadow, while 
 some butterflies frisk about near him in the sunshine. 
 That he might study the living insects, Wolf got some 
 Swallow-tail chrysalids ; and he found the transforma- 
 tion so interesting that his old enthusiasm revived 
 after a forty years' interval, and set him to work in 
 earnest. He has now a considerable collection of 
 European butterflies, many of which he has bred ; and 
 he has taken great delight in studying their combina- 
 tions of colours. Like all he has done, this collecting 
 has been done as well as possible. The insects are 
 pinned and set quite up to an entomologist's standard. 
 Mr. Charles Whymper tells me that not content with 
 taking his net with him on his annual visit to the Con- 
 tinent, and " like a boy chasing with ardour the Swal- 
 " low-tail and Camberwell beauty, Wolf made his 
 " own rearing-boxes with carefully arranged lamp and 
 " thermometer, to keep all at the right temperature, 
 " and was most successful in getting perfect specimens 
 " from Indian and American chrysalids." 
 
 The war of 1870 brought anxiety and sorrow, as 
 
Peace and War. 
 
"PEACE AND WAR" 
 
 179 
 
 well as exultation, to the members of The German 
 Athenaeum. Wolf became the treasurer of a fund in 
 aid of the German widows and orphans, and was 
 rewarded for his hearty labours in the cause by being 
 able to send out about 2,000/. 
 
 Soon after the war was over he spent a fortnight 
 in Paris with his friend Mr. D. G. Elliott, and they 
 paid a visit to one of the battle-fields. As a result, he 
 added to the series of antithetical designs, on his 
 return, " Peace and War," an upright subject shaped 
 like a grave-stone. A Turtle Dove mopes on a branch, 
 mourning sore over her shattered nest. Just below 
 her, and embedded in a clump of forget-me-nots and 
 bluebells, lies a soldier's helmet illuminated by a ray 
 of sunlight in which some butterflies take their plea- 
 sure. The mourning of some bird over a destroyed 
 nest is a favourite subject, and there are other versions. 
 
 The butterflies are intended to typify a bright 
 future beyond the grave, and were suggested by a cir- 
 cumstance which happened some years before. I am 
 indebted to Mr. A. Thorburn for the anecdote. Wolf 
 had not been able to attend his father's funeral, but 
 when he next went to Moerz he, of course, visited 
 the grave. While he was there, a Red Admiral 
 butterfly suddenly settled on the grave-stone and 
 sunned itself. The incident struck him much ; for the 
 butterfly seemed, he said, like an emblem of the resur- 
 rection. 
 
 The only other design of Wolf s connected with the 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 war of which I am aware was commissioned by The 
 Graphic, and shows a trained Peregrine Falcon 
 striking a Homer Pigeon which is carrying messages 
 from Paris. It is one of those incidents touching which 
 the artist is entirely sceptical. 
 
 A good many examples of the humorous side of 
 Wolfs art were from time to time exhibited at The 
 German Athenaeum. Apart from their quiet fun, there 
 is sometimes a touch of well-directed satire to be found 
 here and there. These subjects of his are never silly 
 and never broad or vulgar ; for of vulgarity in any 
 form Wolf and his art are the antipodes — antipodes 
 so absolute that if I were to try my hardest to recall a 
 single instance of vulgarity I should try utterly in 
 vain. 
 
 Among many such subjects, I have chosen for repro- 
 duction tl A Lecture on Embryology," which bears for 
 its inscription an old saying, li Highly learned makes a 
 fool." In this design W r olf girds gently at certain 
 men of science he has met ; " Dry sticks," as a great 
 ornithologist calls them, 41 who work with their noses 
 a few inches from their desk." The Owl is supposed 
 to be propounding to his audience the vital question 
 " Came the first Egg from an Owl, or came the first 
 Owl from an Egg ? " — a question Wolf himself is 
 perhaps not prepared to answer offhand. Innumerable 
 little embryos dangle in spirits behind the lecturer. 
 
 Other instances of Wolfs humorous designs 
 include a version of the Eagle and Tortoise fable 
 
"REYNARD THE FOX" 
 
 181 
 
 (where the reptile is not beyond the suspicion of 
 taking the visage and the form of a corpulent fellow- 
 member of The Athenaeum), and various versions of 
 i4 Using a Donkey to catch a Goose." Here, the Fox, 
 
 First Sketch for "A Lecture on Embryology" 
 
 whose vast cunning Wolf never tires in illustrating, 
 stalks a flock of Geese on a common behind a phleg- 
 matic Ass, wrapped up in his own reflections. 
 
 In this phase of Wolf's art should be included his 
 designs to Reynard the Fox, which were etched by 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 other hands. It may not strike us at first, in looking 
 at the original sketches, that they are a most notable 
 example of the artist's power of making animals "do 
 what he likes," as he expresses it. Regarded in this 
 light they become a most interesting study ; and even 
 if we prefer to see wild animals in a state of nature, 
 and unhumanized, we shall have our admiration filched 
 from us by some of the attitudes and expressions. 
 
 There is even another point. The essential 
 essence of Wolfs representations of wild animals, 
 that which distinguishes them pre-eminently, is the 
 total absence of the human element — the human ex- 
 pression. " Men," he says, " have no business to be 
 near wild animals " ; a simple observation on the face 
 of it, but weighty if applied to his art. Here, in these 
 sketches (to say nothing of certain other works of his), 
 is a positive, unanswerable piece of evidence that, 
 when he chooses, he can humanize his animals in 
 expression, in action, in feeling, and every other way, 
 to the greatest degree ; his skill enabling him to pre- 
 serve, at the same time, the animal characteristics so 
 perfectly, that the Hare, the Fox, Wolf, Lion, or 
 Badger (as the case may be), are full of individuality. 
 The question naturally arises, has any other animal 
 painter ever existed who could simultaneously touch 
 these points ? 
 
 It is obvious that in a great deal of his scientific 
 work, such as his drawings for The Proceedings of The 
 Zoological Society, The Ibis, and Elliott's Monographs, 
 
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 
 
 besides certain of his book illustrations, Wolf had 
 found the Society's Menagerie indispensable. "When 
 " I first began," he says, " I had no ideas except 
 " of European animals, but when I came to see the 
 " splendid species in the different Zoological Gardens, 
 " I changed my opinion." 1 The Gardens in Regent's 
 Park soon became his studio and recreation-ground. 
 But there were many dangers lurking in the study 
 of animals kept in confinement, to say nothing of 
 the constant distractions. It takes a man some 
 practice to be able to concentrate his attention on 
 such difficult points as the anatomy and actions of half 
 a dozen active Ratels, trotting round and round and 
 round again, or climbing up the wire ; and to catch 
 the unamiable expression of a misanthropic cat, when 
 he is jostled by a crowd to whom an " artist chap " is 
 a perennial wonder, always worth an extra shove or 
 two. 
 
 As a delicate hint to these people he tried the 
 simple plan of stopping short, and drawing a Donkey's 
 head or a Goose on the margin of his paper. He had 
 found that a Monkey's head was too amusing, and 
 defeated his object ; but a Donkey never failed to make 
 the people retire " after they had digested the meaning 
 of it " ; not all at once, he says, but gradually. 
 
 As to the dangers which threatened him, his chief 
 
 1 " When I came over," he says, " there were perhaps only one or two 
 " artists studying the animals at The Zoological Gardens. Now the whole 
 " place is crammed with them." 
 
r8 4 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 protection lay in the following maxims, various versions 
 of which he reiterates to this day : — 
 
 " We only see distinctly what we know thor- 
 oughly." 
 
 " You must be able to interpret truly what you 
 see, and that only comes of intimate knowledge." 
 
 " Not everything in nature is fit to be done. Only 
 " a very small percentage. People make a mistake in 
 "supposing that what is done from nature must be 
 " right. A figure-painter would not take the first man 
 " or woman he met in the street as a model. Only 
 u very few are suitable." 
 
 " All nature consists of individualities, and only the 
 most perfect are fit to use." 
 
 These opinions have no less an authority than 
 Lord Byron to back them, who wrote : — 
 
 "The poetry of nature alone, exactly as she appears, is not 
 " sufficient to bear him [the great artist] out. The very sky of his 
 "painting is not the portrait of the sky of nature ; it is a composition 
 " of different skies, observed at different times, and not the whole 
 " copied from any particular day. And why ? Because nature is 
 " not lavish of her beauties ; they are widely scattered, and occa- 
 sionally displayed, to be selected with care, and gathered with 
 "difficulty." 1 
 
 In addition to those useful convictions of his I have 
 quoted, Wolf was aware that even the finest menagerie 
 animals are not always to be depended on as correctly 
 representing the same species in a wild state. In 
 close confinement the muscles are comparatively 
 undeveloped ; while, sometimes, parts of the coat, 
 
 1 Pamphlet on Pope. 
 
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 
 
 185 
 
 such as the Lion's mane, grow to an unnatural 
 length. 1 
 
 " First of all you have to study when a bird is in a 
 " fit and perfect condition to be drawn from properly. 
 " That you must learn first, or else you will get into all 
 " sorts of messes, and you will get Zoological-Gardens 
 "birds. . . . To find all the real arrangement of the 
 " feathers (which you very rarely see at The Zoological 
 " Gardens), you must see a wild bird. When you once 
 "learn it you can do it rapidly." A good deal, of 
 course, is involved in what Wolf means by " seeing " 
 a wild bird and "learning" the " real arrangement." 
 What he actually did, long before he ever heard of the 
 labours of Nitzsch 2 or Sundevall, was to spend years 
 in the closest study of the external characters of birds, 
 besides mastering their habits. Consequently, he says, 
 when at last he read Sundevall's writings, he found in 
 them nothing that was new to him. 
 
 His labours in The Gardens were carried on at all 
 times and seasons, and were not confined to summer, 
 or even to daylight. At one time he was to be seen 
 standing in the snow, elaborating with frozen fingers 
 and his favourite split brush a Vulture's head. At 
 another, he was patiently watching, by candle-light, the 
 movements of strictly nocturnal animals, such as the 
 Galagos, and Lemurs, and the Aye Aye. Then you 
 
 1 See Sir Samuel Baker's Wild Beasts and their Ways. 
 
 2 I am indebted to Professor Newton's kindness for an explanation of 
 the meaning and great import of " Pterylosis." Of Nitzsch we may read 
 in the article on Ornithology in The Encyclopedia Britafinica. 
 
1 86 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 found him vis-a-vis with a small South American 
 monkey whose intensely human face is troubled, and 
 hastily averted when the artist glances at it. Much 
 finesse is required to secure that monkey's expression 
 (the expression of a man of business whose affairs are 
 not prospering) ; and finally, in deep disgust and dis- 
 pleasure it creeps into a corner, and hides its head, fur- 
 tively peeping when its persecutor's eyes are turned 
 down upon his paper. 
 
 For the most part Wolf has rarely troubled himself 
 to sketch animals in motion ; and in looking over his 
 innumerable studies from life, even the most rapid, it 
 will at once strike us that the greater part of the animals 
 are either in quiet action or in repose. If we call to 
 mind Mr. Dresser's most interesting anecdote of the 
 first interview with Professor Schlegel, we shall see 
 the reason for this. 
 
 With a phenomenal power of observation and 
 memory for detail, it has sufficed for Wolf to watch 
 moving animals closely without distracting his atten- 
 tion by pencil and paper. Speaking of the Lemurs he 
 said to me recently, " Those things are in action only 
 " at night, and you can't draw them while they are 
 " moving about. The fact is, you must know the struc- 
 " hire of the animal, and then you must learn to make 
 "it do what you like. That is hard work. You 
 " must not see the animal when you want to do him 
 "in action. You must become an ' Impressionist' 
 " then, and do your work from the impression you 
 
The Bashful Monkey. 
 
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 
 
 187 
 
 " formed when you saw the animal in motion, and 
 " from knowledge, for you can't have a right im- 
 " pression unless you know. Then, by your knowledge 
 " of its structure, you ought to be able to do rapidly 
 " what you saw. Then you come again to what I 
 "want you to put on our title-page. 'You only see 
 " what you know.' I recollect I told another zoological 
 " artist that, and he kept repeating it. ' Very true ! ' 
 " he said. You look at things with the intention of 
 " remembering. When the things are flying about 
 " your ears, how can you sketch ? You look at them. 
 " The artists who only study in academies (first from 
 " the Antique, and then from the Life), have not the 
 " slightest idea how / had to study. They have always 
 " said to me, ' How did you manage to do that ? ' " 
 
 Again, il When I go to The Zoological Gardens, I 
 " can look at the animals like other people ; but if it 
 " occurs to me that I should like to draw them, they 
 " appear to me entirely different. The artist does not 
 " see the animals as other people see them. The more 
 " you know the things the better you see them." 
 
 Wolf paid frequent visits (not altogether of a dis- 
 interested nature), to certain fine animals with whom 
 he was accustomed to have a chat, and who knew him 
 well ; and he did not forget a friendly shake of the paw 
 with a young Lion whose portrait is one of the most 
 successful water-colour studies he has done. But, 
 usually, he has found the little Monkey no exception to 
 the rule that animals dislike being continuously looked 
 
1 88 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 at. Once, for example, forgetful of all else, he was 
 studying a Tiger's stripes, when the owner, equally for- 
 getful of the bars, charged at him with an indignant 
 roar. " He let the other people pass," says Wolf, " but 
 " my constantly looking at him he didn't like. It must 
 " be a kind of mesmeric power which irritates the 
 44 animal." 
 
 Wolf's labours were not confined to living or healthy 
 specimens ; and many a dying or dead rarity has been 
 restored to vigorous life by his pencil, before it was 
 further immortalized by the Prosector. 
 
 He possesses among his relics a copy of Professor 
 Owen's monograph of the Gorilla (for The Transac- 
 tions), thus inscribed, "To the 'Artist' from the 
 " 'Author.'" " I was glad," says the latter, " to receive 
 41 the aid of the graphic skill of Mr. Joseph Wolf in 
 44 securing the characteristic outline views given in 
 "Plate xlvi." The "outline views," unlike the two 
 fine drawings of the adults, are rather ghastly ; being 
 made from a hideous baby Gorilla exhumed from a 
 cask of spirits with his " external characters " in a 
 somewhat dilapidated condition. 
 
 These drawings were made in 1864, at a time when 
 everything connected with the great ape was still 
 shrouded in mystery and romance. " The first 
 44 authentic information which I received of its exist- 
 ence," writes the Professor, 44 was by a letter from 
 44 Dr. Sharpe, dated Gaboon River, West Africa, 
 " April 24, 1847, enclosing a sketch of the cranium. 
 
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 
 
 " . . . In December 1847 I received from Bristol 
 " two skulls of the full-grown male. . . ." 
 
 In The Proceedings, thirteen years later (1877), 
 we read that " Mr. Sclater " exhibited " the very beau- 
 tiful chalk drawing by Mr. Wolf" from a photograph 
 of another baby Gorilla. The drawing is a large one 
 in charcoal, and hangs at Hanover Square. 
 
 Wolf has not much faith in travellers' adventures 
 unless they are men of the stamp of Andersson and 
 Oswell, who were not ashamed to confess to a clean 
 miss ; and he laughs quietly to himself over the marvel- 
 lous shooting, and the marvellous ferocity of the beasts 
 which are always killed by 41 a well-planted shot." Few 
 things please him better than to read such remarks as 
 those of Winwood Reade in Savage Africa, on Du 
 Chaillu's stories ; or to tell you of the singular circum- 
 stance that most of the skins of the Gorilla killed in 
 the fearful breast-beating charge, have the wounds in 
 the back. 1 
 
 His long-standing friendship with the Staff, and with 
 Mr. Bartlett (besides the fact that he is a Fellow of 
 the Society), gave him advantages in his work at the 
 Gardens. He witnessed or heard all about many excit- 
 ing incidents of which the public knew nothing. Now 
 and then, too, an .experiment could be tried to prove 
 or disprove some doubtful habit. Fpr example, Wolf 
 
 1 In The Royal Natural History we read that these wounds were 
 caused not by Du Chaillu, but by the weighted spears which the natives 
 set for the animal. 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 was once of opinion that all animals laid back their ears 
 before biting. To test this, he and a friend, hardening 
 their hearts, took a live Rabbit in a bag, and paid a visit 
 to the Common Fox. On the release of the prey, the 
 Fox made a quick snap at the hind quarters as it 
 rushed by. 44 Then he worked forwards towards the 
 " neck by a series of bites, but the whole time kept his 
 "ears well forward. He looked Satanic — beastly, you 
 14 know ! " 
 
 Possibly the difference in the position of the ears 
 depends on the dangerous or harmless character of the 
 prey or enemy. In biting the Rabbit, the Fox knew 
 that there was no danger of any kind, and further- 
 more, his attention was no doubt distracted a little by 
 the spectators in front of him. In biting a Dog, on 
 the other hand, the ears might be laid back out of 
 harm's way, as Darwin says is the case with all ani- 
 mals which fight with their teeth. 1 
 
 4< A Deer," says Wolf, " in defending itself will lay 
 41 back its ears. Even Roe Deer, the most harmless 
 " and soft-looking creatures, look furious when they 
 " do this — a caricature of themselves. When you put 
 44 it on canvas, where it perpetually stares at you, it 
 44 gets unbearable. Altogether, you have to take care 
 44 not to introduce extreme expressions, which in 
 44 reality only last a moment." 
 
 While the incident of the Fox and Rabbit was still 
 fresh in his memory, Wolf made a large charcoal 
 
 1 Expression of the E 'motions ; chap, iv., p. Hi. 
 
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 
 
 191 
 
 sketch, exactly embodying what he had seen ; but 
 with a different background. It is characteristic that, 
 on my finding this sketch one day, and asking his 
 leave to reproduce it, he should have demurred. All 
 animal suffering is so repugnant to him, and he so 
 keenly sympathizes with the sufferer, that the incident 
 has haunted him. He has drawn the animals of prey 
 at their work times out of number, though always with 
 the keenest sympathy for the victim ; but this particu- 
 larly realistic and careful sketch was rolled up and 
 hidden away, till, years afterwards, I accidentally dis- 
 covered it. 
 
 For the melancholy effects of the London atmo- 
 sphere on the plumage and coats of the outdoor 
 captives in the Gardens, it needed not Wolf's know- 
 ledge to allow. He said to me once, " There is a 
 i4 White-headed Eagle at the Gardens now ; but, 
 kl would you believe it ! there is no real white about 
 " him. All London soot, and quite dark." 
 
 It was not only for the sake of the animals that 
 he loved to haunt The Zoological Gardens, but largely 
 for the sake of the flowers. Of late years, when the 
 gardening became more elaborate, he might often be 
 seen, placidly smoking, while he chatted with the men 
 at their work, or dwelt with loving eyes on some 
 clump of convolvulus or evening primrose, or mag- 
 nificent gigantic hemlock. The Lions might roar 
 their loudest without diverting his attention from a 
 study of a fine piece of foliage. Indeed his sketch- 
 
192 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 books contain occasional gleanings from trees in the 
 Park outside. 
 
 Another never-failing attraction was that fascinat- 
 ing Insect House, where the life-history of so many 
 splendid species may be studied. Of this place he 
 has, to this day, never tired ; and of its surplus riches 
 in the shape of pupae he has sometimes availed him- 
 self, breeding the huge tropical moths as enthusi- 
 astically as a schoolboy. 
 
 Another favourite and very profitable place of 
 resort for our friend was Kew Gardens ; and there, as 
 is proved by his sketches, he accumulated much of the 
 material which he used in the foliage of his foreign 
 compositions. 
 
 To what extent his imagination came into play in 
 the use he made of this material it is scarcely neces- 
 sary to refer. He quaintly observes, "If you have' 
 li two twigs, you know, you have enough for the rest 
 "of your life." An observation of great significance, 
 if rightly understood. 
 
 To have been in any way associated with Charles 
 Darwin is an event in a man's life. Early in 187 1 
 Darwin was preparing the materials for his Expres- 
 sions of the Emotions in Man and Animals (published 
 in the following year), and mentioned to Mr. Bartlett 
 his wish to have some work done at The Gardens 
 w T hich required unusual care. The Superintendent 
 spoke of Wolf's accuracy and closeness of observation 
 in high terms, and in due course introduced the two 
 
MONTEIROS GALAGO. 
 
THE LA UGHING MONKE Y 
 
 T93 
 
 men to each other. Darwin, with a view to that 
 section of his fifth chapter dealing with " Astonish- 
 ment " and ''Terror" in Monkeys, caused a living 
 fresh-water Turtle to be placed in one of the cages. 
 Wolf's account of the incident is this : — li One of the 
 " Turtles was put into a covered basket, and the 
 " keeper was asked to place it carefully under a heap 
 " of straw which was in the cage. Whilst that was 
 " being done, the Monkeys suspected something and 
 " kept looking down from on high. Clever fellows ! I 
 "shall never forget that. The keeper then retired, 
 " and presently the heap of straw began to move. 
 " The Turtle came out, and instead of showing fear, 
 " the Monkeys crept nearer. Then the Black Crested 
 " Ape \Cynopitheciis niger\ came and looked at it, 
 "and walked in front of the Turtle as it crept after 
 " him. Finally he went and sat on the Turtle." 
 Darwin was much amused, and asked for a drawing 
 of the incident. 
 
 At this time, Wolf began to suffer from the chronic 
 rheumatism which has troubled his later years ; and 
 therefore he was delayed in completing Darwin's 
 commissions. After a while he received the following 
 letter : — 
 
 Down, Beckenham, Kent: March 3, 187 1 . 
 Dear Sir, — You said that you would be so kind as to en- 
 deavour to make a sketch for a wood-cut of a monkey's face when 
 laughing, as the keepers express it. The Barbary ape would have 
 been incomparably the best, but is dead. I found, however, in the 
 Zoological Gardens a species that does fairly well, viz. the Cyno- 
 
194 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 pithecus nigeroi Celebes, though it unfortunately has permanent trans- 
 verse wrinkles on the face. It can be easily caught, and Mr. Bartlett 
 said could be put in a separate cage to be drawn. There ought to 
 be a drawing of the face when tranquil and the mouth closed ; and 
 another of the same size and in the same position, whilst laughing. 
 When Sutton the keeper allows this monkey to play with his hair, it 
 chuckles or laughs, and keeps moderately still. The face then 
 becomes a good deal wrinkled, and as far as I could see under dis- 
 advantageous circumstances, the skin is especially raised and wrinkled 
 under the lower eyelids. When I asked Mr. Bartlett whether he 
 thought you could possibly draw the laughter of so restless an 
 animal, he answered that " Mr. Wolf has got an eye like photo- 
 graphic paper, it will seize on anything ! " 
 
 I enclose the size of my page for any figures. 
 
 Also a drawing of a leopard which (excepting that the mouth is 
 here more widely opened) shows fairly well the appearance of a cat 
 when savage, and not at all frightened, as I have occasionally though 
 rarely seen. 
 
 I hope to get a photograph of Herring's picture of a savage 
 horse and another of a pleased one. Your willingness to assist me 
 as far as lies in your power has relieved me from much difficulty. 
 — Dear Sir, Yours very faithfully, Ch. Darwin. 
 
 Wolf afterwards received other letters referring, in 
 Darwin's habitually courteous terms, to eleven sketches 
 of Dogs, Cats, and Monkeys he had sent him. Two of 
 the latter were rather badly engraved in The Expres- 
 sions ; both being heads of Cynopithecus niger. I have 
 reproduced one of the series of sketches (made from the 
 living animal) which was retained by the artist, repre- 
 senting the " Laughing Monkey." 
 
 " I have already had occasion to remark, 5 ' says Darwin, " on the 
 " curious manner in which two or three species of Macacus and the 
 " Cynopithecus niger draw back their ears and utter a slight jabbering 
 " noise, when they are pleased by being caressed. With the Cyno- 
 " pithecus (fig. 17), the corners of the mouth are at the same time 
 
THE LAUGHING MONKEY 
 
 !95 
 
 "drawn backwards and upwards, so that the teeth are exposed. 
 " Hence this expression would never be recognised by a stranger 
 "as one of pleasure. The crest of long hairs on the forehead is 
 " depressed, and apparently the whole skin of the head drawn back- 
 " wards. The eyebrows are then raised a little, and the eyes assume 
 
 The Laughing Monkey 
 
 " a staring appearance. The lower eyelids also become slightly 
 " wrinkled ; but this wrinkling is not conspicuous, owing to the 
 " permanent transverse furrows on the face." 
 
 On showing the reproduction of his sketch of this 
 Monkey to Wolf, he said, " I never believed that that 
 " fellow was laughing, although Darwin said he was. I 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 "am not one of those who place absolute belief in all 
 " authority." This I have no doubt the reader will 
 have discovered for himself. Wolfs mind, so to speak, 
 is to some extent rationalistic ; and, as I have pointed 
 out, not only are there many incidents in natural history 
 he has had to depict which he scouts as unreliable (such 
 as a cat suckling a mouse), 1 but he would not allow the 
 opinion even of a great naturalist to convince him, 
 simply because it was so. It might be said of him 
 what has been said of Freeman the historian, "... 
 "he is sometimes surprised to find how entirely he had 
 "thought things out for himself, and that he could not 
 " attribute his opinions to the direct influence of any 
 "one man, however eminent." It is the old story of 
 the self-made man who has spent a laborious life in the 
 making ; whose slowly-acquired knowledge may be 
 compared with the pure metal produced first of all 
 by the miner's patient toil, and then by careful refining, 
 rather than with the current coin smoothed by a 
 thousand hands and still handed on. This strong inde- 
 pendence of thought and belief is a great characteristic 
 of Wolf. In times of old it might have made him 
 a leader of men, as, in his own day, it enabled 
 him to fight his way upwards from the farm-yard, to 
 inaugurate with his own hands and mind the greatest 
 renaissance in zoological art that has ever been known. 
 
 He says, " I haven't got that sense of excessive 
 " veneration for great men. I don't believe in it. 
 
 1 Once a Week. 
 
ON HERO-WORSHIP 
 
 197 
 
 " When you get to know them you find that they are 
 " fallible. Some of the great scientific men have been 
 " very unhappy creatures ; soured, if they were ever so 
 " successful. Some are haughty and unapproachable, 
 " and those I never went near." 
 
 He is fond of a certain story bearing on hero- 
 worship, which I will repeat in his own words. "A 
 " young student walked from a distant university to 
 "Weimar to see Goethe ; who, thinking it a nuisance 
 " to be interviewed, stood upright for the front view, 
 "and when he had taken in that, for the side and the 
 "back. 'Well done, Herr Geheimerrath ! How 
 "much will that be?' said the student, putting his 
 " fingers into his waistcoat pocket. Goethe saw that 
 " he had made a mistake." 
 
 Darwin occasionally called upon Wolf in Berners 
 Street, who says that his visitor " was not like many 
 "great men who would put you down with a look or a 
 "sentence. A child might have talked to that man. 
 " He was wonderful in that respect." 
 
 Now among the artist's birds at that time was a 
 particularly tame piping Bullfinch, which had learned, 
 among many accomplishments, to distinguish the note 
 of his master's bell from the others. At the first tinkle, 
 he would fly to a chair-back near the door of the studio, 
 where he would sit and bow and pipe to a favourite 
 visitor, but would attack any person he mistrusted. 
 One day Darwin called ; and the Bullfinch, not liking 
 the look of his long white beard, flew straight at it, 
 
198 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " pulling with all his little might, while the old man 
 laughed and chuckled." 
 
 We have now reached a time when, by means of 
 the reviews of what is called a " gift-book," Joseph 
 Wolf was brought suddenly and prominently before 
 the public ; but in some of these reviews, just as if 
 he were making his ddbut as an artist ! 
 
 Mr. Edward Whymper says that, years before, 
 when he first turned over his friend's portfolios, he had 
 been as much "astonished and delighted by the origi- 
 " nality of his conceptions, as by the profound know- 
 " ledge which was displayed in his studies of almost 
 " every branch of animal life ; and but a short time 
 " elapsed before I endeavoured to induce him to execute 
 " a series of designs which should give some idea of 
 " the wealth of his stores and the range of his pencil." 
 
 Mr. D. G. Elliott, cordially admiring Wolf's work 
 not merely from a scientific point of view, but on ac- 
 count of its artistic beauty, was delighted to undertake 
 the descriptive letter-press. The descriptions were 
 written after the designs were made, and the artist 
 had nothing whatever to do with them, but took his 
 own time and followed his own bent ; retaining the 
 originals. 
 
 At the end of 1873 the book was published by 
 Macmillan, under the title of The Life and Habits of 
 Wild Animals, and it met with a perfect ovation from 
 the press. Indeed, there cannot have been far short 
 of fifty highly eulogistic notices. A score or so that I 
 
The Variegated Spider Monkey. 
 
" WILD ANIMALS 
 
 199 
 
 have read are unanimously enthusiastic ; a few are 
 exceptionally discriminating and appreciative, and 
 several are somewhat ludicrous. The authorship of 
 The Genera of Birds, for instance, is attributed to Asa 
 Gray by one reviewer ; who, since he rejoiced exceed- 
 ingly over Giocomelli's illustrations to Michelet's Bird, 
 has seen nothing else to compare with Wolf's designs ! 
 Another alludes to a wounded Hare and Hooded 
 Crows as a subject where 11 a Rabbit becomes the prey 
 of half-a-dozen Hawks " ; an Eagle Owl and Rabbit 
 are described as "a Hare bolting into its hole under- 
 " neath a tree-root to escape from the impending talons 
 44 of an Eagle" ; and a Lynx in ambush above some 
 Goats is " ready to drop down from a tree on to the 
 Deer below " ! 
 
 One of the best of the other class of critiques is 
 that in The Field, which runs as follows : — 
 
 " On perusing some of the notices which have already appeared 
 " of this work, we have been struck with nothing so much as the way 
 "in which the respective reviewers have introduced Mr. Wolf to the 
 " public, as if he were a new aspirant for academic honours, 
 " apparently overlooking the fact that he has been working in our 
 " midst for the last thirty years, during which time, in depicting 
 "animal life, his pencil has been one of the busiest. 
 
 "At a time when the hearts of Englishmen 'are still mourning the 
 " loss of their great painter, it may seem invidious to draw com- 
 " parisons between Landseer and Joseph Wolf ; but from a careful 
 " study of their respective works we have long since been of opinion 
 "that, of the two, Mr. Wolf has proved himself immeasurably 
 " superior. Not only has he worked in a much larger field, depict- 
 " ing by turns the animals and birds of all countries, but his ac- 
 quaintance with the habits and actions of wild animals, from 
 
200 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " personal observation, has enabled him to trace their forms upon 
 " canvas with a fidelity to nature which, in our opinion, has never 
 " been excelled. In artistic and scientific circles this has long been 
 " admitted ; and if, as it would seem, Mr. Wolf is not so well known 
 " to the general public as he deserves to be, we can only surmise that 
 "it is because he has never had time to exhibit. . . . Lest we may 
 "be thought to be according undue praise , we shall invite the 
 " attention of the reader to some of the numerous productions of his 
 " pencil, which, viewed with the critical eye of the naturalist, must 
 " always be regarded with favour. . . . We have said nothing about 
 " the many large works which have passed from the easel to the private 
 " cabinets of those who know well how to appreciate them, because, 
 " although we have had the privilege of seeing many of them, the 
 "public have had no opportunity, as with the exhibited works of 
 "other artists, to judge of their merits. ..." 1 
 
 We have here a view of Wolf's work as expressed 
 
 by a skilled hand writing for naturalists and country 
 
 gentlemen. I will add a few words written by the 
 
 critic of The Art Journal* 1 for another class of 
 
 readers : — 
 
 " Rarely, if ever, have we seen animal life more forcibly and 
 " beautifully depicted than in this really splendid volume. As a 
 " painter of the untamed beasts of the forest and the wild feathered 
 " tribes of the air, Mr. Wolf has long made himself conspicuously 
 "known in this country, and in this series of illustrations he seems 
 " to have put forth all the power of his art to produce a variety of 
 " pictures of the most attractive kind. They are far more than the 
 " mere representations of certain phases of natural history ; they are 
 "highly picturesque scenes in which the animal or the bird [sic] 
 " is a principal actor." 
 
 In The Times 3 we read : — 
 
 "These drawings well exhibit the marvellous skill with which he 
 " [Wolf] depicts not only the outward forms, the fur and hair and 
 
 1 Jan. 3, 1874. 2 Jan. 18, 1874. 
 
 3 December, 1873. 
 
" WILD ANIMALS 
 
 20I 
 
 " feathers of the animal kingdom, but the very soul and character of 
 "the wild creatures which inhabit them. ['That,' said Wolf as I 
 "read him this passage, 'is what I have always been striving to do.' 
 "Anybody can say 'This is a Tiger,' 'This is a Dove.'] The 
 " subjects of his pictures are chosen with artistic skill, and each one 
 " of them testifies to a close study and accurate knowledge of the 
 " habits of birds and beasts. ... As we close this exquisite volume, 
 " we cannot help thinking what pleasure it would have given to Sir 
 " Edwin Landseer to turn over its pages." 
 
 It was thus, without an exception, that Wolfs 
 
 workmanship in the Wild Animals was received by 
 
 the Press. Also without an exception, the share the 
 
 Whympers had in the result is spoken of with the 
 
 highest praise, and not unjustly. The Art Joitmal 
 
 says : — 
 
 " To Messrs. Whympers' engravings, too high praise cannot be 
 " given. Long as our experience has been of wood engraving as 
 " practised both in England and on the Continent, we remember 
 " never to have seen work surpassing these examples for tone and 
 " colour, softness and brilliancy. Solid, but without the hardness of 
 " some of the best modern French wood-cuts, . . . they combine free- 
 " dom of handling with the greatest delicacy of execution. There is 
 " scarcely one of the whole number which is not a fine example of 
 " the art." 
 
 The engravings, in fact, certainly go as far towards 
 the faithful rendering of the artist's work as was then 
 possible under the best conditions. How far this is, 
 can only be gauged by a careful comparison of the 
 original drawings (still in the artist's possession), with 
 the wood-cuts ; and in making this comparison many 
 times, I have not been blind to the exquisite technical 
 qualities and the skill shown in the latter. 
 
 I have pointed out that the quality of mystery 
 
LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 which forms so important a factor in the romance of 
 nature exists in many of Wolf's works, and in some of 
 the originals of the Wild Animals it is particularly 
 attractive. Here, of course, lay a good, substantial 
 stone of stumbling for the engravers. As we look at 
 the drawings, we gradually forget the existence of the 
 paper, and the chalk, and even the great manipulative 
 skill. We have donned an invisible coat, and we are 
 alone in the ancient forest, or the moonlight (or now 
 and then in the sultry tropical glare), with nature's wild- 
 est children. Our eyes, as it were, get gradually ac- 
 customed to the conditions and surroundings. The 
 romance, or the terror, or the splendour of the scenes 
 grows upon us little by little, and intensifies slowly. 
 
 Now, speaking of the engravings, one reviewer 
 praises their "marvellous distinctness," another is de- 
 lighted with their " clearness," and a third complacently 
 observes, "Every plate tells its story without any 
 obscurity r ." Here, neatly expressed in eight words, 
 we have the chief cause of the difference between the 
 best of the drawings and the engravings, and of the 
 unmistakable inferiority of some of the latter. One or 
 two are undoubtedly superior to the originals, as 
 Wolf points out ; but, in a certain proportion, the 
 beautiful semi-obscurity of nature — the atmosphere 
 which intervenes between the near and the distant, 
 giving to each its relative value and reality, have been 
 injured. Whatever the artist intentionally left as 
 doubt or suggestion (in moonlight, for instance, or the 
 
Allen's Galago. 
 
ENGRAVERS AND MYSTERY 
 
 203 
 
 gloom of the forest), has become unequivocal fact, and 
 every fact is, to a certain degree, emphasized. It is, 
 as it were, an absolutely faultless recital on a faultless 
 piano, compared with the notes of some siren or mer- 
 maiden of old, so remote that the mariner's imagination 
 strove almost painfully to link together the fragments 
 of the uncertain melody. 
 
 In Wolf's own words, " Engravers cut out all the 
 <k mystery — that which makes the picture. I assure 
 " you that when I received the first proofs of the Wild 
 "Animals, though I had done the drawings on the 
 11 wood myself, I found that the original scheme of light 
 (i and shade was gone altogether, and I had to concoct 
 " a different arrangement. I had put in work which 
 " was not understood." 
 
 It is much to be regretted that in doing these 
 drawings on the wood, and all else destined for the 
 engravers (even such engravers as the Whympers), 
 Wolf did not study the kind of manipulation best 
 suited to translation, and settle in his mind before he 
 took up his pencil how many of those mental and 
 technical refinements he revelled in would inevitably 
 have to be sacrificed by any process of reproduction. 
 He made the then common mistake of supposing the 
 existence of some of his own peculiar knowledge in 
 the engraver ; and of imagining that the engraver's 
 tools could render faithfully, even in the most highly- 
 skilled hands, his delicate gradations, melodious light 
 and shade, and extraordinary niceties of modelling 
 
204 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 and draughtsmanship. For all the suffering brought 
 about by this want of experience in adapting his work, 
 he had no consolation. 
 
 I am not so ignorant and presumptuous as to dare 
 to depreciate the beautiful art of wood-engraving ; 
 or so blind as to do otherwise than most cordially 
 admire much of the exquisite handiwork of the 
 Whympers, and some of the elite of the engravers. 
 Nor am I blind to the sparkle, richness, and vigour 
 which, except in the old-fashioned etching, is found 
 nowhere so captivating as in the best wood-cuts by the 
 best hands. Still the fact remains that, partly through 
 the want of calculation and forethought on the part 
 of the painter in adapting his work, and through the 
 engraver's inevitable want of training in the more 
 abstruse refinements of original art (sometimes from his 
 persistence in tradition, and to a certain extent from 
 the nature of the tools he employs, not to mention 
 other causes), wood-engraving, as applied to such work 
 as the best of Wolf's and its kind, has failed on the 
 whole to render it truthfully. It has not failed in a 
 slight degree. It has failed so signally that, again and 
 again the artist has suffered torture. 
 
 In spite of the violent denial often flung at like 
 statements, and the hap-hazard railing of many a pre- 
 judiced painter, it may, nevertheless, be safely main- 
 tained that first-rate " process " work, judiciously follow- 
 ing equally first-rate photography by artistic and skilful 
 men, has succeeded and succeeds every day just where 
 
PROCESS WORK 
 
 205 
 
 wood-engraving has been found, over and over again, 
 to fail. I do not deny that it often fails where engrav- 
 ing succeeds. 
 
 Process work has the misfortune to be cheap, and 
 it also has the misfortune to be (to a certain extent) 
 mechanical. Therefore, according to the words of the 
 prophets, it is unspeakably vile. They shut their eyes 
 to all that even the best wood-engraving has failed to 
 do, and to that which the worst has done execrably — 
 to all that the best process has achieved ; and, with 
 praiseworthy logic, compare the workmanship of the 
 finest and costliest wood-engraving in the world, with 
 a third-rate process block made from a fourth- rate 
 photograph, at a shilling or so a square inch. 
 
 Copies of the original edition of the Wild Animals 
 are rather scarce ; but with few of Wolfs illustrations 
 have publishers made more free. The copyright 
 has passed from hand to hand, and I am told that the 
 designs have been reproduced in Germany, France, 
 Russia, and Switzerland. The whole twenty have 
 been republished side by side with another artist's 
 compositions, under the curious title of Wild Animals 
 and Birds} Not only have Elliott's descriptions of 
 Wolf's designs been excluded from this volume ; but 
 others have been substituted which are ludicrously 
 malapropos. For example, in " The Hairbreadth 
 
 1 Cassell, 1882. In this volume will also be found reprints from the 
 engravings of the Polar Bear and Snowy Owls, and the Wild Cat and Ring 
 Dove alluded to presently; besides "The Home of the Herons,' and 
 Wolf s favourite subject, A Golden Eagle and Ptarmigan. 
 
206 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Escape," the Rabbit striving its utmost to reach 
 shelter is described as a Hare ; while " the companion 
 Hare flies into its burrow " ! The original titles of 
 some of the designs have also been altered. Thus 
 the lazy Jaguar, dozing in the midday heat as close to 
 the cool water as he can get — so close that the tip of 
 his tail occasionally touches it in his sleep, is no longer 
 enjoying " The Siesta," but is " The Jaguar on the 
 Watch " ; a manifest absurdity stultifying the whole 
 gist and essence of the design. 
 
 ''Rival Monarchs" I have met with in a School 
 Board " Reader." Others of the series have been cut 
 down to fit the pages of a new Natural History ; and I 
 think Wolf would not be surprised to find any of these 
 subjects (as he did one of his Tigers) ornamenting a 
 biscuit-tin on a friend's breakfast-table. 
 
 Twelve of the designs illustrate the dangers to 
 which animals are naturally exposed by duels and per- 
 secutions among themselves ; and in six of these the 
 aggressor palpably fails in his purpose, or is understood 
 to do so. Save in one instance, the common phase of 
 wild animal illustration, the phase of sport, is entirely 
 omitted ; and in that instance the sportsman is shown 
 in helpless peril. 1 Throughout all, the romantic side 
 of natural history is agreeably prominent ; a fact by no 
 means lost sight of in the letterpress. 
 
 I think that three out of the twenty subjects stand 
 
 1 The incident will be found in Lloyd's Field Sports of Northern 
 Europe. 
 
THE "WILD ANIMALS" SUBJECTS 207 
 
 apart from the others from their interest, admirable 
 execution or pathos ; namely, " A Hairbreadth 
 Escape," " Maternal Courage," and " Hunted Down." 
 In the first of these a magnificent Eagle Owl has struck 
 at one of the Rabbits which have been gambolling on 
 the moonlit snow, but merely succeeds in grasping 
 beneath a root which forms part of the entrance to the 
 burrow, the skin of the hind quarters. The squealing 
 quarry struggles for safety, as a frightened Rabbit can 
 struggle, but the bird, with outstretched wings, main- 
 tains its hold. Contrary to the description, says the 
 artist, it would have succeeded after all, but for the 
 sudden appearance of a Fox, which has been attracted 
 by the Rabbit's cry, and diverts the Owl's attention. 
 
 In "Maternal Courage" the attack of a hungry 
 Lammergeyer upon a Chamois kid is defeated by the 
 brave mother. The robber has been severely handled. 
 His feathers garnish her horns, and float away over 
 the precipice, while he clings for a moment to a rock, 
 and then sails off to smooth his torn plumage and seek 
 a less risky meal. 
 
 " Hunted Down " is full of the quiet pathos so 
 characteristic of the artist's best work. A dreary, snow- 
 covered plain meets, in a solitary gleam of light on the 
 horizon, a leaden sky ; while the wind sweeps across 
 the waste, spitefully flinging the snow against every 
 obstruction. A Hare, hard hit earlier in the day by 
 some reckless shot, has limped on more and more 
 painfully, till she crouches down by a few dead weeds 
 
208 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 to wait for the end. There is death already in the eyes 
 and the staring coat, and the end will soon come. By 
 evil chance there crosses her track a foraging party 
 of Hooded Crows ; and the foremost, with famished, 
 vigilant eyes, shout out a bloodthirsty view-halloo. 
 
 In turning over these designs with their author, 
 once or twice, I have found that the stories he intended 
 to tell are not always correctly interpreted in Mr. 
 Elliott's letterpress. For instance, in " The Shadow 
 Dance" it is not the moon, but the early morning sun 
 that throws the tempting images of the Rabbits on the 
 bank. The Fox, says the artist, far too clever to take 
 any shadow for the substance, looks round the furze- 
 bush at the animals themselves ; but the result is very 
 doubtful. Again, though it seems a certainty that 
 the Lynx in " The Ambuscade " will dine off a tender 
 kid, the artist is of a different opinion. He said with 
 a smile, "He has not succeeded yet. ' There's many 
 a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.' " 
 
 His present opinion of the preceding subject, 
 " The King of Beasts," is, I am glad to say, one of 
 thorough disapproval. He sees well enough now that 
 it is theatrical, and he says also that the engraved 
 lines are too close together. This design, and " The 
 Gleaners of the Sea," are the least satisfactory of 
 a series otherwise in every way notable. " Catching 
 a Tartar" is very different. It is not only full of 
 poetic feeling, but represents a most interesting incident 
 in natural history. A Barn Owl, more hungry than 
 
The White-Cheeked Sapajou. 
 
THE NIGHT ATTACK 
 
 209 
 
 discreet, falls a victim to a Weasel which he has carried 
 off. The subject is based, says Wolf, on an anecdote 
 he heard in Germany, and a version of it is to be 
 found also in Bell's British Quadrupeds} 
 
 In the volume already alluded to {Wild Animals 
 and Birds), the Weasel is described as a Polecat which 
 has ventured " to attack the peaceful Owl." This 
 bird, "roused from its monotony by the fangs of the 
 " carnivore, flies into the night, bearing with it . . . its 
 " assailant." 2 
 
 There are two other subjects (originally published 
 elsewhere) which, from their uniformity in size and 
 shape with the series just described, may be classed 
 with them ; and the original drawings are too good 
 to be passed over. In the first, a huge White Bear, 
 sated by a hearty meal, sleeps heavily upon a ledge of 
 ice. Some hungry Snowy Owls, anxious to pick up 
 the fragments, screw up their courage till they are 
 almost within range of the mighty paws. 
 
 The second design is called ''The Night Attack," 
 and is one of those rare instances where moonlight 
 has been represented by art with some truth to nature ; 
 that is, with regard to the amount of detail which is 
 shown. There is not too much shown, and a natural 
 
 1 First edition, p. 145. 
 
 2 It is hardly necessary to point out that any person who knows the 
 relative sizes of the Barn Owl and Polecat and those of the Polecat and 
 Weasel (to say nothing of other points), but does not know how Wolfs 
 designs have been handled in this book, will be puzzled at the singular 
 description. 
 
 P 
 
2IO 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 result is that what we do see gains enormously in 
 poetry and truth ; giving a protracted pleasure which 
 can never be derived from detective art that reveals 
 every mystery and ransacks every shade. A maraud- 
 ing Wild Cat, in the perfection of fur and of vigour, 
 roaming about by the light of the full moon to seek his 
 supper, has sighted a Ring Dove's nest aloft in a pine ; 
 and reasoning by deduction, he thinks it worth while to 
 see whether the maker of the nest is at home. He 
 climbs silently, and makes a sudden but vain attack 
 upon the intended victim. She, flying off her eggs in 
 terror, leaves one of her tail-feathers behind her, and 
 once again the aggressor is foiled ; lashing his bushy 
 tail with rage. This is one of those subjects which 
 depend upon the "lost and found " for their charm. 
 The Ring Dove's outline, like the Cat's, merges im- 
 perceptibly into the background, and we discover such 
 portion of the detail as the artist wishes to reveal, only 
 by looking for it. Look as we will, we cannot discover 
 it all, " Because," says Wolf, "it is not there." The 
 subject was also drawn with a Pine Marten in the place 
 of the Cat. 
 
 In addition to these two admirable designs, there 
 is an early version of " The Struggle " (a tussle between 
 a Tiger and a Crocodile), which always seems to me to 
 be a fine bit of work, though very slight. A pair of 
 Jaguars and their cubs have come down to the water to 
 slake their thirst, and the paw of the male has been 
 seized by a huge Alligator. It is a case of "pull devil, 
 
FAMILIES OF LIONS 
 
 211 
 
 pull baker," and every fibre of the Jaguar's enormous 
 muscles quivers in a contest which is still uncertain. 
 
 Touching this subject, and some others in which 
 he has represented certain species of the Felidce as 
 associating together in complete families, Wolf holds 
 that he was wrong. He says, " Why don't people 
 . " think ? Why must they still believe in families of 
 "Lions? . . . I do not know any quadruped where the 
 " male has anything to do with bringing up the offspring. 
 " This is one great fact in natural history. In nature 
 " everything goes to utility. What fools a lot of Tom 
 " Cats would look if every one of them were to bring 
 " a mouse to the kittens. Of what use is the buck 
 " Hare to bring up the leverets, the bull to bring up 
 "the calf, or the stallion the foal ? It will be found 
 " that as long as the Lioness is suckling her cubs the 
 "Lion keeps away; the Lioness, in fact, would not 
 " allow him to come near them ; but afterwards, she is 
 " not faithful to one Lion, and consequently several are 
 " after her. Hence the troups of Lions one hears about. 
 " Men are too much inclined to think that there must 
 " be fathers, mothers and children." 
 
 He is quick to point out any inaccuracy in his work, 
 such as he imagines the representation of the Jaguar's 
 family to be, and other subjects of the kind, and tells 
 you that he did so and so because he knew no better 
 at that time. In this case, however, the point seems to 
 be open to doubt, for we have the authority of Sir 
 Samuel Baker that Tigers, at all events, are to be met 
 
2 I 2 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 with in families. 1 Oswell, too, speaking of the dis- 
 inclination of Lions to attack men, says : — " When the 
 lk cubs are very small the male will show fight, to give 
 11 the Lioness a chance of making off with them, but 
 "this is rather a demonstration than real business." 2 
 "The Lioness," says Wolf, "has several mates, and 
 li the young are not the offspring of one father. The 
 "old Lions will sometimes play with the half-grown 
 "cubs, but it has nothing to do with parental 
 " affection." 
 
 The willingness to admit error or ignorance is, as 
 I have already remarked, one of Wolfs character- 
 istics. Touching an illustration of his to Montgomery's 
 Pelican Island he said, " Poor little chicks ! I have 
 "never seen Pelican chicks, you know, but I suppose 
 " they are something like them." 
 
 Again, he blames himself for having fallen into the 
 error in some of his drawings of Gorillas, of represent- 
 ing them as pot-bellied. 
 
 In the Lecture-room of The Zoological Society at 
 Hanover Square, among the other works of the artist 
 is a very careful chalk drawing of an adult Chimpanzee, 
 
 1 " It is frequently the custom of tigers to remain together in a family, 
 " the male, female, and a couple of half or three parts grown young ones. 
 * 4 We cannot positively determine whether the male always remains with 
 "his family under such circumstances or whether he merely visits them 
 " periodically ; I am inclined to the latter opinion, as I think the female 
 " may be attractive during her season, which induces the male to prolong 
 " his visit, although at other periods he may be leading an independent 
 "life.' Wild Beasts and Their Ways, vol. i. p. 174. 
 
 2 Badminton Big Game Shooting, vol. i. p. 94. 
 
COMMISSIONS 
 
 213 
 
 executed in 1883 from a specimen living in The 
 Gardens. On my remarking that the drawing was 
 rather stiff (a very unusual fault with his work), Wolf 
 said: "The drawing was done in exact profile, and 
 " exactly natural size, in order to record the correct 
 " measures. For years and years I had never seen an 
 "old Chimpanzee — only young ones. I knew that 
 " young children have big stomachs which they after- 
 " wards lose. I forgot that it is the same with apes, 
 " and in my early drawings I made the mistake of 
 " representing the adults with large stomachs. Then 
 " I saw this adult Chimpanzee, with full development 
 " of limb and quite slim and elegant in shape." 
 
 An artist's calibre and sympathies cannot always be 
 gauged by the subjects he paints as commissions, but 
 when he settles down to work con amove, to work that he 
 can brood over, the case is different. Our friend would 
 be content to stand or fall by such drawings as the 
 originals of the Wild Animals, but of the other class 
 of work he says this : — " Whenever you work at a 
 " commission you are always haunted by the thought, 
 " ' What will the man say to it ? Will he like this or 
 " that ? ' He has composed the subject in his own 
 " mind, and it is a thousand to one that it is different 
 " from one's own way." 
 
 " While I am labouring at an eye or a feather, 
 " to get it quite true to nature, I suddenly think, 
 " ' Perhaps he would like it much better if it were 
 
214 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 "done in an off-hand, dashing way ' ; and I am sure 
 " that if I paint beyond his comprehension, he will not 
 " like the picture at all." Again, touching the indefinite 
 or blurred appearance indicating the rapid movement 
 of a bird's wings which I asked him about in a certain 
 work, he said, " I tried hard to get it, but nobody would 
 care for it." 
 
 This is not the first instance to be found in Joseph 
 Wolfs sayings of a melancholy cut bono. He asks 
 what is the use of labour, and knowledge, and years of 
 study, if nobody — publisher, critic, or public, under- 
 stands the result ; and having asked it, he redoubles 
 his care, and adds every possible item to his knowledge, 
 with a great deal more than the humility of most stu- 
 dents. He looks round him and sees that the greatest 
 fame in zoological art and the highest prices have 
 not always followed upon that fidelity to nature which 
 concerns itself about the absolute correctness of an eye 
 or a feather. Day after day he has faced the direct 
 temptation to adapt his work to popular comprehension ; 
 to hide his knowledge under a bushel, and thus 
 instantly to make himself master of the popular purse. 
 He has faced it as his bitterest enemy, and has 
 conquered. 
 
 The words of his I have quoted above deserve a 
 little consideration, for they are a commentary on the 
 unhappy fact that the manly struggle involved in honest 
 workmanship goes for nothing against the popular 
 delight in a sort of slapdash, sprawling sleight of hand, 
 
BIS PRIME 
 
 with an impudent signature as an important feature 
 of it. 
 
 Joseph Wolf, at the time he drew the Wild Ani- 
 mals series, maybe said to have reached his prime ; 
 and he had reached it so quietly that neither himself 
 nor anybody else knew when he did so. It was like 
 the prime of some great oak ; for, as far as I can ascer- 
 tain, he has been singularly free from that rapid falling 
 off which has marked some artists' work ; due of course 
 to failure of judgment, as well as perversion and failure 
 of sight. 
 
 At the present time, in his seventy-fifth year, he 
 says, " I think that with regard to sight I could paint 
 " a better picture now than I could at forty. I saw too 
 " much, you know. As Landseer said to a young 
 " artist, 4 You young fellows will never paint a decent 
 " picture till your eye-sight begins to fail.'" 
 
 In spite of this opinion he has had the rare wisdom 
 to hold his hand. Though, physically, full of vigour still 
 — keen of sight, and hearing, and perception, he shows 
 no touch of the unhappy infatuation which has tempted 
 many a veteran artist steadily to paint away the reputa- 
 tion of his prime, in order, as it really seems, that he 
 may be complimented upon being able to paint at all. 
 
 Wolfs position at his zenith was thus summed up 
 by Mr. Edward Whymper in his preface to the Wild 
 Animals : — 
 
 " As a painter, Mr. Wolf is highly esteemed among artists, but 
 "his works are seldom exhibited, as they generally pass directly 
 
2l6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 "from his studio into the hands of the best judges and largest 
 " collectors in the kingdom. Upon this account he is, as a painter, not 
 " so generally known as many artists of less eminence ; but the 
 " solidity of the position he has attained is sufficiently evidenced by 
 " the eagerness with which his pictures are secured for the most 
 "princely collections in the country, and his success is the more 
 " remarkable since he owes nothing to notoriety." 
 
 The year after this was written, namely in 1874, 
 Wolf became a Member of The Institute of Painters 
 in Water Colours, 1 and exhibited there " Broken 
 Fetters," an upright subject representing a Golden 
 Eagle escaping from captivity to his snow-capped 
 mountains, with the fragment of the chain still attached 
 to his leg. 2 The drawing was done in a week, and 
 the Eagle was most carefully painted. In the review 
 of The Institute exhibition The Observer remarks : — 
 
 " There are no less than seven new Members, who have not, as 
 "usual, been selected from a list of candidates, but have been 
 " specially invited to exhibit their works. Of these works, however, 
 " a good drawing by Mr. Wolf, the well-known animal painter, . . . 
 " is the only contribution we observe which makes much mark." 
 " Another remarkable drawing in The Institute," writes the critic of 
 The Times, " is a magnificent Golden Eagle soaring aloft, with the 
 "broken chain dangling from his strong talons, by J. Wolf, the most 
 " vigorous living painter of wild animal life." 
 The Athenceum says this : — 
 
 " Mr. J. Wolf has long ago recommended himself to admiring 
 "eyes ; his Broken Fetters (148), an eagle soaring near a mountain 
 " top, which is surrounded by mists and denser vapours, while the 
 " bird's feet are trammelled by the ropes which formerly kept it 
 " captive, shows at once his great powers and the unfavourable cir- 
 " cumstances under which he practises his art, for he must needs 
 
 1 He has lately resigned. 
 
 2 This drawing was purchased by Lord Eldon. 
 
HE PREFERS OIL PAINTING 
 
 217 
 
 " make a subject where, but for popular notions, none would be 
 " wanted. The result of making a subject here is to injure the in- 
 " spiration of the picture. But the bird, apart from this, is a most 
 "vigorous piece of design ; one can hardly think of anything more 
 " intense than the action of the wings, the eager thrusting of the 
 " neck, as the creature hovers above its home." 
 
 The melancholy sequel to " Broken Fetters" was 
 drawn in charcoal some time afterwards. The Eagle 
 has reached his old haunts, and settles for a moment, 
 that he may gaze down into the ravine which still 
 shelters, perhaps, the beloved eyrie. He spreads his 
 wings again ; but the chain has caught in a fork of the 
 tree, and after the fierce death struggle, he hangs head 
 downwards, swaying in the wind. 
 
 Wolfs election as a Member of The Institute did 
 not tend, as might have been supposed, to his becoming 
 a prolific exhibitor. It is one of those points on which 
 I must venture to differ with my friend that he prefers 
 his oil pictures to his water-colours. He says, 11 I wish 
 " I had stuck to oil as I began, and never listened to 
 " some friends in the Water-Colour Society and joined 
 " them." His sympathy is certainly more with oil- 
 painting than with water-colour. " Water-colour is 
 " thin and weak compared with oil." Nevertheless, I 
 have seen water-colours of his so strong that at the first 
 glance I actually mistook them for oil, but I have never 
 seen one which struck me as weak. 
 
 Another deterrent was this. When he told one 
 of his employers that he should like to exhibit such and 
 such a work at The Institute, the gentleman would 
 
2l8 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 probably say, " And what is 1 The Institute ' ?" If he 
 went there to see how his purchase looked, he found it, 
 perhaps, conspicuous for singularity of subject, among 
 " heaps of coast scenes and landscapes piled up to the 
 skies." Speaking at another time of the fewness of the 
 works which he has exhibited anywhere, Wolf gives the 
 chief reason. " The prejudice of artists against natural 
 "history has stood in my way more than anything in 
 " England. It was before a committee of that class 
 "of men, that I should have had to appear with my 
 " works if I had exhibited. I couldn't do it, and I 
 " didn't do it.'' I look upon this feeling of Wolf's with 
 the same regret that troubles me when he states his 
 case against the naturalists, and for the same reason ; 
 that the grievance is not imaginary. It is based upon 
 actual incidents and actual statements which have come 
 to his knowledge. It is of little avail to go into the 
 question. Suffice it to say that the artists among whom 
 Wolf is accounted a mere " naturalist," have never seen 
 many of his finest works. Had they seen them, I 
 cannot help thinking they would have changed their 
 opinion. The subject has an amusing side. " I had 
 " a world of trouble," says our friend, " to get the very 
 "printers and lithographers to pay common respect to 
 " my things. Because they were ' natural history,' 
 " they looked upon them as if they were for children's 
 " picture-books." 
 
 I have not been able to give more than the land- 
 marks of the history of Wolfs work during the four- 
 
FOURTEEN YEARS' WORK 
 
 219 
 
 teen years of his residence in Berners Street. He has 
 kept no journal or record in any shape, and has for- 
 gotten much that was worthy to be remembered. He 
 may say, as he does, " What a record it would be ! " 
 but, nevertheless, I regret the want of it deeply. An 
 artist's works are the children of his imagination, if 
 they have any definite parentage at all. They reflect 
 the conscious and often the unconscious bent of his 
 mind, and the depth of his mind. Naturally, he himself 
 can see more in them than the critic, however learned 
 and discriminating ; and the artist alone can recall the 
 incidents of their birth and growth. Then too, they 
 are often the outcome of a struggle more or less intense 
 to realize some ideal ; to touch, or enthral, or to teach — 
 to tell some story, the incidents of which are naturally 
 best known to the teller. It always strikes me as sad 
 that so many works are exhibited, collected, dispersed 
 by the hammer, and forgotten, without an inkling 
 beyond the critic's technical description (often given 
 in terms only intelligible to artists), or the auctioneer's 
 hap-hazardpuff, of what they represented in the painter's 
 own mind. What does the astute dealer know or 
 care about the emotions and struggles, sleepless nights, 
 and miserable days ? Even the title sometimes changes 
 with the ownership of the picture ; and the very point 
 of the story it was intended to indicate (if it is told 
 unobtrusively) is often completely stultified. 
 
 It may be imagined, from what I have told of this 
 fourteen years of Wolf's life, that a man who some- 
 
220 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 times went on working till he was giddy, whose natural 
 industry forbade all waste of time, whose every touch 
 was the result of knowledge and thought — it may be 
 imagined what he would accomplish, and how he would 
 ripen and mature. 
 
 A sort of migratory impulse seizes us sometimes, 
 as irresistible as that which drives the Swallow and 
 Nightingale from our shores. In 1874 Joseph Wolf 
 determined to leave Berners Street, and he chose The 
 Avenue, Fulham Road, as his next head-quarters, 
 where a small colony of artists was established, with 
 everything adapted to their habits and liking. 
 
 Visitors to his studio, soon after he took possession, 
 would have found him, pliers and wire in hand, sitting 
 before a pile of little bones and a charcoal sketch. 
 He had another Ring Dove subject in progress, and 
 was carefully setting up a complete skeleton of the 
 bird in the chosen action. " You have no idea," he 
 says, "how it explains the attitudes if the legs and feet 
 are in the right place." The title of this drawing 
 is " Inquisitive Neighbours." Two Squirrels, frolick- 
 ing round and round the stem of a pine, pop suddenly 
 on a Ring Dove sitting on her eggs. She is indignant 
 at the invasion of her particular tree, and loosens her 
 wings in order to give full effect to a good buffet. 1 
 
 1 To country people, a boxing match between a couple of Ring Doves 
 in the spring is doubtless familiar ; but some have no idea of the force and 
 vigour of the blows they shower on one another with their wings, or of 
 the noise thus occasioned. I have seen a fight of this kind last a long time. 
 
Inquisitive Neighbours. 
 
FIRST SKETCHES 
 
 22 1 
 
 The first sketch of this subject hangs, through the 
 artist's kindness, on my walls ; and I have often seen 
 the third version (a water-colour), which lacks, I think, 
 some of the vigour of the sketch. The bird is as fine 
 a piece of colour and drawing as one could wish to see ; 
 but perhaps it is the elaboration of the surrounding 
 foliage that gives the impression of a redundancy of 
 minute finish. I have reproduced the second version, 
 a careful charcoal drawing. 
 
 In preferring the first sketch, I must plead guilty 
 to doing so in many other instances, particularly in 
 Wolfs case. The first sketches are dashed off with an 
 impulse, and are the first-fruits of the imagination. As 
 the impulse is often a kind of inspiration, they are done 
 with enthusiasm. They may contain many faults, but, 
 nevertheless, often represent the artist's ripest powers, 
 for he is on his mettle, and they do not show the 
 reserve or forbearance brought about by considering 
 whether they will sell, or be severely criticised, or be 
 hung beyond human ken. Sketches, in fact, though 
 they are often the amateur's most effectual offensive 
 weapon, are the true artist's shorthand. Every scratch, 
 or dot, or smudge has its own peculiar significance, and 
 is essential to the coherency and sense of the whole 
 composition. 
 
 At the Academy exhibitions of 1876 and 1877 Wolf 
 was represented by casts from three little models ; a 
 Wild Boar ; a Bear licking his lips over a honeycomb ; 
 and " Suspicion," a Lioness with two cubs, alarmed by 
 
222 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 some danger in front of them. Although he was not 
 altogether unpractised in the art of modelling (for he 
 had found out its value in solving problems of light and 
 shade, and cast shadows), one would hardly expect to 
 find such a complete mastery over means and material 
 as is represented by these three miniature animals. 
 Not only are the anatomy and actions first-rate, but the 
 texture of the different coats is admirably given. " It 
 " is very difficult," says Wolf, " for anybody who has 
 " begun modelling to leave it. It is so fascinating to 
 " 'a painter, simply because it is far more simple than 
 11 painting. You have no local colour, or light and shade 
 " — no perspective, no atmosphere, and so on. In fact, 
 " comparing the painter with the sculptor, the painter 
 " must know all that the sculptor knows (or ought to 
 "know), and a great deal more." 
 
 I believe that very few casts from these models 
 were disposed of, but it seems a pity that the moulds 
 should have been idle for so many years. Casts in 
 bronze shown in some good gallery would surely 
 have commanded a great sale. It also seems a pity 
 that, with the exception of an Owl which was never 
 exhibited and another Wild Boar's head, Wolf should 
 have done so little finished work in clay. The Owl is 
 four times life-size, and a very careful piece of work. 
 I once ventured to suggest that the eyes were too big. 
 
 Yes," said Wolf, " when you know that the eye is big 
 you are apt to make it too big." The temptation to 
 exaggerate is very seductive in art, and literature, and 
 
'1 
 
THE QUEEN'S BULLFINCH 
 
 223 
 
 conversation ; but it is very rarely that Wolf yields to 
 it in any form, though no one is keener in seizing the 
 point of view which brings characteristics sufficiently 
 into prominence. I have noticed his love of truth crop 
 up in many ways ; and have myself often been brought 
 down from some too enthusiastic description of animals 
 or insects to the regions of actual fact, by a smile or 
 a question, 
 
 The 24th of May 1878 was likely to have made an 
 impression on our friend's memory, for he was com- 
 missioned by The Marquis of Lome and The Princess 
 Louise to paint them a birthday present for the Queen. 
 The subject was a pet Bullfinch of Her Majesty's, and 
 if this had not been a bird with which the painter was 
 thoroughly familiar, he might have found it nervous 
 work, and have been tempted to compile a Bullfinch 
 from sketches. As it was, he made a succession of 
 visits to Buckingham Palace, and laboured in his 
 usual way to make the drawing a true portrait, as well 
 as a graceful composition. Judging from the original 
 study (itself highly finished) which recently hung in his 
 studio, the result must' have been most satisfactory. 
 
 I will conclude this chapter with the following note 
 from Lord Lome about this drawing, quoted with his 
 Lordship's kind permission : — 
 
 Kensington Palace : May 20, 1878. 
 Dear Mr. Wolf, — We are much obliged to you for the care 
 and trouble you have taken to have the charming picture of the Bull- 
 finch ready in such good time. If you should want to do anything 
 more to it, or if the Queen would like any slight alteration, it can 
 
224 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 always be got back for a short time. It seems to me perfect as 
 it is. 
 
 I am glad that Mr. Dresser does not think the getting of the 
 Hazel Grouse would be very difficult in Scandinavia. I am most 
 anxious to get them, and having failed both at Paris and Berlin, 
 should much like to be put into communication with any friend of 
 Mr. Dresser's who might be able to procure them. I am almost 
 sure they would do among the large woods at Inveraray if the birds 
 are brought from a Northern country. I return Mr. Dresser's letter. 
 I remain with many thanks yours faithfully, 
 
 J. Wolf, Esq. Lorne. 
 
 Lord Lorne has been so good as to inform me that 
 he was, unfortunately, not successful in this attempt to 
 acclimatize the Hazel Grouse 
 
 OVIS AMMON 
 
PRIMROSE HILL STUDIOS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 JOSEPH WOLF found it a long journey from 
 the Fulham Road to his models in Regent's 
 Park, and knowing that a little swarm of artists 
 was comfortably hived in Primrose Hill Studios, he 
 began to contemplate a third migration. The Studios 
 were so near the northern entrance of The Zoological 
 Gardens that, on a quiet summer's night, an imagina- 
 tive tenant might think himself far away in foreign 
 lands, till some rattling hansom dispelled the illusion. 
 This propinquity settled the question ; so in 1878 our 
 friend removed to No. 2 ; and there he has dwelt ever 
 since, till by virtue of seniority, both of years and 
 occupation, he has become the patriarch of the colony. 
 He has acquired, too, a certain affection for the 
 place ; and though, at last, he has had to pile away his 
 bird-cages, and will no more listen to the songs of his 
 Warblers and Bullfinches, he has been able, as we 
 shall see, to give another hobby a little rein. 
 
 To describe our friend " at home" is not an easy 
 matter ; but it is only by mentally accompanying me to 
 his studio, that the reader will be able to see him at his 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 best, or to realize the profusion of intensely interesting 
 things which it contains. 
 
 In answer to the tinkle of the bell at No. 2 Prim- 
 rose Hill Studios, a tall, broad-chested old gentleman 
 appears, pipe in hand, at a door which is fringed with 
 climbing convolvulus and ivy. Happily there is 
 nothing " artistic " about him, unless it be a knitted 
 "Tarn o' Shanter " cap. His hale, upright figure is 
 clothed in the well-cut vestments of a quietly disposed 
 Londoner (to whom eccentricity would be as un- 
 natural as slovenliness), and his short, grey beard 
 and moustache are neatly trimmed. A pair of very 
 large round spectacles rests on a nose which has 
 the strong angular bend of the Eagle's beak about it, 
 but nothing of the semicircular Jewish curve. The 
 wide nostrils appear to be drawn back so as to cause 
 upon the cheeks the furrows to which the expression 
 of the face is partly due. Behind the spectacles are 
 very kindly, true-looking, grey eyes, in which a merry 
 twinkle is not unknown. 
 
 Following my friend down a short passage, I find 
 myself in a lofty and well-designed studio, which, in 
 spite of its size, is pre-eminently cosy — easily warmed 
 in the winter, and as I find now, cool even on the 
 sunniest summer's day. On the blinds flying back, I 
 can see at once that there is much to attract the 
 attention on every side ; but to begin with I discover, 
 fast asleep upon a Leopard skin, two very fat, very 
 nondescript, and very tiny puppies. This is not their 
 
A BLACKBIRD'S NEST 
 
 227 
 
 true home, but their dissipated little mother long 
 ago discovered that their brothers and sisters were 
 always welcomed by her big friend, and she leaves them 
 here out at nurse as it were. 
 
 Wolf is anxious to give me the latest news of the 
 studios, and he tells it in remarkably well-chosen 
 English idioms. There is no gesticulation, no shoulder- 
 shrugging. The manner, like the words, is even 
 quieter than that of many a Briton. Some brave 
 Blackbirds have nested for several years in the ivy at 
 the back, and this year, again, have hatched their 
 young successfully. It is a secret (undoubtedly known 
 to many cats), but he is as glad to tell me all about 
 the nest as if it were at least a Golden Eagle's eyrie. 
 As for those cats, they were so troublesome last year 
 that he tells me he used to call the young birds every 
 evening, catch them one by one with a butterfly net, 
 and cage them till the morning. He wishes to point 
 out to me the site of the nest, and before he opens a 
 back door leading to the garden, he mixes a saucer of 
 bread and milk which I imagine is intended for the 
 puppies. But directly we get into the open air I see, 
 upon the neighbouring roofs and walls, an excited little 
 troop of Starlings awaiting their early luncheon. He 
 speaks of the precocity of the London Blackbirds ; and 
 we find, on comparing notes, that they are in full song 
 here long before they find their voices in the Surrey 
 wilds. He loves them greatly, and considers them' the 
 noblest of the Thrushes. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 The garden surprises me. When Wolf first came 
 here, he tells me, it was a forlorn back yard where even 
 the ivy looked sulky and disappointed in life. There 
 was just one solitary carnation ; and this, as his mother's 
 favourite flower, somehow or other recalled those remote 
 days spent with her so happily at home. So, think- 
 ing to himself that he would revive the old memories 
 still more, he set to work in earnest. The yard was 
 common to two of the studios, but Wolf has lavished 
 upon his neighbour's share, as well as his own, so much 
 time and pains, that he has conquered the disadvan- 
 tages. Of his feline enemies, a dingy, tailless specimen 
 accosted him one day, purring and rubbing against his 
 legs so vigorously that he had not the heart to drive her 
 away. Since then she has disputed with the Star- 
 lings, and the Blackbirds, and a tame Toad that lives in 
 a corner, their several claims to the master's atten- 
 tion. Some of the refinements of the florist's art 
 are going on. Seeds and seedlings engross my host's 
 spare time, and try even his patience. Hand-glasses, 
 cocoa-fibre, and thermometers, would point out the 
 nature of his favourite hobby, even without the piles 
 of florists' catalogues indoors. " To have a hobby," 
 he says, " is the only expression of happiness. The 
 " man who has not got a hobby is to be pitied." " It 
 "is quite as much pleasure to me," he continues, as 
 he slides off the lid from one of his frames, " to see 
 "the seeds sprout and come up nicely, as to see the 
 "flowers open. It is the principle that the anticipa- 
 
SPRING-TIME 
 
 229 
 
 " tion is sweeter than the possession." You would 
 think he had that passage of Dudley Warners in his 
 mind : — " To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a 
 " hoe, to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life, 
 " — this is the commonest delight of the race, the most 
 " satisfactory thing a man can do." 
 
 It is, in fact, the renewal of life — the reawakening 
 of all nature in the spring, that especially rejoices Wolf, 
 as (in spite of the renewal of "Pusley"), it rejoiced 
 Dudley Warner. He says, " The first awakening of 
 " spring is signalled to my studio by a South American 
 "bird at The Zoological Gardens — Cariama, I think. 1 
 " It is a long-legged species which lives on the prairies 
 " where their strong voice is the means of keeping the 
 " birds together." This spring note fills him with 
 pleasant recollections of very early days, when he used 
 to listen anxiously for the laugh of the Green Wood- 
 pecker and the cry of the Buzzard. Other recollec- 
 tions of spring are sometimes called into existence in 
 the country, he tells me, by the piping of children's 
 willow whistles ; a sound which seems to him by no 
 means devoid of poetry, simply because it carries his 
 mind back to the time when, himself intent on whistles, 
 he waited for the rising sap. 
 
 When he has shown me his favourite flowers, he 
 turns to another part of the garden. " People say 
 "we can't grow roses here in London. Now here's a 
 " rose — and what a rose it is, by Jove ! " pointing to one 
 
 1 Cariama cristata. 
 
23° 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 shamefaced little blossom on a weazen bush, that 
 " looks as planted by Despair." 
 
 Re-entering the studio, we pass by a large glass 
 case standing beneath a mighty Moose's head (a 
 present sent by Mr. D. G. Elliott from America), which 
 stares out upon the room as a kind of presiding genius. 
 The case contains (besides the little models already 
 described), part of the artist's collection of fire-arms. 
 They have evidently been kept in order by a keen 
 connoisseur ; though they date from the far-distant time 
 when their owner superintended their building with as 
 much care as he set about a picture ; and when he loved 
 a good autumnal tramp over the heather or turnips. 
 Among the guns and shooting paraphernalia he has 
 elsewhere is one of the ponderous small-bores which 
 were used so effectively in the Vogelschiessen, many 
 years ago. 
 
 Besides the Moose there are many other heads of 
 Deer and Antelope round the walls, ranging in size from 
 the Wapiti downwards. Opposite the garden door, in 
 a long line across the room, hang the original draw- 
 ings of the Wild Animals, which, in this fine light, 
 look their very best. As time presses, I am compelled 
 to pass onwards, bearing with me the impression, 
 firstly, that drawings so hard to interpret and so 
 dependent on suggestiveness must have vexed the soul 
 of the engravers ; and secondly that, considering their 
 price, it is extraordinary they have remained so long 
 unsold. 
 
AN EXCITING SEARCH 
 
 231 
 
 Round the room there stand a number of huge and 
 cavernous box-portfolios, which contain so many of 
 Wolfs sketches and studies that not to-day nor for 
 many a day shall I exhaust them. The artist himself 
 has his doubts about some of the contents ; and if 
 the whereabouts of a sketch is once forgotten, long- 
 continued burrowing in these seductive depths becomes 
 necessary in order to recover it ; sometimes even that 
 being unsuccessful. One of these searches, to an 
 admirer of Wolfs works, is intensely exciting, for there 
 is no knowing what will turn up next. Even his 
 never-failing pipe is mislaid and forgotten, and many 
 are the exclamations of astonishment as long-lost 
 sketches meet the eyes of their maker once again. 
 Now a little batch of chalk life-studies appears ; and 
 then a lovely life-size charcoal design of a Peregrine 
 tiercel ; the first idea of a picture exhibited at the 
 Sports and Arts Exhibition. 1 
 
 Continuing the search I come, perhaps, to a 
 drawing in the same material by Mr. Carl Haag, the 
 result of an exchange, 2 and groping right at the bottom 
 
 1 Any reproduction will fail to convey the beauty of this sketch ; the 
 skill of the modelling ; the grace of the attitude ; and the mastery of the 
 draughtsmanship. Like many of the artist's sketches, it is done on 
 thin paper (often whity-brown), and the outline has been scored over 
 with a hard point in transferring it. 
 
 2 Among the opinions of his brother artists on Wolf's work, that of so 
 great a veteran as Mr. Haag should find a place. For this I am indebted 
 to Mr. Howard of Blackburn. Speaking of the black and white drawing 
 "A Midnight Ramble," in his possession, Mr. Howard says, "At the time 
 " I purchased the work, Mr. Wolf told me that he made a water-colour 
 " drawing from this for Mr. Carl Haag ; and when I called on Mr. Haag 
 
232 
 
 LIFE . OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 of the box, I grasp (much to our friend's astonishment) 
 a little chalk design of " Wild Duck Shooting." This 
 excellent drawing was intentionally hidden some time 
 ago to avoid lending it on the application of an artist 
 who proposed to paint the same subject much in the 
 same way. Dropped into one of these boxes, it was 
 nearly as much beyond recovery as a letter in a pillar- 
 box ; and short of a day's search, only a sheer accident 
 such as this could lead to its exhumation. Another 
 time, and in quite a different latitude, I come across the 
 companion subject, " Wild Goose Shooting in a Fog " ; 
 and the two drawings together are a goodly pair. It 
 is noteworthy that, in both, the shooters are not at first 
 seen at all. They are a gunshot off, and are nearly 
 hidden, in one case by the long reeds, in the other by 
 the fog. In the latter design we may see in perfection 
 the quality of indefiniteness. It is this which gives 
 the singular reality to the birds which approach in their 
 panic out of the gloom. 
 
 We have not done with the first portfolio yet ; and 
 when we have, there are others quite as interesting. 
 There is no sort of arrangement, and among a quantity 
 of uninteresting photographs, or a few quires of virgin 
 paper, there may lurk one or two of Wolfs very best 
 sketches, long mourned as lost. Far below and all 
 but out of reach may glow even one of his little water- 
 
 " last autumn I saw it . . . Mr. Haag told me that, in his opinion, no 
 " man in the world could approach Mr. Wolf at his own class of work. 
 " I was delighted to hear this from Mr. Haag, for it is the opinion which 
 " I have long held." 
 
THE AGGRESSOR FOILED 
 
 233 
 
 colours, such as the Ring Dove of The Poets of the 
 Woods series, or other works he describes as " the few 
 crumbs of good things I have left." 
 
 Promising myself further exploration of these rich 
 artistic catacombs another day, I glance hurriedly 
 over the book-cases holding a few books of reference 
 (but very few), and some of the works our friend has 
 illustrated ; from Knox's little volumes, to the huge folios 
 which it is almost impossible to handle with any com- 
 fort ; books such as Gould's Birds of Great Britain 
 and Elliott's monographs, fit only for the scientific 
 athlete. Thus, by degrees, I find myself facing the 
 easels. 
 
 The foremost holds one of those large charcoal 
 designs so many of which have gone (as this will go) 
 from the studio direct to the purchaser, without 
 exhibition. Apart from its beauty as a work of art, it 
 is notable as representing a rare and singular scene. 
 A Snow Leopard has stalked some of the gigantic 
 sheep which Marco Polo discovered; "twelve and a 
 " half hands high, the horns (each some six feet long) 
 " forming a wide, open curve." It is a critical moment, 
 for they have winded their enemy, hidden behind 
 a snow-drift. He hears their abrupt movement, and 
 raises his head to reconnoitre. " The Aggressor shall 
 " not succeed. I always disappoint my animal of 
 " prey." So says my host as he draws away a curtain 
 which veils the second easel. Here I see, in an early 
 stage, a life-size oil-picture which is striking from its 
 
234 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 vigour, originality, and draughtsmanship. A hungry 
 Golden Eagle, sailing down from the neighbouring 
 peaks, launches from the mist and vainly strikes at an 
 Alpine Hare which leaps madly towards us. The 
 huge bird is enraged at his failure, and the force of 
 the swoop is shown by his extended wings and tail, 
 and the outstretched foot which viciously grips the 
 heather instead of the Hare. 1 It is the aggressor 
 foiled again with a vengeance. The artist has painted 
 a somewhat similar subject in water-cclour, and has the 
 first charcoal sketch. Here the Eagle has struck one 
 of a pack of Ptarmigan, and grasps the tail-feathers on 
 the ground while the bird flies off otherwise unscathed. 
 This Eagle is even more vigorous in design than the 
 other ; but not the least interesting point in the 
 finished drawing was the gradual discovery of the 
 rest of the Ptarmigan, concealed by the artist much 
 as they would be in nature. This, I believe, created 
 quite a sensation in the purchaser's family when the 
 picture was sent home. " I've found one ! " " Here's 
 " another ! " and so on. 
 
 In the oil subject, part of the single-primed canvas 
 is still bare, and the painting is in an early stage. 
 The life and soul of the picture is yet to come, 
 but there is nothing tentative about the preliminary 
 work. Before he put charcoal to paper, the precon- 
 ception in the artist's mind was definite. " It 
 
 1 It was a study for this Hare which received such complimentary 
 notice from the Basset-hounds. 
 
Ptekomvs grandis. 
 
PUBLIC IGNORANCE 
 
 235 
 
 must be here, you know," says Wolf, touching his 
 forehead, " before it comes out there " — holding up his 
 fingers. There is so much painting (art it can hardly 
 be called), that shows the inability of the brain to 
 create a subject, or to keep pace with the exquisite 
 manipulative skill, that an opinion such as this is 
 refreshing. 
 
 Unfortunately, the prospects of this fine work are 
 not bright. Wolf says, " I couldn't venture to finish 
 "it. I should go mad over it. The rheumatism has 
 "stood a good deal in my way. I have had it now 
 "for fifteen years." Sometimes, for weeks together, 
 he is not able to put pencil or pen to paper, knowing 
 that if he did so the wearisome pain would begin in 
 the affected arm ; and from the same cause he dreads 
 the vibration of a cab and many other things. It is 
 the one black spot in an otherwise singularly healthy, 
 painless life. 
 
 He tells me that a rich merchant was once brought 
 to see this picture. " Why," he asked, "is the Eagle 
 " sitting on its haunches in such an undignified way ? " 
 " He has just struck at the Hare and missed her." 
 "Does it want the Hare then?" " Yes, of course." 
 " Then why," said the critic triumphantly, as he turned 
 away, "doesn't it peck at it with its beak?" "The 
 " thing I have most suffered from," continues the 
 painter, " is the general ignorance about my subjects, 
 " not only with purchasers, but with hanging-com- 
 " mittees ; and my greatest difficulty has been to 
 
236 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " fathom the depth of this ignorance. Landscape 
 " painters have alluded to my work as ' Natural 
 " History and that sort of thing! I have been 
 " continually swimming against the stream, chiefly 
 " with regard to the choice of subjects. I always 
 " found that the popular subjects were utterly im- 
 possible for me, and against my nature. This was 
 " a great disadvantage in the world." 
 
 Speaking of his works having been sometimes con- 
 demned as mere transcripts from nature, he says : "If 
 " you paint a dead Redpoll or Linnet it is admissible 
 " at the Royal Academy. If you paint it alive it is a 
 " Transcript of an object of Natural History, ' and that 
 " sort of thing! unfit for exhibition. Artists have been 
 " known to congratulate themselves that they have 
 " no knowledge of natural history. ... In fact natural - 
 " history subjects do not go down unless they are very 
 " badly done." These are opinions which may sound 
 exaggerated, but the truth of them can be proved, 
 and is proved by the walls of our chief exhibitions 
 every year. Yet there is hope for the glorious art of 
 which Wolf was the pioneer ; for, as he says, it is 
 still in its infancy. 
 
 Near the easels hang a few oil studies of heads 
 from the life, which were done at Antwerp ; and they 
 show much more freedom of execution than I should 
 have expected to find at that period. There are not 
 many canvases in the studio, but there is one standing 
 against the wall which, in my opinion, helps to show 
 
The Siamang. 
 
 (. / JVater-Colour Sketcli from Life.) 
 
HIS GREAT RAPIDITY 237 
 
 that although oil is certainly not the material best 
 suited to the artist, it is one in the use of which he 
 has attained the greatest freedom and rapidity. This 
 sketch was painted in a day, and is called " Come down 
 in the World." A chained Golden Eagle, melancholy, 
 savage, and banished to a pig-sty, mopes away his 
 life, envying the impudent Sparrows which hop in 
 and out of his prison. 
 
 Another notable instance of rapidity resulting not 
 only from exhaustive knowledge but from perfect 
 technical mastery, involving all the refinements of per- 
 spective, foreshortening, modelling, and light and 
 shade, is dragged out from a dark corner. It is a life- 
 size charcoal study, made in a day and a half, for a 
 picture which was never painted, " The Lion and the 
 Wasp." The little insect has accidentally invaded the 
 cave, upon the floor of which some bones lie scattered, 
 and buzzes busily about in its anxiety to get out again. 
 As for the owner, he cringes down upon the ground, a 
 perfect picture of power and fear — fear at the sound he 
 cannot account for. His head is, perhaps, one of the 
 best examples of Wolfs almost incredible skill in 
 catching the exact expression of animals. There is 
 something here which separates this representation of 
 a Lion from all others I have seen ; and what that 
 something is, it is not easy to say. 
 
 Some of the works which are stacked against the 
 walls of the studio are highly-finished charcoal drawings 
 which were done for the meetings of The German 
 
238 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Athenaeum (the chief of which drawings I have already 
 described) ; and conspicuous among the remainder is a 
 large and important water-colour. It is called " A 
 Row in the Jungle," and a tremendous row it is. A 
 Tiger creeps through the dense undergrowth towards 
 the spectator, his lithe body flattened down, and his 
 hide and massive limbs harmonizing in colour but 
 contrasting in form with the tangled, flaunting 
 vegetation which half conceals the skull of a Gaur. 
 Overhead, a crowd of Rhesus Macaques follow their 
 enemy's movements, with hideous uproar and every 
 expression of fear and hatred. This subject has 
 given the artist scope for the exercise of his love 
 for rich, harmonious colour ; and like several smaller 
 works, it shows how he prefers to represent the Tiger. 
 One of them, in fact, gives us little more than the 
 ferocious head framed by the exotic foliage. 
 
 " A Row in the Jungle " was exhibited at the Royal 
 Academy of 1863, and thus has been more than thirty 
 years on the painter's hands. I dare say he is not very 
 anxious to part with it, for it is almost the solitary 
 example he has left of his larger water-colour works. 
 
 Next, he shows me an unfinished water-colour 
 version rather than replica of the Ovis poll subject, 
 for he very rarely allows himself to paint a replica in 
 the ordinary sense. So completely do some of the 
 best of his black and white drawings convey the sense 
 of colour, that this version does not strike me as new. 
 I was prepared by the black and white for the rosy 
 
HIS WATER-COLOUR METHOD 
 
 2 39 
 
 snow with its pearly shadows, and for the rich colour of 
 the animals. 
 
 Never ceasing to strive after truth and the highest 
 possible ideal, he points out that the expressions and 
 characters of the animals in the water-colour are more 
 ovine, and therefore more true, than they are in the 
 other version, perfect as that appears to be. 
 
 A Sketch of Ovis poli in Snow 
 
 The method by which these water-colours are done 
 I shall briefly describe ; but for the present it will 
 suffice to say that it is distinguished by order, and by 
 conscientious, patient workmanship, in which the skill 
 is far too great to suggest labour. There is no symptom 
 
240 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 of niggle, no littleness, no slobber, and no slapdash. 
 But, nevertheless, his method is not quite so simple as 
 it looks, and when the washing in of a sky is in progress, 
 or any other delicate piece of manipulation that requires 
 k< the whole man," visitors at No. 2, The Studios may 
 tinkle the bell in vain. 
 
 I ask him if he has ever kept any kind of record of 
 his work, and he answered : — " Sometimes I did two 
 " or three things in a day — What a record it would be ! 
 " I have done many works of which I should be ashamed 
 " to have a record. When you undertake a lot of work, 
 " you may like part of it, but a vast quantity of it is 
 " rubbish to you. As a rule, when I got something to 
 " do which I didn't like, I tackled it at once, in order 
 " to get rid of it." This strikes me as being one of the 
 most important elements of his success ; and it reminds 
 me of the advice of a certain successful drawing-master 
 to his pupils, " Do the most disagreeable thing first." 
 
 On a chair opposite the lofty north window I dis- 
 cover a peculiar-looking long, narrow skull, with a 
 label attached to it. Our friend introduces this as part 
 of a new species of Antelope sent to him by the 
 Secretary of The Zoological Society, who wishes for a 
 drawing of the animal. I suggest that the material is 
 perhaps a little scanty, but he says he has the hide in 
 the next room. There I find that, on a kind of wooden 
 horse, the crumpled skin of the new species displays 
 its stiffness. This interpretation, as the reader will 
 remember, is familiar work. Granted that Wolf has 
 
The Siamang. 
 (Unfinished Water-Colour Sketch from Life.) 
 
A WONDERFUL SOFA 
 
 241 
 
 known the relatives of the animals (and there are very 
 few animals of which he does not know the relatives), 
 he has many and many a time evolved from the skull 
 and the tanned hide a highly-finished and beautiful 
 drawing; or (if we prefer so to call it), a "correct 
 figure." It is not a power which has come from mere 
 repetition, but a power derived chiefly from the alto- 
 gether remarkable faculty of observation and memory, 
 and from the same sound and extensive knowledge that 
 enabled him to make you an impromptu sketch of any 
 beast or bird you wished, in the most difficult attitude 
 you could suggest. This is the knowledge that guided 
 the charcoal so well as to entrance the veteran Oswell, 
 while he was transferring by word of mouth the stirring 
 scenes of his African life from his own powerful imagi- 
 nation to one even more powerful. The artist's number- 
 less studies of the structure and detail of mammals and 
 birds have been a means to this end. 
 
 In the room where the hide hangs on its stand 
 there are more box-portfolios ; and who knows what 
 they contain ? Probably even their owner has forgotten ; 
 for a man who keeps no record whatever of the hard 
 work of sixty years must needs have a memory if he 
 can recall the details. 
 
 Among the studio furniture, but standing back in 
 a recess, is a large, comfortable-looking, old-fashioned 
 sofa, covered with the skins of beasts. It seems a sofa, 
 pure and simple, but when we have tugged off the 
 heavy cushion, behold the handle of a lid ! I raise this 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 lid and reveal untold treasure, the discovery of which 
 makes an epoch in the life of a lover of art and of 
 animals. Hidden away here for years, in the bowels 
 of an unobtrusive piece of furniture, innumerable rolls 
 of paper composed of the first sketches of the cream of 
 a life's work have reposed. 
 
 Some of the designs are so beautiful and perfect in 
 the higher qualities of light and shade, and composition, 
 and expression, that, to a lover of sketches like myself, 
 they are far more interesting than the more elaborate 
 works of which they were the precursors. To make 
 use of the musical simile once more, they resemble an 
 infinitely touching, infinitely simple air, rather than the 
 complex, scientific, instrumental display. And yet they 
 show rare mastery, because they are the true offspring 
 of a cultured mind ; and the extraordinary knowledge 
 which has called them into being is mental as well as 
 manipulative. They show no trick of execution, no 
 mannerism, no sameness. In every case they bring us 
 face to face with nature without an effort and without 
 technical display ; and yet to the trained eye it is easy 
 to see that the technique is of the highest order. What 
 the hand has caused the chalk to express with a few 
 touches in as many seconds, it has taken years of hard, 
 devoted study to master. Indeed, if we believe the 
 evidence of some of the best judges in existence, sup- 
 ported in a humble way by the evidence of our own 
 senses, only one man has mastered it. 
 
 The sketches, for the most part, are in black chalk 
 
THE SOFA'S CONTENTS 
 
 243 
 
 upon plain " whity-brown," or "continuous cartoon" 
 paper. They include, in the first place, the whole 
 series of the designs which were reproduced in litho- 
 graphy for Mr. Elliott's monographs of the Cats, the 
 Birds of Paradise, and the Pheasants ; and however 
 much the lithographs might be preferred to the sketches 
 for scientific purposes by scientific men, no trained artist 
 would hesitate one instant in his choice between the 
 two. They prove again, with irresistible evidence, the 
 rule to which there seem to be no exceptions, that the 
 bloom, so to speak, of Wolf's work — its more subtle 
 refinements, and that which isolates it, inevitably die 
 under other hands than his own, a death violent or 
 gentle as the case may be. 
 
 The search in this great treasure-chest is too excit- 
 ing and important to be compassed in a day, for no 
 Egyptologist has unrolled the papyri that revealed 
 the history of some unknown king, with more painful 
 excitement and suspense than I feel as I read the in- 
 scription and strip off the grimy cover of each package. 
 There are surprises too, not only for me, but for the 
 artist. As usual, his pipe goes out as the old friends 
 of his prime, with all their associations, greet him once 
 more ; from some little Tiger-cat a few inches long, to 
 a nearly life-size Elk bayed by Wolves. He recalls 
 his valiant efforts, by means of skilfully placed twigs or 
 flower-stems, to bend the tails of Pheasants aside, so that 
 they shall come within the prescribed boundaries (and 
 those no narrow ones) of an edition de luxe and yet 
 
LIFE OF JOSEFH WOLF 
 
 look natural. A good deal besides the mere names and 
 habitats of the species returns to his memory, and at 
 last he says quietly, " I have done a good deal of work 
 in my time." 
 
 Some of the sketches are for life-size Eagle pictures ; 
 but the birds have a whole prairie of paper round them, 
 and merely the marginal lines of the subjects are shown, 
 or a few indications of the backgrounds. Touching 
 the large margin the artist said, " An Eagle in a con- 
 " fined space looks wretched — where he can't move, 
 " you know. It went rather against me in painting 
 " bird pictures, that very idea, to say nothing of the 
 "enormous canvases life-size Eagles and Falcons 
 " require. We are accustomed to see birds in plenty 
 " of space." As a protest against the opposite, he 
 has sometimes painted a subject such as *' Come down 
 in the World," just referred to, or "Spring in Seven 
 Dials," where a poor Skylark in a tiny cage, pours 
 forth to the sky of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the song- 
 he longs to sing once more in fields of a different kind. 
 
 Scarcely anything in the studio is locked up, but a 
 small oaken cabinet is an exception. On being opened, 
 the drawers are found to be crammed with plethoric 
 little portfolios about the size of an octavo book ; and 
 into these, again, are crushed hundreds of carefully 
 classified sketches in all materials, of mammals, birds, 
 reptiles, trees, foreground and other foliage, landscapes, 
 mountains, and even wild-flowers. Each portfolio 
 bears its own German inscription, such as " Falcons," 
 
The Siamang. 
 (From an Unfinished IVater-CoIour Sketch 
 
THE CABINET OF SKETCHES 
 
 245 
 
 " Eagles," " Grouse and Partridges, ' " Small Cats," 
 M Large Cats," "Antelopes," &c. ; and each lies in its 
 own appointed place. There are no surprises here, 
 for every sketch in the multitude, and every incident 
 attending it are known to the author, to say nothing of 
 the life history of every subject. He knows them as 
 well as a carpenter knows his own bradawls and gimlets 
 from his mate's ; and, indeed, these sketches may not 
 inaptly be termed Wolf s well-worn bradawls, gimlets, 
 and chisels. They have been used so often in his 
 work that most of them are vignetted with the grime 
 of a thousand thumbings, from the thumbs not only of 
 himself, but of his friends. Some of the sketches are 
 highly finished, and many of these are the originals of 
 the auto-lithographs which were done for The Pro- 
 ceedings of The Zoological Society. In a separate 
 division of their own are those early miniatures I have 
 so often referred to, sparkling, glowing, and inexplicable 
 as ever, after nearly half a century has passed. 
 
 The first feeling on looking at the contents of this 
 cabinet is one of deep regret that they have not been 
 more carefully preserved. They have been rubbed 
 together and shuffled like cards ; exposed to the soot 
 which gently falls without ceasing inside a London 
 drawer ; held by the same fingers which were revelling 
 in the magical smudges of the large charcoal drawings, 
 and generally evilly entreated. They show, in fact, the 
 signs of constant use which the implements of all hard 
 workers bear upon them. The next thing to strike me 
 
246 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 is the literally enormous power of drawing, and of 
 seizing upon the essential points and characters 
 peculiar to each in a thousand animate and inanimate 
 objects. As to the lovely art of expression — of con- 
 veying the appearance of much finish and modelling 
 by slight work, we find it here in perfection, and 
 numbers of instances might be given. As an example 
 of elaboration, showing how the power I have alluded 
 to has been acquired, I may mention the feet and tarsi 
 of a Goshawk, Buzzard, Heron, and others. The 
 object of these drawings was to learn thoroughly the 
 anatomy, and the arrangement and detail of the scales 
 and scutellae. So Wolf sat himself down (in the same 
 dogged spirit as when he began to copy the engraving 
 of the Queen of Prussia) and drew an elaborate map, 
 giving the individual shape of each scale, and its exact 
 relative position. 
 
 Touching the small number of people who can tell 
 at a glance the right foot of a bird from the left, if 
 not attached to the body, he gives a ready method. 
 " The inner toe has one joint only, the one next the 
 " tarsus without the nail. The middle toe has two 
 "joints and the nail ; the outer toe has one more. And 
 " with regard to the claws, particularly with the Birds of 
 " Prey, the inner toe has a claw as strong as the claw 
 "on the hind toe. These two toes meet in clutching." 
 
 It is always a good sign when the opposite poles 
 of the artistic globe can be discovered in an artist's 
 portfolios, showing equal mastery — the utmost freedom 
 
HIS HOMELINESS 
 
 247 
 
 and learned slightness, and the utmost elaboration 
 which brush or pencil can convey to paper. " I don't 
 " admire a man," says Pascal, " that enjoyeth a Vertue 
 " in its full perfection, unless he does at the same time 
 " possess in the like degree the opposite Vertue. . . . 
 " One does not show his Greatness by being in an 
 " extream, but by touching both extreams at once, and 
 " filling up the vacant space." 
 
 But now, overhead in the gallery my host added 
 to the studio, for the purpose I described before, 
 a mysterious kettle begins to sing its cheery summons 
 to an evening meal. Mounting a narrow staircase 
 which takes me by the insect cases, I have a bird's-eye 
 view of all below, and can return the stare of the 
 great Moose. It is up here that the essentially 
 bachelor and essentially simple character of Wolf's life 
 reveal themselves. There is a small gas-stove ; and 
 on this, for many years, he has cooked an omelette for 
 breakfast, and for dinner, a piece of stewed beef large 
 enough for the Starlings and Sparrows to share with 
 him. For many years he has daily divided his 
 omelette into a certain number of pieces, and washed 
 down his beef with a strict ration of bottled beer or 
 whiskey and water. There is an attendant or two about 
 the studios of course, but our friend finds it much more 
 satisfactory to be independent as we are here to-day. 
 Mellow claret and ancient whiskey can be produced 
 from a dark recess (mysteriously connected with a 
 store of his favourite anthracite coal), for the old friends 
 
248 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 who often come to smoke the pipe of peace ; but we are 
 both fond of plain living, and are content with simpler 
 fare. 
 
 I see that for several hours every day the sun 
 pours in through a small window upon some frames 
 which hang close to us, holding row upon row of 
 experiments in the permanency of colours ; and I find 
 that these experiments (and others in different trying 
 positions) were carried out so long ago, so neatly and 
 systematically that they are more interesting than 
 many I have seen. Indigo, of course, was soon found 
 wanting, and Wolf discarded it many years ago. 
 As a substitute, he has adopted Newman's cyanide 
 blue and lamp-black. 
 
 Over our coffee we talk, as usual, of a great 
 variety of subjects, but there is a remarkable absence 
 from my host of the garrulity of age, and several 
 other points strike me in his conversation. Chief 
 among them are the singular pertinence and vigour 
 of his remarks (the hammer falling fair and square 
 upon the nail time after time), his quickness of per- 
 ception, and his innate love of fairness ; shown, for 
 instance, in such matters as his criticism of other 
 zoological artists. Of these we discuss several, and 
 he points out their respective strong points (also 
 giving his opinion as to where they fail), as fairly as 
 he points out his own deficiencies. He speaks highly 
 of a rising zoological artist, whose skill, exactness, and 
 unmercenary industry, sometimes remind me of Wolf, 
 
Os PREYS. 
 (A Charcoal Drawing.) 
 
ZOOLO GICA L AR TIS TS 
 
 249 
 
 " did work hard to get his birds right, I can 
 
 " tell you. He used to come here very often, and I 
 "would tell him where he was wrong." Then he 
 speaks as follows of an ornithological draughtsman : — 
 
 " With regard to knowledge of detail stands 
 
 " very high indeed. He knows all the detail of feather- 
 " ing. Where he is wrong is that he has not clone 
 " enough from nature. He excuses himself by saying 
 " that they don't pay him sufficient to enable him to 
 " spend, the time. If anything looks extraordinary in 
 " nature he gets shy of it — declares that it is ugly, and 
 " that people will not like it. In drawing the Osprey, 
 "which is entirely different from all other Birds of 
 " Prey — a stupid, silly thing, he is afraid to show that. 
 " The people he works for will not like that be- 
 " cause they don't know it. I lent him studies of 
 
 " Ospreys, and pointed out the characters, but 
 
 " produced a thing with a Buzzard's outline and 
 " Osprey's markings. He may possibly draw from 
 " life such things as Herons which stand like a post ; 
 " but he does not consult living things sufficiently." 
 
 Of a very popular painter of the Felida> whose 
 works he is unable to admire, he says, "His markings 
 are sown without natural order or arrangement." 
 He mentions how easy it is to draw a Tiger, till the 
 markings have to be added with all their complexities 
 of perspective and modelling, " However well you 
 " model and perfect the drawing, directly you put the 
 " stripes in and happen to make the least mistake, all 
 
25° 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " goes wrong. They get so narrow in the fore- 
 " shortening as the surface goes away from you, that 
 " they are hardly seen at all." With regard to his own 
 consummate skill in this respect, and the admirable 
 result, I have heard another zoological artist speak 
 with enthusiasm. A notable example will be found in 
 Col. Campbell's Indian Journal. 
 
 He says, "The chief fault, among the modern 
 ''zoological draughtsmen is the want of artistic feeling 
 "on the one hand ; and on the other hand, insufficient 
 ' study of the structure and detail of animals. The 
 "artists who paint pictures from wild animals do not 
 " pay sufficient regard to the truth. Their main aim is 
 " to produce a picture ; and the better and more truthful 
 " it is the less likely it is to sell. Grotesque things 
 " will sell, and caricatures will sell — the only branch of 
 " art which some people think worth looking at. The 
 " principle of 1 shoddy ' in cloth — of good enough to sell, 
 " goes through everything nowadays. If a thing is 
 "worth doing it is worth doing well; but nowadays 
 " the poor fellows are glad to earn a few shillings by 
 " doing anything." "They have come to the conclu- 
 " sion," he adds, with an expression of disgust, " that 
 " subject is nothing in a picture. The chief thing is 
 " ' how it looks! What it means is beside the mark." 
 
 Touching some modern painters' apparent indiffer- 
 ence to much of the loveliness of nature he says, "If 
 " it were a clown's cap, you know, that was worn in 
 ' Shakespeare's time, they would be most careful to 
 
BACKGROUNDS 
 
 " get the markings perfectly true, and they would go to 
 44 the British Museum to study the subject. But here, 
 44 in the case of the way Nature has ornamented these 
 "things for thousands of generations, they are in- 
 44 different. I believe that if a typical landscape- 
 -painter were to settle down to paint on the coast, 
 " near the breeding-place of the sea-fowl, and there 
 " were thousands and thousands of them about him, 
 "he would hardly look up. Perhaps he would say, 4 I 
 <k wonder what all those birds are there for.' " " How 
 " few T ," he adds, " know the language of Nature ; and 
 " yet it is a most eloquent language. . . . How very 
 44 seldom you find anybody who can interpret truly 
 44 what he sees, and how seldom you will find even an 
 " artist who will stand still and admire beautiful 
 " foliage, or picturesque arrangements of leaves." 
 
 This leads us to talk, as we have often done, of 
 the backgrounds or accessories with which zoological 
 draughtsmen are wont to pack in their animals — the 
 4 4 appropriate scenery all coloured with great care by 
 hand" of the prospectus. I remark that the appalling 
 composition and draughtsmanship of some of these 
 accessories, 1 in works well known to both of us, seem 
 to have been received, both by scientific men and by 
 the public, with quite as much favour as the carefully 
 pondered work abounding in knowledge of composition 
 and detail, and in the knowledge that subdues and 
 
 1 Some of these accessories have been applied to copies of Wolf's own 
 animals ! See Brehm's Tierleben. 
 
252 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 harmonizes that detail. Deploring this state of things, 
 Wolf mentions as an example, how naturalists will often 
 perplex artists by making them put in a large expanse 
 of landscape, or trees, or some other large object, as a 
 background to a small bird. He asks the pertinent 
 question, " When you look down upon a little Wagtail 
 what landscape can you see ? " Let the reader try the 
 experiment for himself. 
 
 In answer to a question as to what were his 
 favourite subjects, he says, " I had periods when 
 " Falcons were favourite subjects, and periods when 
 " other things were favourites. There were so many 
 " things I enjoyed doing. At different times through - 
 " out life you make the acquaintance of different animals, 
 "and change your favourites. At onetime Deer were 
 " my favourites. Like every boy I was fond of 
 " Leopards and that sort of thing. You take to that 
 " kind of thing as a kind of duty when you know 
 " that your life is to be that of an animal-painter. I 
 " liked Monkeys very well, but I also liked Antelopes, 
 " besides all Animals of Prey. These will always be 
 " favourites of mine. Domestic cattle I never could 
 " take to somehow or other, because my father had 
 "worried me too much with our horses. And yet it 
 " was a jolly time then. I used to attend to the cattle 
 " (or did not attend to them), and we used to steal the 
 " potatoes, and cook them in the ashes of our bon- 
 " fires." In birds he considers his strongest point the 
 Birds of Prey and the Gallinaceous order. " Ducks," 
 
HIS BEST WORKS 
 
 2 53 
 
 he says, " are nice things too — in fact all birds have a 
 charm for me." 
 
 In connection with the subject of his favourites, 
 he gives me a brief list of some works which he himself 
 considers as among his best and most characteristic, 
 as follows. A water-colour version of the Ovis poli 
 drawing, done originally for Sir Victor Brooke. " Age," 
 an old Red Deer stag lagging behind the rest which 
 have passed through the forest in the snow, with a few 
 gleams of light seen between the tree-trunks. This 
 he regards as one of the best black and white designs 
 that he has ever done. kk A Midnight Ramble, " the 
 Wild Boar subject in charcoal, also painted in water- 
 colour for his friend Mr. Carl Haag. " A Storm 
 in the Alps," representing some Chamois sheltering 
 under dwarf firs, with an Alpine Hare and Ptarmigan. 
 Among his best water-colours he includes " Inquisitive 
 Neighbours " ; " Grave and Gay " ; " Ospreys Fishing " 
 (a water-colour companion to the Ovis poli design) ; 
 and last, but not least, a drawing of a Labrador Jer- 
 falcon painted for his friend Mr. H. E. Dresser, of 
 which more hereafter. Of his oil pictures he mentions 
 the " Jerfalcons and Kite" which I have alluded to 
 already, and a life-size picture of an Ibex and Lammer- 
 geyer painted for Mr. J. H. Gurney. The artist has, 
 of course, his own definite reasons for these preferences 
 (into which it will not be profitable to enquire in the 
 absence of the works in question), and sometimes, no 
 doubt, pleasant associations have had their weight. 
 
254 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 In the list of his most attractive, if not, perhaps, 
 his best works, I should be tempted to include two or 
 three that I have myself seen, beginning with a large 
 water-colour drawing, " Arctic Summer," 1 touching 
 which its owner, Mr. H. E. Dresser, gave me some in- 
 teresting particulars. At The Junior Athenaeum some 
 artists were talking of the alleged difficulty of painting 
 white upon white ; a white figure upon a white 
 background ; and, in consequence, he suggested an 
 experiment to Wolf The result was this drawing of 
 Jerfalcons painted in 1875. The male bird sits upon 
 a foreground rock on the left, his white plumage in a 
 delicate and perfectly natural relief against the glacier 
 in the distance, rosy in the sun. A gentle shadow from 
 the high rock behind the spectator falls over part of the 
 bird and the foreground, subduing the beautiful colours 
 of the flowers. It steals also over a portion of the 
 middle distance, where the full-fledged young sit to- 
 gether, their hungry eyes fixed upon a Ptarmigan, with 
 which their mother, flying near them, lures them to an 
 early lesson in their craft. That everything might be 
 true to nature, down to the flowers and other vege- 
 tation, Mr. Dresser consulted the notes Mr. Edward 
 Whymper had made in Greenland. 
 
 I was giving Wolf his friend's account of the 
 origin of this drawing, the discussion as to the 
 difficulty of painting white upon white, and he said, 
 
 1 Another version of " Arctic Summer" (by no means a replica) shows 
 the young Falcons alone. 
 
COLOUR HARMONIES 
 
 2 55 
 
 " It is not difficult at all. White models very strongly. 
 " For instance, the round form of a bird, a Ptarmigan 
 "we will say, is sure to have a shadow on one side. 
 " Then there is always a difference of tone. The 
 " snow will be cold white, and the Ptarmigan creamy 
 " — a lovely white, you know. The fact is, if you see 
 " a dead Ptarmigan lying on the ground with its wings 
 " slightly separated from its body, the colour between 
 "the wings and the body is quite salmon-colour. In 
 " this instance the Falcon sits on a rock, but high 
 " above him the rock goes up, and throws a shadow 
 " over the lower part of his body. If the snow back- 
 " ground were near him, he would relieve warm 
 "against it ; but, being distant, it appears rosy in the 
 " sun." 
 
 The solution of problems such as these, so dear to 
 the mind of a colourist, has been favourite work with 
 our friend, ever since the days when, as a lad, he 
 stumbled on the mystery of the complementary 
 colours, and the way to give the brilliancy of his first 
 Goldfinch. Possibly all the owners of his finest water- 
 colours are not aware that they are colour harmonies 
 as beautiful and skilful and delicately fingered as any 
 ever awakened by a musician's hands. 
 
 I should also include among Wolfs finest works 
 another large black and white drawing. Two mighty 
 Boars, roaming the forest in the snow, have met by 
 chance at night ; and full of envy, hatred and all un- 
 charitableness, make up their minds that discretion, per- 
 
?56 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 haps, is the better part of valour on that particular 
 occasion. Gnashing their tusks, they pass one another, 
 every bristle raised, and every great muscle quivering 
 with rage. It is a subject after Wolfs own heart, 
 for it is nocturnal and mysterious — the romance of 
 natural history, and a little more than a mere accurate 
 figure of two adult $ specimens of Sus scrofa. 
 
 Remembering the many drawings of ugly animals he 
 has had to make for scientific purposes, I ask my host 
 whether he found them very irksome. He answers, 
 " When a thing is ugly in itself it is very wearisome to 
 " have to draw it carefully, but at last one ceases to 
 "see that it is ugly." 1 No doubt he has found this 
 discipline useful, like another artist I knew, who would 
 sit down sometimes and "go to school to a potato," or 
 draw some equally ugly object as if his life depended 
 on it. 
 
 Asked which class of purchasers he has found most 
 common, the genuine admirers of the works, or those 
 who thought it just as well to have a " Wolf" in their 
 collection, he replies that he has found those most fre- 
 quent who bought a work because they liked it, and he 
 thinks that his being a foreigner has made no difference. 
 " But, generally, before a gentleman buys a picture he 
 " asks his wife. She comes to see it, and says after- 
 " wards, ' My dear, I have not seen anything like that 
 " ' in our friends' houses. Do you think we had better 
 
 1 Among the very ugliest of his sitters were the Manatee and a promis- 
 ing young Walrus. This animal he rightly likened to a sack of potatoes. 
 
GERMAN OR ENGLISH 
 
 2 57 
 
 " 1 have it ?' He does not have it." " To what class 
 "of the public have you most appealed," I ask. " I 
 " have not the slightest idea," he replies. 
 
 He tells me that though he has been longer in 
 England than most Englishmen, he has never gone 
 through the formality of naturalization, and is still a 
 German subject. He says it makes no difference in 
 practical affairs, and that the shopkeepers would have 
 cheated him just the same if he had been naturalized. 
 He has preserved a warm attachment to his little 
 village and his countrymen ; but although he is at heart, 
 perhaps, a German, and thinks very little of a man 
 who loves not his country and kindred, he has also a 
 natural affection for his adopted land, where he has 
 ac hieved so much, and for the friends he has made 
 there. When they have died, he has always paid a 
 visit to their graves, when he could. 
 
 It is no doubt owing to his forbearance and good 
 sense that he does not convey the impression of being 
 a foreigner, and it is easy to forget that he is one. He 
 tells me that he has got so used to our language that 
 he thinks in English, not in German. No doubt with 
 his own countrymen he seems a true German, but to 
 me he rarely conveys that impression by speech or 
 manner. His friend, Mr. H. E. Dresser, however, 
 writes to me thus : — " I think in your Life of 
 " Wolf you should lay stress on the fact that, though 
 " he has lived so long in England, he has remained 
 " German in his ideas and to a large extent in his 
 
 s 
 
258 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " habits, and has never become an Englishman ; 
 " being, as you know, still as true a German as 
 " ever." Mr. Dresser is so familiar with the German 
 people and language, and so old and intimate a friend 
 of Wolfs, that this opinion carries great weight. The 
 point, however, is not a very important one. 
 
 As we rise from the table, it occurs to me that all 
 the most interesting information I have gathered about 
 Wolf and his works has generally arisen out of sheer 
 accident, not by cross-questioning. Most incongruous 
 remarks, or incidents, or questions, have awakened a 
 train of thought in his mind, much to my benefit. " I 
 " have found it," he says, "just the same in art. You 
 " may think and think, but nothing comes. All at 
 " once, by accident, you get a beautiful subject. I have 
 " noticed that when I have been sitting with a friend 
 " downstairs of an evening, talking of different things 
 " altogether, but always with an eye to the picture on 
 " the easel, that, all at once, I saw something which I 
 " had never seen before." 
 
 By this time the Blackbird outside is singing his 
 evening song, and London dines. Before I leave, 
 we arrange that my friend shall pay us a country visit 
 to renew his acquaintance with the Swallows and Sedge 
 Warblers. He chooses a fresh pipe from a large col- 
 lection, to smoke while he waters his garden ; and as 
 he does so he says emphatically, " There is nothing like 
 smoking a pipe in the world." All the most enthusi- 
 astic things that smokers have ever said or written he 
 
HIS 10 VE OF CHIIDREN 
 
 2 59 
 
 would doubly endorse, and it was therefore inevitable 
 that he should design a pipe-bowl or two. Of one of 
 these designs, intended for execution in meerschaum, 
 he says, what I have heard him say of very few other 
 works of his, " I wouldn't part with that for anything." 
 Even for his old tobacco-pouches he finds a use ; for 
 sometimes he fills them with cocoa-fibre and drops 
 them on an unfrequented pavement. Watching from 
 afar, sooner or later he sees the pouch picked up. 
 Sometimes the finder slips it furtively into his pocket, 
 sometimes he opens it (with amusing results), and 
 on one occasion the trap was carefully re-set. 
 
 As we pass the porter's lodge on the way out, a 
 little baby-boy, 1 in his father's arms recognises Wolf as 
 a special favourite, and screams to go to him. " Of 
 'Mate years I have become very fond of children, and 
 " I like to hear their young voices and their jolly laugh- 
 " ter," says my stalwart friend. As he stands at the 
 private entrance of the studios, I see him, as he waves 
 an adieu, nursing one of the tiny puppies, while its 
 mother wags her tail by his side, and the fragrant smoke 
 of his pipe wreathes about his head. 
 
 1 The tour of this faithful little friend of the artist's round his studio is 
 an amusing sight. One after another, he greets the various works on the 
 walls, and easels, and chairs, with a shout of recognition and delight, 
 toddling to each in turn with outstretched arm. He knows each "dicky," 
 "bunny," and " pussy" in the room, and claps his hands with joy. He 
 even tries to frighten away the Eagles with his pinafore. Finally he pats 
 the seat of his friend's favourite chair, as a hint for him to sit down, and 
 that accomplished climbs upon his knee. 
 
 S 2 
 
26o LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 It is hot June weather, and Wolf has kept his pro- 
 mise to spare me a few days, far away in the remotest 
 part of Surrey, a neighbourhood remarkable for its 
 
 Pere David's Deer 
 
 richness in bird life. 1 It was rather difficult to persuade 
 
 1 It is on the commons in this neighbourhood, as related by Gould, 
 that Mr. Smither, that most original man and keen naturalist, collected in 
 the spring of 1859 no less than sixty-five nests of the Dartford Warbler. 1 
 
IN THE COUNTRY 
 
 261 
 
 him to leave his little garden and many tender seedlings 
 to the care of the porter at the studios ; but now that 
 he has unpacked his pipe and tobacco, and a favourite 
 pair of pistols (designed by himself many years ago), 
 he resigns himself to his fate, to the intense joy of the 
 children, with whom he is a very special favourite. 
 
 On meeting fairly early the next morning we find 
 that our guest has been up for at least three hours. He 
 says " As one can't add to the number of one's days, 
 one must add to the length of them." As he concocts 
 with his own hands the invariable omelette, he tells us 
 all about an unsuspected Goldfinch's nest he has dis- 
 covered, and how he has been watching the old birds 
 feeding their young. In the course of the day, as he 
 roams about with his pipe, he finds out another nest 
 or two, which have escaped even boyish eyes ; but 
 he is especially pleased with the chorus of Swallows 
 and Martins which is kept up all day round 
 the old eaves and chimneys ; their dainty little songs 
 always reminding him of the remote days when he 
 watched so anxiously for their return. 
 
 We plant a comfortable garden chair in the shade 
 of a horse-chestnut, and here he alternately listens to 
 the music all round him, and studies the modelling of 
 a muscular Fox Terrier. " Trim," like the kittens, 
 
 was introduced to him some twenty years later, and remember being struck 
 by his originality and enthusiasm. He was in bed (I think with a broken 
 leg), and had been blowing a nest-full of Dartford's eggs, which lay on the 
 quilt. His house was full of the trophies of his gun ; a most interesting 
 collection, still treasured by his family. 
 
262 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 becomes a fast friend with him in a moment, and 
 vibrates his two-inch tail in a way which altogether 
 belies his usual uncharitable opinion of strangers. As 
 Wolf smokes and looks about him, he holds in his hand 
 a box of matches, and gradually but surely the ground 
 in front of him is besprinkled with the ends. 
 
 First on our programme for the day come some 
 photographs I have to take, and he changes his white 
 Leghorn hat for his favourite " Tarn o' Shanter," the 
 successor of a whole series of the Turkish fez. As I 
 wish to use a slow lens at first, which, in the light of 
 the studio, will require a long exposure, I am rather 
 doubtful whether my sitter will be able to keep firm 
 without supports of any kind. " Try me," he says, as 
 he places himself instinctively in a good position. The 
 result the reader will see in the frontispiece. 
 
 As the day is a calm one, we make up our minds 
 to indulge in a little shooting, and having hung up a 
 small target on the butts, we go back to a considerable 
 range. There, again, his steadiness astonishes me, 
 for he puts shot after shot from my '295 Holland rifle 
 into or near the bull's-eye. He complains a little 
 about the haziness of the rear sight, nevertheless ; and 
 it is rather a relief to him when he takes up his small- 
 bore, hair-trigger pistols, the rear-sight of which he 
 can get farther from his eye. It is easy to see from 
 the way he handles his weapons and sets to work, 
 not only that he thoroughly enjoys it, but that he must 
 have had a large experience. 
 
HIS KEEN SENSES 
 
 263 
 
 It is hot work in the sun, and he feels that the 
 effort of keeping steady is bringing on a twinge or two 
 of his old enemy, the nervous rheumatism ; so we 
 adjourn to the shady seat by the river. He has just 
 settled down on the cushions with his usual expression 
 of satisfaction — " By Jove! Caft-ha] ! " when he holds 
 up his finger with the words, " Lesser Whitethroat ! " 
 He is right, for though the bird is far distant, it pre- 
 sently comes along the alders, and there is no doubt 
 about it. He scarcely ever boasts of anything, but he 
 does boast that he knows not only the striking distinc- 
 tive notes of many of the European birds, but most of 
 the varieties of their language. Being well able to 
 realize what such knowledge involves, as far as England 
 is concerned, I was, perhaps, a little sceptical at first ; 
 but, from time to time, I have had ample proof that he 
 is right. The slightest glimpse of a moving bird, 
 even half concealed by foliage — the slightest utterance 
 of that bird's voice, enables him to tell you the species. 
 He says, " If you were to put me in prison for some 
 " years, then blindfold me, and bring me out into the 
 "country, I could tell you what time of year it was by 
 " the bird's notes." I admit that much that I have told 
 sounds incredible, but I have proved the truth of it 
 for myself; and I must leave others to believe or reject, 
 as they like. 
 
 You would not suspect that behind the great, round 
 spectacles there existed such keen vision. But the 
 unassisted vision, keen though it be, would be futile 
 
264 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 without the knowledge which has been acquired by 
 years of study. He says that his quickness of sight 
 was gained through constantly watching things in move- 
 ment, and continually sketching them from memory. 
 The power of grasping the characters of moving objects 
 or of giving the appearance of movement is, in fact, 
 seldom found existing in very great perfection in the 
 artist who relies much on photography. The perpetual 
 struggle to do by memory and hand and mind, what 
 another man prefers to do by means of his camera and 
 proportional compasses leads in time — perhaps a long 
 time, to a great superiority. 
 
 As we sit in the shade by the river, he gives me 
 a rough outline of his methods of working. It is not 
 very comprehensive, but it is very interesting as far as 
 it goes. He says, ''You get into a way of working 
 " which you can't describe. The great thing is to keep 
 " on wo7 r king!' Jointly with his habit of attacking the 
 most disagreeable or difficult thing first, this seems to 
 me to be one of the most important elements of success 
 in art or in life. Theorize as much as you like, try 
 endless experiments if need be, but keep on work- 
 ing. 
 
 I find that Wolf deprecates the tentative way some 
 artists go to work to piece their pictures together, 
 either by the aid of photographs or otherwise ; and 
 contrasts it with composing con anwre from a distinct 
 mental vision or conception of the subject. He thinks 
 that such vital points as composition and the arrange- 
 
BACKGROUNDS AND ACCESSORIES 265 
 
 nient of colour and light and shade should be carefully 
 thought out in the first instance. He thinks also (as 
 other intellectual artists have done), that a picture 
 should be a homogeneous creation of the intellect and 
 the imagination ; not a more or less fortuitous selection 
 of facts patched and pieced together, partly out of 
 doors, partly in the studio, with a dash of photography 
 and a rummage in the property-box. This being his 
 belief, he has escaped those incongruities of perspective 
 and light and shade which are often found in works of 
 the opposite kind, beautiful though they may be with a 
 rule-of-thumb beauty. 
 
 "I find," says my guest, speaking low for the sake 
 of an inquisitive Moorhen a few yards away, " that the 
 " landscape studies I have done will never form a 
 4 'proper background or foreground, and I have always 
 " to modify and adapt them. When you see a nice 
 " thing in nature, you sit down and make a study ; and 
 " when it is finished there is no room left for any animal 
 " which you had intended to put in. It is a composi- 
 " tion in itself. As a rule I find that everything has to 
 " be simplified. If you want to do justice to your 
 " principal animal or figure, you ought to put the back- 
 " ground, as it were, out of focus. According to the 
 " figure of the animal which forms the principal object 
 " in the picture, you must avoid getting into your 
 " accessories similar forms and objects of the same 
 " degree of solidity. For instance, in 4 Strength and 
 "Weakness' [Rhinoceroses and Indian Axis Deer] 
 
266 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " I avoided anything in the shape of a tree-trunk or 
 " rock — anything which would rival the solidity of 
 " the Rhinoceroses. Instead of that, I chose loose, 
 " feathery stuff, and bamboo with elegant willow-like 
 " leaves. . . . In doing birds — simply a bird on a twig, 1 
 " I always used to avoid getting the same size of leaf as 
 " the bird, or the same shape. The fact is that ninety - 
 " nine per cent, of what you see in nature is of no use 
 " to you, and should be avoided." He learned com- 
 position, he says, by illustrating. "The thing has to 
 " be finished by a certain time, and you go far more 
 "free and easy to work than in the case of a commis- 
 " sion." He disliked illustrations so arranged that the 
 book had to be turned round to look at them, and so 
 he gradually got into the way of composing, and I think 
 preferring, upright subjects. 
 
 He says, " Excessive knowledge of detail hampers 
 " me very often in doing things picturesquely, and in 
 " trying to work broadly. It has a tendency to inter- 
 " fere very often in art. For instance, in the case of 
 " Hippopotami, I know very well that they come up 
 " with hardly a ripple — yet everybody thinks there 
 "would be a great commotion in the water. It is 
 "far more difficult to get breadth in a composition 
 " when you are hampered by detail, than if you 
 " do not know the detail, and slur it over." The trouble- 
 some nature of excessive knowledge of detail is one 
 
 1 Wolfs " bird on a twig" is often a perfect paragon of skilful arrange- 
 ment and grace. 
 
PREFERS NOCTURNAL SUBJECTS 267 
 
 reason why he likes nocturnal subjects. " My preference 
 " for night scenes is due to there being more poetry 
 " about them than when everything is seen clearly. 
 " At night the detail disappears altogether. An ugly 
 " animal, particularly, like a Wild Boar, makes a far 
 " better picture by moonlight." He even avoids 
 representing a clear moon in a picture, and prefers a 
 clouded one ; and for the same reason, he has preferred 
 northern subjects (such as Scandinavian) to Oriental. 
 He once made a water-colour landscape study of a 
 Wild Boar by moonlight 1 for his friend Mr. Carl Haag, 
 whose natural bent, he says, is to prefer things clear 
 and sharp as seen in the East by daylight. He omitted 
 the eyes which, save for a glint or two, as he had 
 proved, could not be seen by moonlight. He had, 
 however, considerable difficulty to convince his friend 
 that he was right. "It is of great importance to 
 know what to leave out in nocturnal subjects." 
 
 Light and shade, he thinks, are quite as important 
 as local colour. "In my case 1 cannot choose the local 
 " colour of the creatures. They have their own, and I 
 " am tied to that ; and in order to make that local colour 
 " tell I have to introduce as near as possible the com- 
 " plementary colour in the accessories. I want to be 
 *' truthful in colour as well as in drawing ; and when I 
 "do a picture I am tied down by the local colour, and 
 " cannot put in the combination as well as I would 
 
 1 "A Midnight Ramble." 
 
268 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 "choose ; so, except in the background, there is very 
 " little choice." 
 
 Touching size it is interesting to find how he has 
 changed since the early days when he did miniatures, 
 partly from the inability to cover a larger surface. 
 " The size of a water-colour," he says, " has nothing to 
 " do with the time it takes. In a large one you go to 
 " work more boldly and use larger brushes. I would 
 " rather do a drawing large than small." 1 
 
 I asked him why, as he was so fond of black and 
 white, he had done so little in pen and ink. He 
 answered, " Pen and ink work did not suit the detail 
 " which I knew. When you know a thing it takes you 
 " much longer to satisfy yourself than if you do not 
 " know it much. My knowledge has often stood in 
 " my way." 
 
 When an artist has arrived at such a pitch of 
 mastery over technique and materials as Wolf has 
 done ; when he can take up a bit of charcoal and a 
 certain magical, superannuated brush, and turn out 
 such a work as the first sketch for " Captivity " (where 
 a pair of kittens filch a Pigeon from beneath a hooded 
 Falcon's perch) ; when he can work wonders by simply 
 flinging his wash-leather at a sky, as he did in the 
 beautiful drawing of a dead Lion with Vultures called 
 " Morning " — when he can do all this, it is quite as use- 
 less to ask him to describe how he does it, as it would 
 
 1 Some of these remarks may appear to the trained artist self-evident, 
 but I have inserted them for the benefit of the inexperienced. 
 
Captivity. 
 
HIS FAVOURITE MATERIA! 
 
 269 
 
 be to ask Joachim how he fingers his violin, or a first- 
 rate gun-maker how he bores a pair of barrels. 
 
 It is interesting, nevertheless, to learn that in some of 
 his black and white work Wolf rubs in his backgrounds 
 (clouds for instance) with a pocket-handkerchief or 
 cotton-wool, or " anything " ; taking out the lights with 
 bread, or a mezzotint scraper. Sometimes he grinds 
 the point of this scraper round for putting in his 
 favourite reeds, and it is easily seen that he has used the 
 same tool in his lithographs. For glitter, such as that 
 of dew-drops on vegetation, he scratches into the 
 surface of the paper. 
 
 Charcoal, and its water-colour relative charcoal- 
 grey are, above all others, his favourite materials. His 
 charcoal is not in the form of the ordinary slender 
 twigs, but of good sturdy stakes that fill the fingers 
 and will not snap under the strain of sudden inspira- 
 tion. I have known this great affection for charcoal 
 to exist very strongly in another artist who also aimed 
 at the more abstruse qualities in art ; a man to whose 
 imagination the realms of the Indefinite were instinct 
 with suggestive beauty and poetry. He called 
 charcoal, aptly enough, "the artist's divining-rod"; 
 and certainly, of all materials it seems to convey most 
 freely that potent current which flows from the brain to 
 the fingers of the poet-painter. Wolf might sharpen 
 up his mezzotint scraper, or put a needle-point upon 
 a 3-H pencil if he liked, for certain purposes ; but it 
 was when he resorted to the all-powerful, all-suggestive 
 
270 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 smudge, of finger, brush, wash-leather or cotton-wool, 
 that one of his greatest mental as well as manual 
 powers was shown. 
 
 It might be supposed, at first sight, that many of 
 our friend's black and white drawings, especially moon- 
 lights, were done on paper of a blue tinge, the moon 
 being painted in body-colour ; but this is not so. He 
 says, " After my drawings are finished and properly 
 " fixed (a point, of course, of vital importance), and 
 " particularly if the paper has become yellow and dirty, 
 " I wash them over with very faint Prussian blue, or 
 " cobalt, or both — a washer-woman dodge, you know ; 
 " but of course if any high lights have been scratched 
 " out, the colour would settle in the scratches.'' A good 
 example of the effect of this treatment is the exceed- 
 ingly fine drawing I have already described, " A Night 
 Attack." In this case the moon is represented by 
 white paper. 
 
 In reply to a few rather hopeless questions about 
 his water-colour method, he tells me that he wipes out 
 a good deal ; wetting the paper, and wiping out the 
 colour with a handkerchief, small sponge, or piece of 
 wash-leather ; and sometimes blotting it up with blot- 
 ting-paper. After this, and while the drawing is damp, 
 he takes out the sharp high lights with India-rubber. 
 
 Mr. H. E. Dresser has in his collection an exceed- 
 ingly fine water-colour drawingof a Labrador Jerfalcon 
 painted by Wolf in 1875, and remarkable for artistic 
 quality, harmonious colouring and freedom of execution, 
 
HIS WATER-COLOUR METHOD 
 
 271 
 
 and also for the short time it took to execute. The 
 rich brown bird, which is small for the size of the 
 drawing, sits in the foreground with the remains of a 
 Rock Ptarmigan he has been devouring lying round 
 him. His mate sails in the misty sky, through which 
 we see portions of the great mountains so beloved by the 
 artist. Wolf thus describes his modus operandi in this 
 and parallel cases. First of all a very delicate outline of 
 the principal object is drawn on the paper in Indian 
 ink, or other indelible material. The paper is then 
 thoroughly wetted and laid upon a wet board, or sheet 
 of glass, so that it lies absolutely flat. The sky is then 
 put in, and the drawing is finished, as far as possible, 
 while it is wet. When dry, it is mounted upon another 
 sheet of strained paper. Probably it is found that the 
 drawing is lighter than it was intended to be. It is 
 therefore emphasized here and there, and then the 
 principal object is finished. This process, says Wolf, 
 is particularly suitable for clouds, as the colours blend 
 so well into one another on the wet paper. 
 
 This Jerfalcon subject was completed in about one 
 day and a half, and the background and sky were 
 done in a few hours, except the snowy mountains, 
 which were elaborated. Mr. Dresser recently gave me 
 some interesting additional particulars concerning this 
 lovely work. He happened to call on Wolf when the 
 drawing was finished with the exception of the bird, 
 which was in outline only. The artist was in a diffi- 
 culty because nearly all the Falcons were not suited in 
 
272 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 colour to the background. He described what he 
 wanted, and said, " I wonder what I can do." " I have 
 the only bird that will do," said his friend, " the 
 " Labrador Jerfalcon ; the only specimen of the fully 
 adult in England." Mr. Dresser took the skin, and 
 directly Wolf saw it he said, " That's exactly what I 
 want." The result was a work that takes the highest 
 rank in water-colour art, and has been considered by 
 accomplished artists to be one of Wolf s very best 
 achievements. 
 
 I was lately recalling these circumstances to his 
 mind when he said, " I wonder whether that skin was 
 " the adult." " Dresser says so." " Yes, but you can't 
 ''get the register of its birth, you know." Here crops 
 up once more the artist's indifference to authority, if 
 he has not quite satisfied himself of a fact. 
 
 He does much of his water-colour work with hog- 
 hair brushes, from half an inch wide or so, and with 
 good length of bristle, so as to hold plenty of colour. 
 For skies he uses large sables, for some purposes an 
 old brush irregularly cut, and for others a brush whose 
 hair is split or divided with the fingers when it is wet. 
 Rough rocks he calls into existence with a sponge, and 
 for glitter he scratches into the paper, just as he does 
 in black and white. When his water-colours are 
 finished he sometimes applies in places what he calls 
 Carl Haag's medium, that is gum tragacanth dissolved 
 in chloroform. This has the same effect as varnish in 
 oil painting, particularly in the dark parts. He says, 
 
"MASTERLY INACTIVITY' 
 
 273 
 
 " I sometimes put the colour out of the tube direct 
 " upon the paper, to get its full depth and purity, and 
 il richness." 
 
 As for the material upon which he has worked, he 
 has preferred for his studies smooth, toned paper to 
 Whatman, but has always painted his finished drawings 
 on the latter. His sketches for the most part have 
 been made in charcoal on ordinary whity-brown paper, 
 a great favourite of his. I fancy that, with this ex- 
 ception, he has been somewhat indifferent, as I have 
 seen sketches of his on all kinds, and tints, and textures 
 of paper, the only material conspicuously absent being 
 Bristol or London board in spite of its great " bear- 
 ing out " quality. 
 
 The processes of which I have given an outline are, 
 of course, easy enough to the painter as a rule ; but 
 even he comes to a dead lock sometimes. He says, 
 " I am always very particular, when I find a thing will 
 t( not go as I intended, not to bother myself. I let it 
 " dry and put it aside, perhaps for a day or two." Un- 
 like another artist who also knew the importance of 
 stopping short and not working for work's sake, he 
 does not go to the length of packing up the drawing 
 in much paper and string, to reduce the temptation to 
 touch on it ; but such a veteran knows the importance 
 of humouring the enemy — of swift attack and "masterly 
 inactivity," each in its own time. 
 
 Some of his most important work has been done 
 while he has been apparently idling away an hour or 
 
274 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 two over a social pipe, and chatting with his friends 
 before his easels about anything but art. More still, 
 and probably the most important of all, has been done 
 with locked doors and intense concentration, and deep 
 thought. 
 
 In his opinions on art, as in his practice, Wolf is 
 thoroughly eclectic. He does not pin his faith to one 
 particular school, nor has he dogged the footsteps of 
 any particular hero. He hardly understands those 
 who have. "I cannot understand," he says, ''the 
 " narrow-mindedness of many of the English school. 
 
 " They are full of or full of someone else, and will 
 
 " pay no regard to anybody besides." As for himself, 
 he admires with unaffected cordiality really fine work 
 of any date, or nation, or style, or individual artist, 
 wherever he encounters it, and hates with equal vehe- 
 mence work which is specious, impudent, or wanting in 
 conscientiousness. I have never heard a word come 
 from his lips conveying the impression that he con- 
 sidered himself a judge, but I have never heard more 
 pertinent criticism than his, or seen greater quickness 
 in artistic diagnosis. 
 
 I once heard it contended by a fellow-countryman 
 of his (whose knowledge of his works was not very 
 extensive), that his art is essentially German. That 
 whether he has drawn an English stubble, a Scotch 
 loch, the African veldt, or even " Spring in Seven 
 Dials," all have been treated in an essentially German 
 way. Waxing warmer, the gentleman said that 
 
HIS ECLECTICISM 
 
 275 
 
 none of our nation can appreciate or understand Wolfs 
 achievements, while The Fatherland, to a man, would 
 receive them with acclamation. My own acquaint- 
 ance with my friend's work and with some weighty 
 English opinion of it being considerable, I ventured 
 to demur to these statements. I thought that with the 
 exception of some of his Darmstadt studies, if his art 
 was essentially anything, it was essentially eclectic and, 
 so to speak, cosmopolitan. From the first, he avoided 
 falling under the influence of any academy or school, 
 or of any great artist ; and he was chiefly self-taught 
 when he left Germany as a youth to continue his 
 studies in England for a period of forty-seven years, 
 self-taught to the end. When he was making fore- 
 ground studies near Darmstadt, toiling up Foinaven, 
 sketching on Handa or the Bass Rock, or labouring 
 till he was giddy with fatigue at the drawings for the 
 Zoological Society, I did not think that he was brood- 
 ing over German art, any more than he was brooding 
 over the achievements of Landseer, or Snyders, or James 
 Ward. He endeavoured, I said, and endeavoured suc- 
 cessfully, to throw himself into the spirit of the object or 
 the scene which he happened to be representing ; charm- 
 ing equally, either by extreme truthfulness, absence of 
 mannerism, or great artistic skill, such dissimilar critics, 
 (among a host of others) as Darwin, H. E. Dresser, 
 Gould, Carl Haag, Landseer, Mitchell, Newton, Oswell, 
 Owen, Rossetti, Rtippell, Schlegel, Sclater, A. Thorburn, 
 Charles Whymper, Woollier, and the baby-boy at the 
 
2 7 6 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 lodge. This, too, whether it was a German forest, a 
 Scotch mountain, an American wilderness, or a fine 
 " adult specimen of so and so in breeding plumage" 
 which he represented. All through this profitable 
 discussion, our friend sat peacefully puffing away 
 behind his spectacles, the picture of comfortable 
 indifference. When we had done, he removed his pipe 
 from his mouth and said these words : "I worked as 
 " I thought best, without any intention to appear 
 " English or to appear German. I always tried to 
 " avoid copying other men's style or subjects." Here 
 then, in Wolfs own words, I am content to leave the 
 question of the nationality of his style. 
 
 As for his knowledge, though immensely wide it 
 is not desultory. It is well classified, and is always 
 the result of the orderly evolution of principles from 
 phenomena ; of the humble, painstaking wrestle with 
 elements as a preliminary to all real proficiency. If 
 he wonders at the want of toleration and eclecticism in 
 some of the modern school, he is simply astounded at 
 their contempt for these elements. A young painter, 
 having been appointed to some art mastership, Wolf 
 was chatting with him one day on the subject of teach- 
 ing, and alluded to the importance to the pupil of some 
 knowledge of perspective and anatomy. " Perspective ! 
 " Anatomy ! " said the newly-fledged Professor. " That 
 " is not Art." " There is no such thing as a finishing 
 " school for an artist," says Wolf, as he tells me the 
 anecdote. " One remains a student all through life." 
 
LOYALTY TO HLS LDEAL 
 
 277 
 
 Himself the most unmercenary of men, Wolf depre- 
 cates the sordid spirit of certain painters who, even 
 after they have become rich, behave like tradesmen, 
 and paint just for the pounds, shillings and pence. Save 
 for a few early pot-boilers (such as the Woodcock 
 pictures), he himself has resolutely and loyally striven 
 for a certain ideal, well knowing it to be as far removed 
 from the ideal of the British public as from the ideal 
 of Councils and Hanging-committees. 
 
 At the time when, with the most seductive alchemy, 
 he could turn all his pencil touched to gold, he reso- 
 lutely set apart a large proportion of his time to the 
 patient, unostentatious acquisition of facts and principles ; 
 labouring (for that is the true word), in his search for 
 truth. As we have seen, this was not due to a mis- 
 taken belief that his labours would be appreciated. It 
 was simply the unmercenary, unswerving devotion of 
 the true artist and the scrupulously honest man. If, 
 with all his resources, such as his eye for colour, pro- 
 found knowledge of detail, lively invention, draughts- 
 manship, and attractive, rapid technique, he had 
 painted thoroughly popular subjects — kittens, say, or 
 cattle, or Fox Terriers, or anything equally far 
 removed from the despised " Objects of Natural 
 History," he might have grovelled in gold and become 
 a fetich of the dealers. Even " shooting-coat " pictures, 
 as he calls them, with such power as his, might have 
 made him a baronet. But alas ! He had a certain 
 definite ideal ; and again alas ! He had imagination. 
 
278 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 By means of inflexible purpose, but flexibility in achiev- 
 ing that purpose, combined with ceaseless industry, he 
 has succeeded in his aim ; so, at the age of seventy-five, 
 he remains plain Joseph Wolf, utterly unknown, it 
 seems, to the editors of any biographical dictionary ; for- 
 gotten, I fear, by some who once admired him ; but much 
 beloved as an artist and as a man by a circle of enthu- 
 siasts to whom it is no slight honour to belong. Con- 
 tentedly he smokes his pipe down by this little Surrey 
 river where we have been talking, or divides his morn- 
 ing omelette into eight segments, rejoicing in that 
 quiet mind and healthy body that he has been blessed 
 with. 
 
 As the shadows of the alders above us grow 
 longer, and the baby Owls in the neighbouring elms 
 bethink them of their supper, 1 tell him how greatly I 
 hope that some day his talent will be more widely 
 recognised, if not here, at all events in his own land. 
 I find he is neither very keen nor very sanguine about 
 it. He has achieved that quiet philosophy which 
 neither believes in nor desires popularity. He has 
 lived into the age of high pressure and nine-day 
 wonders in art, in literature, and all else — in art 
 " Impressionism," in Literature the daily batch of 
 novels. He may even have heard (as I have lately 
 done, and that from a shrewd, educated man) the best 
 picture defined, as that which gives the greatest 
 pleasure to the greatest number ! 
 
 " As to my life," he says, " I was always very busy ; 
 
COMPARISON IMPOSSIBLE 
 
 279 
 
 " never was in debt ; and didn't know what extrava- 
 " gance meant. I believe that if I had ever so much 
 " money I should never become extravagant. Here, at 
 " the present time, a jolly blue sky and the green fields 
 " have the same charm for me as when I was young. 
 " I don't feel that I have grown old." 
 
 I do not myself intend to compare Joseph Wolfs 
 works with those of any other artist living or dead. 
 His achievements, his artistic mastery, his ideal, and his 
 manly loyalty appeal to me so strongly, and fill me with 
 such overpowering admiration and respect, that I should 
 fight against prejudice in vain. It would be difficult, 
 moreover, to make a fair comparison. Few of the 
 most successful animal painters have had to struggle 
 against every conceivable disadvantage which could 
 beset them as beginners. They have excelled not alone 
 through their genius, but by constant practice within a 
 limited range of subjects — Deer and Horses, or Dogs 
 and game ; or the Felidce, for instance. Wolf, on the 
 other hand, has had to fight his way upward, inch by 
 inch, from his boyhood; and yet has excelled in repre- 
 senting almost all orders of the warm-blooded animals 
 in the world, from an English Mouse to an African 
 Elephant, and from a Humming-bird to the Moa. 
 There is not a family of mammals or birds in existence 
 that he has not studied more or less deeply. For 
 example, as a zoological artist pure and simple, he 
 has, in the single instance of The Proceedings of The 
 
2 8o LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Zoological Society, drawn nearly 350 different species 
 from all regions of the earth. Among mammals he has 
 drawn most of the Primates, Carnivora, Ungulata, 
 Edentata and Marsupialia, to say nothing of many 
 representatives of the other orders, save the Cetacea. 
 He has also drawn nearly all the Gallinaceous and 
 Accipitrine birds, and numbers of the Passerine. 
 
 Moreover (to make comparison with other artists 
 still more impossible), he has not stopped at the halting- 
 place of the Zoological draughtsmen (though some of 
 these, as far as numbers go, have been much more 
 prolific) or even of the average animal-painter, but has 
 proved himself to be an accomplished and poetical 
 artist in the widest and highest sense of that word. 
 Accomplished in landscape, and a perfect master of the 
 more abstruse branches of art, such, for instance, as 
 composition and chiaroscuro, he has worthily rendered 
 some of the grandest and most lovely aspects of nature. 
 As a painter in oil he has achieved success ; in water- 
 colour, I think, still greater success ; and in black and 
 white he has distinguished himself greatly. In nearly 
 all materials his capability is proven. Modelling came 
 natural to him, and as a lithographer he stands in the 
 first rank. 1 
 
 Lastly, he was a frontiersman and pioneer, and he 
 has taken a distinct line of his own. While some 
 artists have endeavoured to humanize their animals and 
 to surround them with human associations, Wolf, for 
 
 1 " I hated etching," he says, " it was too much scratching for me ' 
 
HE STANDS ALONE 
 
 281 
 
 the most part, has aimed at eliminating that element. 
 His beasts and birds are such as might have walked 
 and climbed and flown in an unpeopled earth, where 
 even the flint arrow-head was unchipped, and the hide 
 had never covered the broad shoulders of pre-his- 
 toric man. 
 
 Comparison would not only be unfair ; it would 
 be futile. It is generally useless to endeavour to 
 convince anyone that an artist whose work he knows 
 not — w T hose fame is not backed by the authority of the 
 Press of the last decade (to say the least of it), is 
 worthy of being mentioned within a day's march of 
 the favourites. 
 
 I also avoid comparison because I am one of those 
 who, as surely as they know their own existence, know 
 that in some of his achievements Wolf stands utterly 
 alone. Believing it can be proved that nobody has 
 approached him in times past, and having deeply 
 studied his genius in its various aspects, I must be 
 pardoned if I believe also that he will never be 
 equalled in times to come. 
 
 I am aware of his few faults. There are works 
 of his which I dislike, and there are others to which I 
 am perfectly indifferent. I hold, however, that only 
 mediocrity and machinery work uniformly up to one 
 standard. The twenty-millionth pin is perfect, but not 
 more perfect than the first. Real, worthy Mediocrity 
 works up to its standard year after year, rarely falling 
 below and never exceeding it. It is not disappointing, 
 
282 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 because it never fails to fulfil every expectation, and 
 so it comes to be regarded as reliable and honest. 
 This achieved, other virtues which it does not possess 
 are added to it by its admirers ; and in the end there 
 sometimes comes substantial recognition by the State. 
 
 There are mainly three kinds of art ; the art that 
 asserts everything dogmatically, the art that obfuscates, 
 and the art that, besides asserting here and there, 
 suggests and teaches and allures, thus calling into play 
 the best qualities of the minds of the beholders. 
 Those who look at Wolf's works superficially, or (as I 
 have sometimes seen), with the supercilious, envious 
 scrutiny of hypercriticism, may consider them over- 
 rated. They will be sure to miss the wealth of sug- 
 gestion, the point of each story the artist has tried to 
 tell, and naturally the consummate excellence of his way 
 of telling it. Those, on the other hand, who love to 
 dwell on these works month after month, ever seeking 
 for new beauties and never seeking vainly, will inevit- 
 ably be rewarded, and rewarded most richly. It is 
 only those, however, who have had the advantage of 
 his own comments and kindly but modest guidance — 
 the advantage of leisure to explore his portfolios, who 
 can fully realize the rare attributes of his workmanship. 
 They are the attributes which have given vitality and 
 dignity to art since those days of old when the lips of 
 the marble Galatea warmed at Pygmalion's kiss. 
 
 In bringing to an end one of the happiest tasks 
 
MR. DRESSER'S OPINION 
 
 283 
 
 that can fall to a man's lot, in chronicling the life and 
 work of a friend who is enthusiastically reverenced 
 and admired, I bethought me that I would not close 
 with my own words, but would ask four old friends of 
 Wolf's (who by reason of their own attainments are 
 far more worthy than I could be to speak of his), if 
 they would give their reasons for their admiration. 
 I chose two representative ornithologists, and two 
 representative zoological artists, who all, with much 
 courtesy and kindness, complied with my request ; and 
 I print these passages, taking the names of the writers 
 alphabetically. 
 
 Mr. H. E. Dresser, the author of The Birds of 
 Etirope, writes : — 
 
 " As regards Wolf, he is certainly best as far as the Raptores are 
 " concerned, . . . but where he excels and surpasses any animal painter 
 " I know of, is that not only is he an excellent artist, but he so 
 " thoroughly understands the pose and characteristic points of the 
 "animals he paints, whether mammals or birds. There are certain 
 " characteristic peculiarities in every species which can only be dis- 
 " tinguished by anyone who has made a life study of them ; and 
 " these Wolf has an inborn power of transmitting to his canvas. I 
 " can best describe this by referring to old shepherds, who can recog- 
 "nise each individual sheep in their flock. The late Sir Edwin 
 " Landseer once, speaking to me of Wolf, laid great stress on this 
 " power of his, and said that he considered Wolf to be, without ex- 
 " ception, the best all-round animal painter that ever lived. ' When 
 " 'a good many artists of the present day are forgotten,' Landseer 
 " added, ' Wolf will be remembered.' " 
 
 Professor Newton was so good as to write me the 
 following letter : — 
 
284 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 Magdalene College, Cambridge : March 9, 1895. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — With every wish to comply with your request, it is 
 " no easy thing to do so. My admiration of the works of my old 
 " friend Mr. Wolf is almost unbounded, and has been often publicly 
 " expressed ; but to give my ' reasons ' for it might lead me into the 
 "domain of the 'art critic,' where I should be a trespasser. I can 
 "only suppose his excellence to lie in his knowledge not merely of 
 " what an animal looks like, can do, and is ; but primarily in his 
 " acquaintance with its structure, derived from intelligent observation 
 " and close study, and when a bird is concerned, with its pterylosis— 
 " to use a very technical word — of which last most great masters, from 
 " Hondekoeter, Savery and others of old to those of our own time, 
 " have been absolutely ignorant. Then there is an absence of any 
 " attempt to humanize the expression, as is so commonly, though per- 
 " haps unconsciously, done by many good artists. Whether the animal 
 " be mammal, bird, or reptile, Mr. W^olf gives it its own expression. 
 " Landseer's dogs and horses frequently have, so to speak, human 
 " faces, and his deer hardly less so. To my eye there is a trace of 
 " this in his birds, though that is by no means their chief defect. 
 " I remember the late Mr. D. W. Mitchell, himself a good artist, 
 "remarking to me that Mr. Wolf's figures of animals were not only 
 "portraits of the species they represent ; but, when taken from life, 
 " of the particular individuals, and this I think is perfectly true. I 
 " know no one else of whom the same can be said, though of course 
 " one does not know the subjects of some of his predecessors, and it 
 " is possible that w T hen they drew from life they at least tried to render 
 " personal peculiarities. It follows from this that Mr. Wolf has never 
 " been guilty of exaggeration such as disfigures the designs of some other 
 " draughtsmen from Snyders to Audubon — the last having been more 
 " highly lauded in his time than anyone else. It may be that in what 
 " is, I suppose, called ' feeling ' some of the moderns, such as Swainson, 
 " Lear and Mitchell, when at their best, may have equalled Mr. Wolf, 
 " and in accuracy both the Naamanns and Schlegel are often serious 
 "rivals, leaving little to be desired. Certainly all these men, and 
 " some others, have produced beautiful things, but in the best of them 
 ' there is nearly always a want of vitality which rarely fails in Mr. 
 "Wolf's work and is sometimes so strong as to bear translation by a 
 
PROFESSOR NEWTON'S OPINION 285 
 
 " copyist without any serious loss of force. Moreover the men just 
 " mentioned seldom or never attempted such grouping and.accessories 
 " as he introduces so as to make a picture. On the other hand, he 
 " never sacrifices peculiarities of structure or coloration for pictorial 
 " effect, as I have known many another artist do ; but, giving, as a 
 "true Naturalist should, due prominence to the chief zoological 
 " character of his subjects, he brings all the surrounding scene into 
 " harmony with them, and thus represents Nature with the utmost 
 " fidelity. As might be expected, the result is almost invariably 
 " pleasing ; but it is a result that only genius of a very high order 
 "can attain. Trusting that this long explanation may satisfy your 
 " enquiries, I remain, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, 
 
 "Alfred Newton." 
 
 Having ventured to demur at what I imagined 
 
 Professor Newton to say with regard to the equality 
 
 in the matter of " feeling" of certain artists with 
 
 Wolf, judging from what I know of their work, he 
 
 was kind enough to add the following : — 
 
 " I do not put Mr. Mitchell and the others in the same category 
 u as Mr. Wolf, but you especially asked me to compare his work with 
 " that of his chief predecessors. What I wrote as to the ignorance of 
 " Pterylosis shewn by other artists was, perhaps, too sweeping ; for 
 " there are men now living who are aware of the need of studying in 
 "it — though I quite believe they have been led thereto by Mr. 
 " Wolf's example. ... I am not surprised at your being in doubt as 
 " to the meaning of Pterylosis. I should think the only dictionary 
 "which contains the word is my own. Therein it is defined as 
 " ' Plumage considered in regard to the distribution of its growth.' 
 " In only a few birds do the feathers grow over the whole body, but 
 "they are generally restricted to well-defined patches or tracts, which 
 "in 1833 received from Nitzsch (Pterylographice. Avium, pars prima, 
 "p. n) the name of pteryla or feather forests, in opposition to apteria 
 " or featherless spaces, which intervene. The article is of .some 
 " length and gives several illustrations (some from Nitzsch and 
 " others original) of the pterylosis of various birds ; but a very large 
 
286 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " number of figures is wanted to do complete justice to the subject. 
 " Mr. Wolf had no doubt, in his younger days, seen Nitzsch's great 
 " work — of which there is now an English translation containing the 
 "original plates 1 — but so, I dare say, had many other artists, only 
 " they neglected the hints while he did not, and that makes all the 
 " difference between his work and theirs." 
 
 As I have said before, although it seems likely that 
 Mr. Wolf had seen Nitzsch's work, yet it is a fact that 
 he saw neither that nor the translation. His study 
 of pterylography was entirely independent of all help 
 either from books or otherwise. 
 
 Mr. A. Thorburn sent me the following : — 
 " Wolfs work is not only faultless as regards truth to nature, but 
 "there is, besides, an indescribable feeling of life and movement 
 "never attained by any other artist. 
 
 " The best aspect of it, to my mind, is his power of representing 
 " the pathetic side of animal life, in which he shows his sympathy 
 "for the suffering bird or beast. This is especially noticeable in 
 " such pictures as the wounded Hare hunted down by Hooded 
 " Crows, or the water-colour drawing in the South Kensington 
 " Museum of the terror-stricken Ptarmigan striving to escape the 
 " glance of the marauding Eagle. ... I suppose you asked Wolf 
 "the other day about the little incident that occurred the first time 
 " he visited his father's grave. This shows not only his great power 
 " of observation, but also how much poetry there is in his nature. 
 " Many a man would never have noticed the Red Admiral butterfly 
 "sunning itself on the tomb-stone, but Wolf at once saw in it a 
 " beautiful emblem of the resurrection." 
 
 Mr. Charles Whymper, the artist, has not only 
 known Wolf intimately for many years, but has en- 
 joyed the rare privilege of working in his studio for a 
 long period. He may therefore be said to be more 
 
 1 Pterylography. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, and 
 edited by P. L. Sclater. Ten plates of figures, folio. Ray Society, 1867. 
 A.H.P. 
 
MR. WHYMPER'S OPINION 
 
 287 
 
 or less of a disciple ; and, in response to my request, 
 this is what he says : — 
 
 " Asked to put into concisest form the ground of one's admiration 
 " for the work of Mr. J. Wolf, I think there can be but one way of 
 " answering the question. It is because of the vast and exact know- 
 ledge, always exhibited, of the life history of the particular animal 
 " shown ; and of the subtle drawing which, though based on precise 
 " anatomical science, is never obtrusively scholarly ; whilst, best of 
 " all, he always imparts a romantic or poetic view of his subject. 
 " Pictures so carried out, of animal life, may be said to have been 
 " really the invention of Wolf alone. 
 
 " Prior to the advent of this remarkable and most original man, 
 " painters had never regarded wild animal life as a field to work in. 
 " Of course there had been many works illustrated by more or less 
 " inexact pictures of animals, from a very early date. But no single 
 " man had ever portrayed the life of bird and beast with its ever 
 "varying incidents. Rubens, it is true, had painted Lions, and 
 " Snyders had painted Boar hunts, but the slightest knowledge of 
 ''natural history would show anyone that neither of these great 
 " painters knew anything more than the mere picturesque outside of 
 " their subject, and they were content to make their work rest on 
 " its masterly painting. As real, accurate representations of the 
 " animals their pictures are not of much value. 
 
 " Not one painter, apparently, had ever given that study, or 
 "attained that knowledge, which would have enabled him to portray 
 " truly the wild creatures around him, The nightmares of pictures 
 " which do in any way show animals other than domestic, are 
 " evidence that there was little or no knowledge. . . . None of these 
 "show any knowledge beyond the mere form of the dead body. 
 "They show no knowledge of the life. You may search your 
 " galleries and your libraries as you will. There is a complete 
 " blank. 
 
 "Wolf, therefore, must have credit for absolutely discovering a 
 " new field for art. His knowledge is so vast and varied that he 
 " can give you the minutest details of the life of the Moose and Elk 
 "from the far North, or the Lion or the Koodoo from southern 
 " Africa, as truly as he can of the brooding Woodcock on her nest 
 
288 
 
 LIFE OF JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 " in our own country, or the roaming Wild Boar of his own Fatherland. 
 " No bird or mammal, whether great or small, but he understands it 
 " as completely as if he had made just that one creature his entire 
 " study. 
 
 " These are not merely idle words. For six years I worked with 
 " Wolf- — for three, actually in his own studio ; and I can honestly say 
 " that every hour of those years added steadily to my wonder for and 
 " admiration of the depth and exactness of his marvellous knowledge 
 " of the whole realm of animal creation. This it is that makes his 
 " work so distinct and individual. It is saturated with the most 
 " scientific exactness. 
 
 " Wolf would have succeeded in any branch of art that he might 
 " have taken up, because of his fine sense of form and power of 
 " drawing it, but it is doubtful if he could possibly have done more 
 " for the art world at large. No doubt a great deal of his power is 
 "in some way intuitive ; but, in the main, it is owing to his constant 
 " and painstaking study — study such as most men would not attempt. 
 " From very earliest years he has insisted on the need of always 
 " working direct from life ; and his untiring habit of never slurring 
 " over the slightest detail but always going straight to nature for the 
 " smallest matter is the grand secret of his power. . . . 
 
 " He has shown us how rich the animal world is in poetic and 
 " picturesque subjects ; and moreover his animals are always animal, 
 " as opposed to human. 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 
 " on pictures of pet Dogs with interesting faces as like man's as 
 " possible, and noble Stags and Eagles of conventional beauty, 
 "do not therefore all at once seethe charm of his completely natural 
 "animals. But the verdict of every single naturalist and sports- 
 " man is that no pictures of wild animal life could possibly be better 
 " and truer. 
 
 " In technique Wolf's methods are admirably simple. Often 
 " have I watched him putting in with a big, flat brush those tender 
 " washes of warm colour that form the base of so many of his 
 " pictures. Painstaking to a degree in every detail, he would sit and 
 " watch the effect of the colour till it was sufficiently dry ; and then, 
 " with unerring certainty, he would take the complementary colour, 
 
MR. WHYMPERS OPINION 
 
 289 
 
 " and dexterously laying it on over the first wash, instantly produce 
 " the most perfect pearly grey mist. Then, with a well thought out 
 " plan, he would wipe out lights, and deepen shadows ; but always, 
 " between each stage, he would sit down, pipe in hand, and quietly 
 " survey his work, his whole mind concentrated on it, till at the right 
 "moment he would again rise to his feet, and with a few touches 
 " put in some new forms. His work was never muddled or sloppy. 
 " Hence his drawings are always very pure in their tones. Often he 
 " would tell me, ' You are in too great a hurry. Have patience, and 
 " ' smoke a pipe over it. Think what you are going to do before you 
 " ' do it.' He had no patience with slapdash work, and he himself 
 " never did hurried work, but always with deliberate, loving careful - 
 " ness. Indeed it is this loving carefulness of his that gives the hall- 
 " mark to all he does. . . . His whole heart is in his work. 
 
 " Personally I think that it is the poetry of Wolfs mind which 
 " places him far beyond any ordinary animal painter, and gives him 
 " the title to be placed amongst the great artists. His knowledge, 
 " his care, his accuracy and dexterity, all would have been vain with- 
 " out it ; but with it (and he has it in every fibre of his nature), his 
 " work must for all time rank with the very highest." 
 
 Lion Cubs 
 
 (A sketch from life) 
 
 U 
 
A 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS 
 ILLUSTRATED ENTIRELY OR PARTLY 
 BY JOSEPH WOLF 
 
 U 2 
 
NOTE. 
 
 In addition to the works in the Appendix, there are a number of 
 books, published from the fifties onwards, to which Mr. Wolf contri- 
 buted one or more of the illustrations, including Mr. Whymper's 
 'The Great Andes of the Equator' and Mr. Selous' last work. I 
 have seen proofs of many of these illustrations, but up to the time 
 of going to press I have not been able to trace the titles of the works 
 themselves 
 
 A. H. Palmer. 
 
Turtle Doves 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 IN THE PROCEEDINGS 
 OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
 
 No. 
 
 848. Mammals. 2. 
 
 3- 
 S. 
 
 Birds. 
 
 849. Mammals. 
 
 4- 
 5- 
 9- 
 
 12. 
 i.3- 
 
 Ptilocercus lowii. Borneo 
 Ceropithecus pinto. Angola . 
 Herpestes ochraceus. Abyssinia . 
 Podica per sonata. Malacca . 
 Psittacus ruppettii. R. Nunez. Africa 
 Ceropithecus melanogenys. W. Africa. 
 
 „ ludio. W. Africa 
 Capreolus leucotis. Valparaiso 
 Ticpaia ellioti. Eastern Ghats, 
 India ...... 
 
 Paper. 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 G. R. Gray 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 G. 
 
 R. Water- 
 house 
 * u 3 
 
294 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 1849. Mammal; 
 
 , The young Hippopotamus pre 
 sented to the Society by H.H 
 Abbas Pasha 
 Birds. 7. Gal/us temminckii. Batavia 
 
 8. . „ ezneus . 
 
 9. Glareola nuchalis. Fifth Cataract 
 
 of the Nile 
 10. Citltrides rufipeimis. Mexico 
 13. Hybrid Crown Pigeon. Hatched i 
 the Menagerie . 
 1850. Mammals. 16. Presbytes albigena . 
 
 17. Phacochccrus cethiopicas. J u v. Natal 
 
 1 8. Thalacinus cynocephalus $ $ . Van 
 
 Diemen's Land . 
 
 19. The newly arrived Hippopotamus 
 
 taking his first bath . 
 
 20. Adenota lechc. S. Africa 
 
 Birds. 
 
 23. 
 24. 
 25. 
 26. 
 27. 
 
 14. 
 
 „ rufus 
 „ superciliaris 
 auritus 
 
 1.3.5. Heads of C. nemorivagus. 
 
 C. rufus. 4, C. superciliaris. 
 
 C. auritus .... 
 Cariacus punctulatus 
 Eos cyanogenia 
 
 „ semilarvata .... 
 Chalcopsitta rubiginosa 
 Garrulus lidthi. Remote China ? 
 Oriolus broderipii. Island of 
 Sumbava ..... 
 Aquila audax. Eggs laid in the 
 
 Gardens 
 
 Buteo rufipcnnis. Kordofan 
 
 23. Mirafra cordofanica „ 
 
 24. Alauda erythropygia „ 
 
 25. PalcEomis derbianus. New spe- 
 
 cies in the collection at Knows- 
 ley 
 
 26. Pal<zornis erythrogenys. Ditto 
 
 27. Crax alberti ft. Ditto . 
 
 19 
 
 22 
 
 Paper. 
 
 G. R. Gray 
 
 D. W. Mitchell 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 Lucien Buona- 
 parte 
 
 H. E. Strickland 
 
 Louis Fraser 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 295 
 
 No. 
 
 Birds. 28. 
 
 29. 
 30. 
 
 3i- 
 
 32. 
 33- 
 
 34- 
 
 185 1. Mammals. 30. 
 
 Birds. 35. 
 
 36. 
 37- 
 38. 
 39- 
 
 40. 
 41. 
 
 43- 
 44. 
 
 152. Mammals. 32. 
 
 33- 
 34- 
 
 Birds. 46. 
 
 47- 
 48. 
 
 49- 
 
 1853. Mammals. 35. 
 
 36. 
 37- 
 38. 
 
 Crax alberti 9 . New species in 
 
 the collection at Knovvsley 
 Penelope niger $ 9. . Ditto. 
 1.2. Apteryx anstralis 
 3.4. „ mantelli . 
 I. A. anstralis (Foot). 2. A 
 
 mantelli (Foot) 
 Turdus vulpinus. Caraccas 
 Machccrirhynchns flaviventer. N 
 
 Australia .... 
 Plilotis Jiligera. N. Australia 
 Herpestes smithii. Ceylon . 
 Cynictis mac cart hies. Ceylon 
 Balccniceps rex. ' Upper White 
 
 Nile . . . . . 
 Sanrophagns derbianus. Mexico 
 Psaris fraserii $ Mexico . 
 
 „ „ % Mexico . 
 Magaftodius cumingii. Island of 
 
 Labuan . . . 
 Francolintis yemensis. Arabia 
 Tamioptera erythropygia. Repub 
 
 lica Equatoriana 
 Twiioptera siriaticollis. Repub 
 
 lica Equatoriana 
 Artamus cucullatus. India. 
 Sagmatorrhina lathami 
 Anomalnrus beecrofli. Fernando 
 
 Po 
 
 Hyrax dorsalis. Fernando Fo 
 Potamochocrus pencillains. C am a 
 
 roons .... 
 (Eggs.) 1. Apteryx mantelli. 2 
 
 Sterna. ? 3. Strigops habro 
 
 ptilns. 4. Ocydromus anstralis 
 Culicivora boliviana. Bolivia 
 Pipra fiavo-tincta. Santa Fe de 
 
 Bogota .... 
 Snthora webbiana. Shang Hai 
 Po'ephagns grnnniens. Juv. India 
 Bndorcas taxicolor. $ Ad. India 
 Porcula salvania. India 
 Felis macrosceloides. India. 
 
 Paper. 
 
 Louis Fraser 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 Hartlaui: 
 
 John Gould 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 John Gould 
 Kaup 
 
 L. L. Dillwyn 
 Nicholson 
 
 P. L. Sclater. 
 
 Nicholson 
 L. Buonaparte 
 
 L. Fraser 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 G. R. Gray 
 J. E. Gray 
 
296 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 S54. Mammals. 
 Birds. 
 
 No. 
 
 50. Bucco radiatus. New Granada . 
 
 51. Malacoptila substriaia. New 
 
 Granada 
 
 52. Dendrocolaptes eytoni. Para 
 
 53. Nest and Eggs of Mcmira alberti. 
 
 Australia . . . . 
 
 54. Ptilonopics chrysogastcr 
 
 55. „ purpureocinctus . 
 
 56. (Eggs.) 1. Otogyps aiiritus. 2. 
 
 Prosthcmadera novce-zealandicE. 
 39. Petrogale zanthopus. Australia . 
 
 57. RuticiUa phce?ticuroides. N.India. 
 
 Paper. 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 J. Gould 
 
 G. R." Gray 
 
 H. F. Walter 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 F. Moore 
 
 58. „ /lodgsom', $ 5 . Nepal. „ 
 
 59. ,, rafcrgularis, $ 2 • India. „ 
 
 60. „ vigorsi, £. India. ,, 
 
 61. „ m'grogularis, £ . India. „ 
 
 62. Nemura hodgsoni, $ % . Nepal. „ 
 
 63. Delichon iiipalensis. Nepal . „ 
 
 64. Biithranpis chloronata . . . P. L. Sclater 
 
 65. 1. Euphonia hirundinacea. Guate- 
 
 mala. 2. Euphonia co?icimia. 
 New Granada .... 
 
 66. Tyranmcla phoenicura. Ecuador. 
 
 67. Arremon spectabilis. Ecuador . 
 
 68. Chlorospingus melanotis. New 
 
 Granada 
 
 69. Tacky phonus xantliopygius. New 
 
 Granada ..... 
 
 70. Myrmesiza leucaspis. Rio Negro. 
 
 71. „ margaritata. Peru . 
 
 72. Pithyserythrophrys. New Granada 
 Hypocnemis melajioltzrna. Peru . 
 
 73. „ melanostica. New 
 Granada 
 
 74. Formzcivora caudata. New Gra- 
 
 nada ... 
 
 75. Melacocichla dryas. Guatemala . John Gould 
 
 76. Orthotomus derbia?itis. Philip- 
 
 pines ? . . . F. Moore 
 1855. Birds. 77. Galbula fuscicapilla. New Gra- 
 nada P. L. Sclater 
 
 79. TJiamnophilus leuchauchen. E. 
 
 Peru „ 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 297 
 
 No. 
 
 Birds. 80. Thamnophihis melannonotus. 
 Para . . 
 
 81. Thamnophihis nigrocinereus. Para 
 
 82. „ ccesius. B. Guiana 
 
 83. „ melaniirns. Brazil. 
 
 84. Todirostrum nigriceps. Santa 
 
 Martha 
 
 Todirostrum spiciferum. N.E. 
 Peru. 
 
 85. Conirostrum ferrugineiventre. 
 
 Bolivia 
 
 86. Synallaxis erythrothorax. Hon- 
 
 duras 
 
 87. Rhamphocamus cinereive?itris. 
 
 New Granada .... 
 
 88. Cyphorinus albigularis. Isthmus 
 
 of Panama .... 
 
 89. Arremon erythrohynchus. Bogata. 
 
 90. Tachyphonus xanthopygius. Bogota 
 
 91. Tanagra\notabilis. In Republica 
 
 Equatoriana 
 
 92. Saltator arremonops. Ditto 
 
 93. Prion breviroslris. Madeira 
 
 94. Grallaria modest a. Santa Fe de 
 
 Bogota . . 
 
 95. ChamcBza mollisima. Ditto 
 
 96. Formicivora callinota. Ditto 
 
 97. Dysithamnus semicinereus. Ditto 
 
 98. Pyriglena tyraimina. Ditto 
 
 99. Nemosia albigularis. Ditto 
 
 100. Pyriglena ellisiana. Ditto 
 
 101. Anthus bogotensis. Ditto 
 
 102. Octocorys peregrina. Ditto 
 
 103. Vireolanius icterophrys. Ditto 
 
 104. Ampelion rubrictistatus 
 
 105. Bucco hyperrhyncJius. Upper 
 
 Amazon .... 
 
 106. Bucco pulmeiitu7n. Upper Ama 
 
 zon and E. Peru 
 
 107. Somateria v. -nigra. Kotzebue 
 
 Sound .... 
 
 108. Lampronetta fischeri $. Nor 
 
 ton Sound .... 
 
 Paper. 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 ?? 
 
 3) 
 
 John Gould 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 G. R. Gray 
 
298 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 Kumaon, 
 Nepal 
 
 No. 
 
 1855. Birds. 109. Buarremon leucopterus. In 
 
 Republica Equatoriana . 
 1 10. Iridornis porphyrocepliala . 
 in. Octocoris longirostris. Agra 
 
 112. Ember iza stracheyi. 
 
 India 
 
 113. Propasser thura . 
 
 ii4- » » ?• 
 
 1856. Mammals. 41. Mus musculus ... 
 
 46. Sciurus macrotis. Sarawak 
 
 47. Paradoxums strictus. Plains of 
 
 Nepal . . . 
 
 48. Paradoxurus quadriscriptus. 
 
 Hills of Nepal 
 
 49. Mustela strigidorsa. Sikim 
 
 50. Arctonyx is onyx. Nepal . 
 Birds. 115. Calcenas stairi. Samoan Islands 
 
 1 1 6. Margarornis brunnescens. 
 
 Bogota 
 
 117. Octhoeca funicolor. Bogota 
 
 1 1 8. Eiiscarthmus agilis. Bogota . 
 
 119. Conopophaga cucullata. Bogota 
 
 120. Granatellus sallcei. Cordova, S. 
 
 Mexico 
 
 121. Pipra mentnlis. Cordova, S. 
 
 Mexico 
 
 1857. Mammals. 51. Shanghai Sheep .... 
 
 55. Oryx beatrix. Bombay 
 
 56. Lcpus nigripes. Himalayas ? . 
 
 57. Cephalophus grimnti . 
 
 „ burchelli 
 
 58. Lcopardus hernandesii. Mazailan 
 Birds. 123. Cotinga amabilis. Guatemala . 
 
 124. Euphonia gouldi. Mexico 
 
 125. (1) Todirostruin calopterum. In 
 
 Republica Equatoriana 
 (2) Todirostruin capitate. Ditto 
 125. Todirostruin exile. Ditto : 
 
 (1) Formicivora urosticta. E. 
 Brazil 
 
 (2) Formicivora hauxwelli. Ditto 
 Polychlorus wester manni. Island 
 
 of St. Domingo . 
 
 126. 
 
 127. 
 
 ' Paper. 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 F. Moore 
 
 John Gascoin 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 T. HORSFIELD 
 
 G. R. Gray 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 J. E. Gray 
 A. P. Bartlett 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 John Gould 
 p. l. sclater 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 299 
 
 No. Paper. 
 
 1858. Mammals. 59. Poiaviochocrus africanus . . J. E. Gray 
 
 61. discus orientalis. $ <j> . Island of 
 _ Ula 
 
 62. Cuscus celebensis. Celebes 
 
 63. Dactylopsila irivirgaia. Aru 
 
 Islands ...... 
 
 64. Myoictis wallacii £ . Ditto . „ 
 Birds. 131. Melanerpes rubrigularis. Cali- 
 fornia T. Bridges 
 
 132. (1) EuchcEtes coccinens. Ecuador. P. L. Sclater 
 (2) Creurgops verti calls „ . „ 
 
 133. Dacelo tyro. Aru Islands . . G. R. Gray 
 
 134. Todospis cyanocephala. Aru 
 
 Islands ..... „ 
 
 135. Chalcopsitta rubrifrons. Aru 
 
 Islands ..... ,, 
 1 36. Ptilonopus wallacii. Aru 
 
 Islands ..... „ 
 
 137. „ aurantiifrons Ditto „ 
 
 138. ,, coronulatus Ditto „ 
 
 1 39. Thamnophilus amazonicus. 
 
 Upper Amazon . . . P. L. Sclater 
 
 140. Dysithamnus leucosticus. Ecu- 
 
 ador .... 
 
 141. Myrmotherula surinamensis. $, 
 
 Rio Negro 
 Myrmotherula multostriata. $ 2 
 Upper Amazon 
 
 142. Formicivora erythrocera. Brazil 
 
 143. Myrmelastes plitmbeus. $ 5 
 
 Upper Amazon 
 
 145. Phrygilus ocularis. $ $. Ecu- 
 
 ador ..... „ 
 
 146. Elainia griseigularis. Ecuador 
 
 stricioptera „ 
 
 147. Young of Catreus wallichii and 
 
 Lophophorus impeyanus. [Li- 
 thographed by J. Jennens.] 
 India D. W. Mitchell 
 
 148. Young of Gallophasis albocri- 
 
 status. India ... „ 
 Young of Gallophasis horsfeldii. 
 India 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY y. WOLF 
 
 No. Paper. 
 
 1859 Mammals. 73. Equus kiang . . . . . W. E. Hay 
 Birds. 150. Dendroci?icla anabatina. South 
 
 America . . . . T. J. MOORE 
 
 151. Chloronerpes sanguinalentus. S. 
 
 America ..... „ 
 
 152. Otothryx hodgsoni. N. India . G. R. Gray 
 
 153. Plectoperus gambensis . . P. L. Sclater 
 
 „ ruppellii . . „ 
 
 154. Vireo josephce. Ecuador . . 
 
 155. Carpophaga goliath. New Cale- 
 
 donia G. R. Gray 
 
 156. Montifringilla adamsi. Cash- 
 
 mere A. L. Adams 
 
 157. Laimodon albiventris. West 
 
 Africa Jules Verrfaux 
 
 15S. Hybrid between Tadorna vul- 
 
 pansa and Casarsca cana . P. L. SCLATER 
 
 i860. Mammals. 76. Didelphis waterhonsii. Ecuador. F. R. Tomes 
 Birds. 169. Aquila gurneyi. [Lithographed 
 
 byjennens.] Molucca Islands. G. R. Gray 
 
 170. Tanysiptera sabrina ,, , 
 
 171. Megapodiits wallacii „ „ 
 
 172. Habroptila „ „ „ 
 
 1 86 1. Mammals. 
 
 Birds. 
 
 Plate, 
 
 4- 
 
 16. 
 21. 
 22. 
 27. 
 
 31. 
 32. 
 33- 
 
 34- 
 
 35- 
 40. 
 
 42. 
 
 Lepus cuniculus. Var. (See June 
 23, 1867.) .... 
 
 Potamochoems pencillatus. Fcem. 
 et Juv 
 
 Sciurus gerrardi. New Granada. 
 
 Hylobates pileatus. Camboja . 
 
 Felts concolor. Juv. . 
 
 Cervus pseudaxis. Pekin . 
 
 Myoxomys salvinii. Guatemala . 
 
 Megapodins quoyii. Juv. Gilolo 
 „ reinwardtii. Juv. 
 New Guinea .... 
 
 Megapodiits tumulus. N. Aus- 
 tralia 
 
 Grus montigitesia. Juv. China 
 
 Heads of Meleagris ocellata. 1 
 2 $ . Honduras 
 
 Podargus superciliaris. Waigiou. 
 
 Paper. 
 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 J. E. Gray 
 R. F. Tomes 
 G. R. Gray 
 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 G. R. Gray 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 301 
 
 Birds. 
 
 Plate. 
 
 43- 
 
 1862. Mammals. 
 
 Birds. 
 
 1863. Mammals. 
 
 44. 
 1 6. 
 
 17. 
 24. 
 
 Fig. 1. Macharirhynchiis albifrons 
 
 Waigiou and Mysol . 
 Fig. 2. Tudopsis wallacii. Mysol 
 Henicophaps albifrons. Waigiou 
 Formosa 
 
 Camaroon 
 
 Natal 
 
 Cervics taeva?tus 
 „ swi?ihoii 
 Sciiims Isabella. 
 Mountains 
 
 32. Ursits japoiiiciis . 
 
 33. Leopardus japonensis 
 
 34. Cephalophiis bicolor. 
 
 35. Capricornis swinhoii . 
 
 37. Pithecia monachus 
 
 41. Lemur lencomystax. Madagascar 
 
 42. Macacus cyclopis. Formosa 
 
 43. Leopardus brachynrus „ 
 
 44. Helictis subaurantiaca „ 
 
 45. Pteromys grandis „ 
 
 3. Harporhynchiis ocellatus. Oaxaca 
 8. Melacoptila poliopis. West 
 
 Ecuador . . 
 11. Urochroma strictoptera. New 
 
 Granada .... 
 14. Cacatua ophthalmica. Sydney 
 
 18. Tylas eduardi. Madagascar 
 
 19. Halcyon nigrocyaiiea. New Guinea 
 
 20. Gracula pectoralis. Sorong 
 
 21. Ptilonopus hitmeralis. Salwatty 
 
 30. Rhinochehis jubatus 
 
 38. Loiiculus sclatcri 
 
 39. Trichoglossus flavoviridis . 
 
 40. Oriolus frontalis . 
 
 8. Hyracodon fidigiiiosus. Ecuador 
 
 17. Prosimia xa?tthomystax. Mada- 
 
 gascar 
 
 18. Prosimia melanocephala. Mada- 
 
 gascar . . . . 
 
 19. Octogale pallida. Fernando Po . 
 
 22. Oreas derbianns . . . . 
 28. Gal ago monteiri. Angola . 
 
 31. Lagothrix humboldtii. Rio Negro 
 
 32. Galago alleiii. West Africa 
 35. „ demidoffi. Senegal? 
 
 Paper. 
 
 G. R. Gray 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 W. H. Flower 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 R. Swinhoe 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 G. Hartlaub 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 R. F Tomes 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 W. W. Reade 
 A. D. Bartlett 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 11 
 
 William Peters 
 
3 o2 WORKS ILLUSTRATE!) BY J. WOLF 
 
 Plate. Paper. 
 
 1863. Birds. 4. Falco rubricollis. Island of Bouru A.R.Wallace 
 
 5. Ccyx cajeli „ 
 
 6. Monarcha loricata „ ,, „ 
 
 9. Perdix barbata . . . .J. Verreaux 
 jo. Pipra leucorrhoa. New Granada P. L. Sclater 
 13. Hypherpes corallirostris. Mada- 
 gascar A. Newton 
 
 16. Euplocamus nobilis. Borneo . P. L. Sclater 
 
 23. Panyptila sancti - hieronymi. 
 
 Guatemala .... „ 
 
 24. (1) Cardellina versicolor. Central 
 
 Am 3rica. (2 ) Dendrceca nivei- 
 
 ventris. Central America . O. Salvin 
 
 33. Bubo fasciolatus. Africa . . P. L. Sclater 
 
 34. Phlogcenas bartletti. Philippine 
 
 Islands ? „ 
 
 42. Casuarius bennettii. Juv. . . „ 
 
 1864. Mammals, i. Sciurus ornatus. Natal . . J. E. Gray 
 
 8. Mustela aureove?itris. Ecuador . „ 
 
 10. Zorilla albinucha ... „ 
 
 12. Tragelaphus spekii. E. Africa . P. L. SCLATER 
 
 13. Golunda pulchella. W. Coast of 
 
 Africa „ 
 
 28. Arctocebus calabarensis. Old 
 
 Calabar T. H. Huxley 
 
 40. Galago gametti .... P. L. Sclater 
 
 41. Pithecia sata?ias. Para . . „ 
 BIRDS. 6. Megapodius pritchardi. Island 
 
 of Nina Fou $ . . . G. R. Gray 
 
 11. Chauna nigricollis. New Granada P. L. SCLATER 
 
 14. Psalidoprocne albiccps. Uzinza . „ 
 
 16. Sinithornis rufo-lateralis . . G. R. Gray 
 
 17. Cacatua ducorpsii. Island of 
 
 Guadalcanar . . . . P. L. Sclater 
 
 18. Tadorna tadornoides. Tasmania „ 
 
 19. „ variegata. New Zealand „ 
 
 20 Pucrasia xanthospila. China . G. R. GRAY 
 
 24. Cormi7'iis rhodogaster. Brazils . P. L. SCLATER 
 
 30. Eucometis cassini. Panama . ,, 
 
 34. Anas melleri. Madagascar . „ 
 
 35. Myadestes mclanops. Turrique . 0. Salvin 
 
 36. Carpodectes nitidus. Costa Rica. „ 
 
 1S65. Mammals. 3. Antilocapra americana $. Juv. . P. L. Sclater 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 3°3 
 
 Mammals. 
 
 Plate. 
 
 7. Enhydris lutris. 
 
 California 
 
 11. Erithizon rufesccns. 
 
 12. Tupaia spiendidida. 
 
 16. Hystrix malabarica 
 
 17. Pholidotus africanns. 
 
 18. Dasypics vellerosns. 
 
 Columbia . 
 Borneo 
 
 W. Africa . 
 Santa Cruz . 
 Costa Rica 
 
 19. Cydothiirus dorsalis, 
 22. Eqmis burchelli .... 
 45. Cebus leucogenys. Brazil 
 
 Birds. 1. (1 and 2) Foudia flavicans. 
 
 (2) Drymceca ( ? ) rodericana. 
 Island of Rodriguez . 
 
 4. Toccus elegans. Angola 
 
 5. „ monteiri „ 
 
 6. Otis picturaia „ 
 
 24. Leucopternis princeps. Costa Rica. 
 
 28. Rhipidura torrida. Ternate 
 
 29. (1) Prionochilus aureolimbahis. 
 
 N. Celebes. (2) Nectarinia 
 flavo-striata. Celebes 
 
 33. Cypselus squamatus. Brazil. ' J. 
 
 Wolf and J. W. Wood. Del. 
 and lith.' 
 
 34. ChcEtura biscntata. Brazil. Ditto 
 
 35. Nasiturna pitsio. Saloman Is- 
 
 lands. (Natural size) 
 44. Circus wolfi. New Caledonia 
 
 1866. MAMMALS. 19. Macacus inomatus, $. Borneo. 
 
 20. CepJialophns breviceps. W. Coast 
 
 of Africa . . . 
 
 1867. MAMMALS. 17. Saiga tartarica, $ 
 
 24. Pardali7ia warwickii. Himalaya. 
 
 25. Gueparda guttata. Juv. Cape of 
 
 Good Hope .... 
 31. Prosimia flavifrons. Madagascar. 
 
 35. Phascolomys platyrhinus. New 
 
 South Wales .... 
 
 36. Felis aurata. Sumatra. Ad. 
 
 37. Gazella sa;mmerri?igi . 
 42. Elasmognathus bairdi . 
 
 47. Ateles bartletti. River Amazons. 
 Birds. 16. Lorius chlorocercns. Saloman Is- 
 lands 
 
 Paper. 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 J. E. Grav 
 
 E. L. Layard 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 G. Hartlaub 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 J. H. Gurney 
 I. E. Gray 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 J. Murie 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 Plate. 
 
 1867. Birds. 22. Coracopsis barklyi. Seychelles Is 
 
 lands .... 
 
 1868. Mammals. 6. Macacus lasiotus. China . 
 
 7. Pteronura sandbachii. Deme 
 
 rara 
 
 8. Ursns nasutus. West Indies 
 
 15. Colobus kirki. Zanzibar 
 24. Mico sericeus. America 
 
 Birds. 13. (1) Euscarthmus impiger. Yene 
 zuela 
 
 (2) Siiblegatus glaber. Ditto 
 
 1870. Mammals. 6. Hydropotes biennis. China. (Li 
 
 thographed by Smit.) 
 
 1 87 1. Mammals. 39. Tragelaphus euryceros. (Litho 
 
 graphed by Smit.) 
 76. Felts euptilnra. N. W. Siberia 
 Ditto .... 
 
 1873. Mammals. 3". Pteromys tephromclas. Pienang 
 
 Ditto .... 
 38. Sciururopterus pidverulcntics. Pe- 
 nang. Ditto . 
 
 1874. Mammals. 6. Chans caudatus. Bokhara. Ditto 
 
 8. Cervulus sclateri. Ditto 
 
 28. Rhinoceros sondiacus. Java. Ditto 
 49. Felis badia. Sarawak. Ditto 
 
 1875. Mammals. 15. Chirogaleus trichotis. Madagas- 
 
 car. Ditto . 
 
 16. Brachytarsomys albicauda . 
 37. Cervus mesopotamicus. Ditto 
 
 1877. Mammals. 
 
 1878. Mammals. 
 1880. Mammals. 
 
 54. Bnbahts pnmalis. Africa. Ditto 
 8. Cervus philippi?ius. Philippine 
 
 Islands. Ditto 
 35. Troglodytes gorilla. Ditto 
 81. Cards jubatits. South America 
 
 Ditto .... 
 39. Tapirus roulini. Ditto 
 44. Tragelaphus gralus. Gaboon 
 
 Paper. 
 
 Edward Newton 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 p. l. sclater 
 
 r. swinhoe 
 Sir Victor 
 Brooke 
 
 D. G. Elliott 
 
 A. Gunther 
 
 J. E. Gray 
 Sir Victor 
 
 Brooke 
 P. L. Sclater 
 J. E. Gray 
 
 A. Gunther 
 
 Sir Victor 
 Brooke 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 305 
 
 Vol. 6. 
 
 Vol. 7 
 
 Vol. 9. 
 
 Professor Owen 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Plate. Paper. 
 
 Vol. 4. Notomis mantelli. New Zealand. 
 
 58. Urubitinga schisfacea, |. Bolivia. P. L. Sclater 
 
 59. Buteo zonocercus, Guatemala. 
 
 60. Syrnium albitarse, \. S. America. 
 
 61. Scops itsta,\. Upper Amazon . 
 
 62. Buteo fuliginosus, £. Mexico 
 
 63. Ciccaba nigrolineata, \. Mexico . 
 
 64. Balceiiiceps rex. (Lithographed by 
 
 J. Jury.) W. K. Parker 
 
 Vol. 5. 14. Female Aye Aye, \* (From Life. 
 
 Lithographed by Erxleben.) 
 Male Aye Aye, \. (Specimen in 
 spirits.) 
 
 „ „ „ \. (Front.) 
 „ „ „ \. (Back.) 
 18. Male Aye Aye. Head and limbs, \ 
 
 43. Adult male Gorilla from M. du 
 Chaillu's collection . 
 
 44. (1) Adult male, showing the or- 
 dinary quadrupedal mode of 
 progression .... 
 
 (2) Adult female Gorilla 
 
 (3) Young male Gorilla, from M. 
 du Chaillu's collection. (Pre- 
 served in spirits.) 
 
 46. (1) Sketches of the same speci- 
 men 
 
 (2-6) Sketches of the details 
 I. Potamogale velox, Old Cala- 
 bar G. J. Allman 
 
 Machcerhamphus alci?ius. Da- 
 maraland ..... 
 
 (1) Galago crassicaudatus, $ §. 
 From a photograph by Dr.Murie 
 
 (2) Galago game tti 
 Cervus manic hurt cus . 
 Rhinoceros unicornis. (Litho- 
 graphed by Smit.) 
 
 96. Rhinoceros sondiacus. Ditto 
 
 97. Rhinoceros sumatrensis. Ditto . 
 
 14. 
 
 15. 
 
 16. 
 J 7- 
 
 29. 
 
 3i- 
 95- 
 
 Professor Owen 
 
 J. H. Gurney 
 
 J. Murie 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 98. Rhinoceros lasioiis. Ditto 
 
 X 
 
6 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 IN THE IBIS 
 
 Plate. 
 
 i. Gymnoglaux nudipcs St. Croix . 
 
 1 859. 3. Ccphraloptcrus pcnduliccr.Y.cvid.&OY 
 
 6. Falco barbams. Eastern Atlas . 
 
 7. Gall inula pumila. Natal . 
 
 8. Accipitcr haplochrous. New Cale- 
 
 donia 
 
 1 5. Scotopclia pcli .... 
 
 1860. 4. Syrrhaptes paradoxus . 
 
 6. Accipitcr collaris. New Granada 
 10. ,, polioccpJialus . 
 
 1861. 7. Falco babylonicus 
 
 9. ( 1 ) Basilornis corythaix 
 (2) „ celebensis 
 
 10. Accipitcr pectoralis. S. America. 
 
 (Lithographed by J. Jennens.) . 
 
 1862. 3. Circa'etus fasciolatus. Natal. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 4. S pi z actus ayrcsii. Natal 
 
 7. Circa'etus beaudouirii. Nubia 
 
 8. Butco brachyptcrus. Madagascar. 
 
 9. Atclornis pittoides 
 
 10. Hirundo monteiri. Angola 
 
 13. PsaropJwlus ardens. Formosa . 
 
 1863. 2. Tinnunculus newtoni. Mada- 
 
 gascar. 
 
 3. Oroecctcs gularis Northern 
 
 China . . • . . 
 
 4. Circus maillardi. Bourbon 
 
 5. Circus spilonoius. Formosa 
 
 6. Pomatorhinus musicus. Formosa 
 
 8. Fig. 1. Camaroptcra natalensis 
 
 Natal .... 
 Fig. 2. Cisticolor ayrcsii. Natal 
 
 9. Mcgalophonus rostratus. 
 
 11. Accipitcr sicvc?tsoni. China 
 
 1 2. Call isle dowii 
 
 1864. I. Acrocephalus stentorius. Egypt 
 2. Capri mulgus vcxillarius 
 
 5. Astur gricciccps. Celebes . 
 
 7. Accipitcr franccsi. Comoro Is 
 
 lands .... 
 
 Paper. 
 
 A. & E. Newton 
 
 O. Salvin 
 J. H. Gurney 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 J. H. Gurney 
 T. J. Moore 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 L. Howard 
 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 J. H. Gurney 
 
 J. Verreaux 
 S. Roch 
 
 J. J. MONTEIRO 
 R. SWINHOE 
 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 R. SWINHOE 
 
 J. H. Gurney 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 S. S. Allen 
 P. L. Sclater 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 307 
 
 Plate. 
 
 :864. 
 
 1865. 
 
 1866. 
 
 1867. 
 
 1868. 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 
 2. 
 3. 
 4- 
 
 Falco dickinsoni. Zambesi 
 Turdus gurneyi. Natal 
 Tetragonops frantzii. Costa Rica 
 Nectariiiea osea. Palestine 
 Chasmorhynchus tricanmciilatiis. 
 Orites tephi'onotus. Asia Minor . 
 
 5. Aqirila ncevioides 
 
 6. Fratercida glacialis. Spitzbergen 
 
 7. Sitta knieperi. Asia Minor 
 
 8. Copsychus sechellariim. Sey- 
 
 chelles 
 
 9. Phlegcenas tristigmata, \. Malay 
 
 Archipelago . . . 
 10. Chcetusia leucura. Islands of 
 
 Malta and Gozo 
 1 r. Iridornis reinhardti. Peru . 
 
 Sula bassana .... 
 Caprimitlgus tamaricis, \. Dead 
 
 Sea 
 
 Pyrrhula murina. The Azores . 
 Sibia auricularis. Formosa 
 
 5. Turdus albiceps ,, 
 
 6. Phlexis layardi. (After O. Finsch.) 
 
 Africa . . . . 
 
 7. Oxynolus typicus, ^. Reunion (3 
 
 figs.) 
 
 8. Oxynotus newtoni, \ . 
 
 9. Suthora bulomachus. Formosa . 
 [i. Cyoriiis vivid a „ 
 
 1. Bessornis albigularis. Palestine. 
 
 Cinclus ardesiacus. Veragua 
 Garrulus brandti. Northern Japan 
 Tchitrea corvi??a. Seychelles Ar- 
 chipelago 
 
 Fig. 1. Laniits isabellinus. 
 ?. „ phcenicurus . 
 
 6. Lanins magnirostris . 
 
 7. Passer moabiticus .... 
 10. Piprisoma agile. (Ad., nest, and 
 
 young.) India .... 
 
 1. Spizcetus 7iamts. Borneo 
 
 2. Erytkropus amiirensis $ ? . Juv. 
 4. Hinindo alfredi, S. Africa 
 
 Paper. 
 
 J. H. GURNEY 
 P. L. SCLATER 
 
 H. B. Tristram 
 O. Salvin 
 a. gunther 
 Lord Lilford 
 A. Newton 
 P. L. Sclater 
 
 A. Newton 
 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 C. A. Wright 
 P. L. Sclater 
 R. O. Cunningham 
 
 H. B. Tristram 
 F. Du Cane 
 
 G. Hartlaub 
 F. Pollen 
 
 R. SWINHOE 
 
 H. B. Tristram 
 O. Salvin 
 
 H. Whitely, Jun. 
 
 E. Newton 
 
 Vise. Walden 
 
 H. B. Tristram 
 
 R. C. Beavan 
 A. R. Wallace 
 J. H. Gurney 
 
 x 2 
 
308 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 Plate Paper. 
 
 1868. 6. Petro?iia brachydactyla . . H. B. Tristram 
 
 7. Serimis aurtfrons .... „ 
 
 8. Glareola nordmanni. S. Africa . J. H. Gurney 
 
 9. (1) Cichladusa arqicata. After M. T. VON Hen- 
 
 Henglin .... GLIN 
 (2) Cichladusa guttata. Ditto „ 
 
 10. Hyphantornis mariquensis. Natal J. H. Gurney 
 
 1 869. 9. Campithera capricomi . . . EDITOR 
 16 Hypotriorchis eleonorce, \. Ma- 
 dagascar J. H. Gurney 
 
3°9 
 
 OTHER ILLUSTRATED WORKS. 
 
 IN THE FORTIES. 
 
 1845. Ruppell, Dr. Eduard. Systematische Uebersicht der Vogel 
 Nord-Ost Afrikas, Frankfurt a/M. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 
 I833-50. 
 
 1. Gypae'tus meridionalis. 
 
 2. Nisus sphenurus. 
 
 3. Caprimulgus poliocephalus. 
 
 4. tetrastygma. 
 
 5. Cecropis melanocrissus. 
 
 6. ,, striolata. 
 
 7. Acedo semitorquata. 
 
 8. Epimachus minor. 
 
 9. Nectarinea cruentata. 
 
 10. Drimoica mistacea. 
 
 11. ,, lugubris. 
 
 12. ,, erythrogenis. 
 
 13. ,, robusta. 
 
 14. Curruca chocolatina. 
 
 15. Salicaria leucoptera. 
 
 16. Saxicolor albofasciata. 
 
 17. ,, albifrons. 
 
 18. Parus dorsatus. 
 
 19. Crateropus rubigenosus. 
 
 20. Musicapa chocolatina. 
 
 21. Bessonoris semirufa. 
 
 22. Parisomus frontalis. 
 
 23. Telopherus aethiopicus. 
 
 24. Melaconotus chrysogaster. 
 
 25. Lamprotornis purpuroptera. 
 
 26. Lamprotornis superba. 
 
 27. Eurocephalus augintimeus. 
 
 28. Euplect-es xanthomelas. 
 
 29. Textor rlavoviridis. 
 
 30. ,, dinemelli. 
 
 31. Pionus flavifrons. 
 
 32. , , rufiventris. 
 
 33. Dendrobates sccensis. 
 
 34. ,, poicephalus. 
 
 35. ,, hemprichii. 
 
 36. Dendromus aethiopicus. 
 
 37. Jyns aequatorialis. 
 
 38. Peristera chalcospilos. 
 
 39. Numidia-ptilorhyncha. 
 
 40. Erancolinus gutturalis. 
 
 41. Otis melanogaster. 
 
 42. (Edicnemus affinis. 
 
 43. Glareola limbata. 
 
 44. Lobivanellusmelanocephalus. 
 
 45. Ibis comata, ^ 
 
 46. Rallus abyssinicus. 
 
 47. Beanicla cyanoptera. 
 
 48. Anas leucostygma. 
 
 49. Onocrotalus minor. 
 
 50. Phalacrocorax lugubris. 
 
 Siebold P. Frantz. Fauna Japonica. Animalia vertebrata 
 elaborantibus C. H. Temminck et H. Schlegel. [Auto- 
 lithographs.] 
 
 Aves 
 
 Hirundo alpestris japonica. 
 Caprimulgus jotaka, S 
 
 Q 
 
 Falco tinnunculus japonicus 
 Astur (nisus) gularis. 
 Spizae'tus orientalis, h. 
 Halie'tos palagicus, ^. 
 Milvus melanotis, h. 
 Buteo vulgaris japonicus, 
 
 ,, hemilasius, h. 
 Otus semitorgues. 
 Scops japonicus. 
 Strvx fuscescens. 
 
 Lanius bucephalus. 
 Muscicapa cinereo-alba. 
 
 ,, gularis. 
 
 , , hylocharis. 
 Ficeduia ccronata. 
 Salicaria cantans. 
 
 cantillans. 
 
3 io WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 1844-53- 
 
 Piatt 
 V 
 
 Professor H. Schlegel and H. Wulverhorst. Traits 
 de Fanconnerie. Diisseldorf. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 
 i Plate. 
 
 Le Groenlandias Faucon 
 Blanc Mue. 
 VI. Le Tiercelet Hagard de Fau- 
 con D' Island, 
 vil. Le -Tiercelet Hagard de 
 Gerfaut. 
 viii. Le Gerfaut Sors. 
 IX. Le Sacre Hagard. 
 x. Le Faucon Hagard. 
 XI. Le Tiercelet Sors 
 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 
 1846-5: 
 
 SUSEMIHL, 
 
 Eur otitis. 
 
 J. C. 
 
 de Fau- 
 
 [All life size. J 
 
 und Eduard. 
 
 con au plumage de Cres- 
 serelle. 
 
 L'Eme'rillon Hagard, Le 
 
 Tiercelet, Sors, et Hagard 
 
 D'Emerillon. 
 L'Autom Hagard. 
 Le Tiercelet, Sors de 
 
 l'Autom. 
 L' Eperirer Sors et le Mou- 
 
 chet Hagard. 
 
 Abbildungen der Vogel 
 
 Stuttgart. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 
 Taf. 6a. Der weisse Falke {Falco 
 candicans). [Group.] 
 Der sibirische Uhu [Strix 
 
 sibirica). 
 Der Stein-Kauz. 1, Alt. 
 2, Jung. (Strix noctua). 
 [Group.] 
 Eleonoren's Falke. 1, 
 Mannchen. 2, Weib- 
 chen. 3, Schwarze Var. 
 4, Grane Var. [Group. J 
 11 Taf. 6. Der schwarzkopfige Hseher 
 [Garrulus melanor 
 cephalus). 
 Der schwarzstirnige Wiir- 
 ger. 1, Alt, m. 2, Jung, 
 m. (Lanius minor). 
 Der Masken - Wurger 
 [Lanius personatus). 
 Alt. Fig. 1. 
 
 44- 
 
 47. 
 
 54- 
 
 14. 
 
 17- 
 
 II Taf. 17. Der gehaubte Wurger 
 [Laniits ckc ullatus). 
 Alt. Fig. 2. 
 ,, 20. Der bunte Staar 
 [Sturnus vulgaris). 
 1, M. im Herbst. 2, 
 M. im Friihl. 3, 
 Jung. Vog. [Group.] 
 
 IX Taf. 5. Das Feld-Rebhuhn 
 {Perdix cinerea). i, 
 Mannchen. 2, 
 W eibchen. [Group. ] 
 6. Das Birkwaldhuhn 
 ( Tetra tetrix). 1, 
 Mannchen. 2, 
 Weibchen. [Group. ] 
 
 1846. 
 
 1844-49- 
 
 J. Wolf and F. Frisch. Jagdsiiicke der Jwhen und niedercn 
 Jagd. Darmstadt. Ernst Kern. [Among J. Wolf s are Auto- 
 lithographs of Badgers, Capercailzie, Partridges, Blackgame, 
 Woodcock, &c] 
 
 Gray, G. R. The Genera of Birds. Longmans & Co. 
 [Auto- lithographs.] 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 xxxv. Phcotornis peti'ei (Wedge- 
 
 tailed Humming-bird. ) 
 
 xxxvi. Polytmus aqnila (Hum- 
 
 ming-bird.) 
 XXXVll. Melisuga mirabilis. 
 XLVlll. Myalurus citrinus. 
 XLIX. Calamodyta affinis. 
 xlv. Vireo vivescens. 
 And twenty-eight plates of detail. 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 CXX. Diduncuhts strigirostris. 
 CLVin. Phalarofus wilsonii. 
 CLXXi. Colymbits arcticus. 
 CLXXVll. Brachyramphus aniiquus. 
 CLXXXIV. Plotus ?tova-holla?idi(B. 
 And eleven plates of detail. 
 
 Vol. III. 
 Twenty plates of detail. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 3.1 
 
 IN THE FIFTIES. 
 
 1850. Knox, A. E. Game Birds and Wild Fowl, their Friends and 
 their Foes. Van Voorst. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 Frontispiece : The Death of the Page 150. The Old Poacher's 
 
 Mallard. 
 Page 68. Off at Last. 
 
 Springe. 
 2o5. Grouse and ' Scaul 
 Crows.' 
 
 1852. Burton, Richard F. Falconry in the Valley of the Indus. 
 
 Van Voorst. Frontispiece : Goshawk and Gazelle. [Auto- 
 lithograph.] 
 
 1853. Arnold, J. T. Reynard the Fox- After the German version of 
 
 Goethe, with Illustrations by J. Wolf. Pickering. Twelve 
 designs etched by A. Fox and R. H. Roe. 
 
 1853. The Poets of the Woods. Twelve pictures of English Song 
 
 Birds. Printed in colours by M. and N. Hanhart. Bosworth. 
 
 [Chromo-lithographs.] 4to. 
 
 Turtle Doves. Bullfinch. I Goldfinch. 
 
 Robin. Thrush. Cuckoo. 
 
 Chaffinch. J innet. Ring Dove. 
 
 Skylark. Blackbird. I 
 
 1854. Feathered Favourites. Twelve coloured pictures of British 
 
 Birds from drawings by Joseph Wolf. Bosworth. [Chromo- 
 lithographs.] 4to. 
 
 House Sparrow. Woodpecker. i Wood Lark. 
 
 Wren. Water Wagtail. The Swan. 
 
 Blackcap. Titmouse. The Eagle. 
 
 Swallow. Kingfisher. I The Wild Duck. 
 
 1855. KNOX, A. E. Ornithological Rambles in Sussex. Third edi- 
 
 tion. Van Voorst. [Auto-lithographs ] 
 
 Frontispiece : The Osprey. 
 Page 31. Heron and Water Rat. 
 ,, 110. Falcon and Teal. 
 
 Page 156. Othello's occupation's 
 gone. 
 
 1856. Andersson, C. J. Lake NGami. Hurst and Blackett. 
 
 [Auto-lithographs.] 8vo. 
 
 Frontispiece : Lions pulling i Page 422. More close than agree- 
 down a Giraffe. able. 
 Page no. The lucky Escape. ,, 424. Desperate situation. 
 
 , , 126. Shooting Trap. ,, 448. Nakong and Leche Ante- 
 
 ,, 213. Unwelcome hunting I lopes. 
 
 Companions. ,, 484. The Koodoo. 
 
 ,, 253. Coursing young Os- ,, 521. Hippopotamus har- 
 
 triches. pooned. 
 ,, 279. Oryx and Gemsbok. 528. (Woodcut) The Downfall. 
 ,, 381. Chasing the Eland. 
 414. The approach of Ele- 
 phants. I 
 
3 i2 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 1857. 
 
 1857. 
 
 1858. 
 
 Livingstone, David. Missionary Travels and Researches in 
 South Africa. Murray. [Woodcuts.] 8vo. 
 
 Page 13. Missionary's escape 
 from the Lion. 
 
 ,, 26. The Hopo, or Trap for 
 driving Game. 
 
 ,, 27. The Pit at the extre- 
 mity of the Hopo. 
 
 ,, 56. Hottentot Women re- 
 turning from the 
 Water. 
 
 ,, 71. New African Antelopes 
 (Pokne and Leche). 
 
 ,, 140. Three Lions attempt- 
 ing to drag down a 
 Buffalo. 
 
 , , 142. Buffalo Cow defending 
 her Calf. 
 
 [Another Edition was published in 1861.J 
 
 The Book of Job. ' Illustrated with fifty engravings from draw- 
 ings by John Gilbert.' Of these J. Wolf's designs are : 
 
 Page 210. A new or striped variety 
 of Eland. 
 242. Mode in which the female 
 Hippopotamus carries 
 her Calf. 
 ,, 498. Boat capsized by a female 
 Hippopotamus robbed 
 of her Young. 
 ,, 562. Female P21ephant, pursued 
 with javelins, protecting 
 her Young. 
 ,, 588. The travelling Procession 
 interrupted. 
 
 Page 
 
 25- 
 72. 
 
 137. 
 
 139. 
 
 The Dead Lion. 
 The Cobra [altered]. 
 The Den. 
 The Wild Ass. 
 
 Page 140. The Unicorn. 
 141. The Ostrich. 
 ,, 145. Behemoth. 
 ,, 147. Leviathan at play. Nisbet. 
 
 [Another Edition, 1880.] 
 
 James, T., M.A. JEsop's Fables. A new version. ' With more 
 than one hundred illustrations designed by John Tenniel.' 
 Of these the following are J. Wolfs. Murray. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 1. The Fox and Grapes. 
 ,, 4. The Wolf and the 
 Crane. 
 5. The Vain Jackdaw. 
 9. TheEagleandtheFox. 
 ,, 16. The Dog and the 
 Shadow. 
 The House-dog and 
 
 the Wolf. 
 The Tortoise and the 
 
 Eagle. 
 The Fox without a 
 Tail. 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 49 
 
 P?ge 51. The Hares and Frogs. 
 ,, 65. The Oak and the Reed. 
 89. The Birds, Beasts, and 
 Bat. 
 
 ,, 104. The Fox and the Mask. 
 ,, ic6. The Lion and the Bulls. 
 ,, 110. The Fox and the Stork. 
 ,, 111. The Ass in the Lion's Skin. 
 ,, 115. The Quack Frog. 
 ,, 120. The Stag at the Pool. 
 ,, 126. 'I he Wild Boar and the 
 Fox. 
 
 ,, 133. The Old Lion. 
 
 [Another Edition, 1882. 
 
 1858. King, The Rev. S. W. The Italia?! Valleys of the Pennine 
 Alps. Murray. Page 340, ' The Steinbok.' [W 7 oodcut.] 
 
 1858. Drayson, Capt. A. W., Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs 
 of South Africa. ' Illustrated by Harrison Weir from 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 313 
 
 1859. 
 
 1859. 
 
 1859. 
 
 designs by the Author.' The whole of these illustrations 
 are by J. Wolf. Routledge. [Woodcuts.] 8vo. 
 
 L Page 174 
 
 Frontispiece : Buffalo Hunting. 
 Page 109. Eland Hunting. 
 
 Wild Boar Hunt 
 
 127. 
 
 131- 
 
 Elephant Hunting in the 
 Bush. 
 195. Sharp Practice. 
 248. The Run. 
 
 291. The Red Buck and the 
 Sporting Leopard. 
 
 [The List of Illustrations does not correspond.] 
 
 ing. 
 
 Hunting the Hart 
 beest. 
 
 1859. Freeman, G. E., and Capt. F. H. Salvin. Falconry: its 
 Claims, History, and Practice. Longmans. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 317. Hook. 320. Swivel. 
 327. Cormorant Fishing. 
 >> 339- Cormorant Palaquin. 
 
 Frontispiece : Magpie Hawking. 
 Page 50. Hawk Furniture. 
 ,, 223. Female Goshawk 
 and Hare. 
 
 1859. Zoological Diagrams. Prepared for the Department of Science 
 and Art. R. Patterson. Chapman and Hall. 
 
 Sheet A 
 
 2. Spider Mon- 
 
 key. 
 
 3. Bat. 
 
 4. Hedgehog. 
 
 5. Tiger. 
 
 Sheet B 
 Hippopotamus. 
 Red Deer. 
 Sloth. 
 Squirrel. 
 Red Kangaroo. 
 
 Sheet C 
 Peregrine Falcon. 
 Magpie. 
 Silver Pheasant. 
 Heron. 
 Wild Duck. 
 
 Thompson, James. The Seasons. Illustrated by Birket Foster, 
 F. R. Pickersgill, R.A., J. Wolf, &c. Nisbet. [Woodcuts. 
 Engraved by Dalziel Bros.] Small 4to. 
 
 Page 5. Bittern. I Page 187. Cormorant and Gulls. 
 
 29. Blackbird in Nest. ,, 197. Wolves attacking a Tra- 
 
 ,, 89. Tiger and Antelope. veller. 
 ,, 139. Partridges. 213. Deer sheltering in Snow. 
 
 Wordsworth, William. Pccms. Selected by R. A. Willmotf 
 Illustrated by Birket Foster, J. Wolf, John Gilbert, &c. 
 Routledge. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Pare 226. 
 
 Page 
 
 9. Swans and Young. 
 25. Eagle in a Storm. 
 159. Hares playing. 
 167. Linnets. 
 189. Robin and Rookery. 
 221. A Sheep by a Lake. 
 
 * Also in Routleclge's 
 
 249. 
 
 *26 5 . 
 
 301. 
 317- 
 327- 
 
 Wild Fowl. 
 Peregrines. 
 Lambs. 
 
 Kite and Nest. 
 Poultry, Sparrows, &c. 
 
 Chickens, &c. 
 
 British Spelling Book,' p. 95. 
 
 Wood, The Rev. J. G. The Illustrated Natural History. 
 With 1700 illustrations by Wolf and others. Routledge. 
 4to. 3 vols. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Vol. 1 : Mammalia. 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 11. Group of Monkeys. 
 
 Page 15. 
 20. 
 
 Gorilla. 
 Chimpanzee. 
 
3i4 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 Vol. i : Mammalia continued. 
 
 Page 26. 
 
 Orang-outan. 
 
 
 Siamang. 
 
 .. 44- 
 
 Ceropithici. 
 
 ,, 60. 
 
 Wanderoo. 
 
 ,, 62. 
 
 G-oup of Chacmas. 
 
 64. 
 
 Gel a da. 
 
 „ 67. 
 
 The Chacma. 
 
 m 
 
 The Baboon. 
 
 73. 
 
 The Papion. 
 
 75- 
 
 The Mandril. 
 
 78. 
 
 The Drill. 
 
 i> 109. 
 
 (1) Galagos. (2) The 
 
 Tarsier. 
 
 Page 112. 
 
 Trip C Vilno' ri 
 
 >> I 33- 
 
 The Lion. 
 
 ■ I J 36. 
 
 Lion and Zeb r as. 
 
 ,, 144- 
 
 Gambian Lion. 
 
 148. 
 
 Maneless Lion. 
 
 .. 151- 
 
 Tiger. 
 
 „ 178. 
 
 Serval. 
 
 ,, 192. 
 
 Egyptian Cat. 
 
 ,, 193. 
 
 Wild Cat. 
 
 ,. 212. 
 
 European Lynx. 
 
 ,, 663. 
 
 Koodoo. 
 
 ,, 669. 
 
 Ibex. 
 
 Vol. 2 : 
 
 Birds. 
 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 Page 601. 
 
 Brush Turkey. 
 
 1. Group of Vultures. 
 
 i, 614. 
 
 Veillot's Fireback. 
 
 67. , , Falcons. 
 
 ,, 642. 
 
 White Sheathbill. 
 
 128. ,, Swallows. 
 
 657. 
 
 Apteryx. 
 
 168. ,, Kingfishers. 
 
 i> 672. 
 
 Crane. 
 
 278. ,, Warblers. 
 
 » 673. 
 
 Demoiselle and Crowned 
 
 312. ,, Wagtails. 
 
 Cranes. 
 
 373. ,, Shrikes. 
 
 6 75 . 
 
 Egret, Heron, and Bittern. 
 
 463. , , Finches. 
 
 M 725- 
 
 Group of Swans. 
 
 504. ,, Hornbills. 
 
 75i- 
 
 Gulls. 
 
 596. Crested Curasso. 
 
 11 762. 
 
 Pelican. 
 
 Vol. 3 : Reptiles. 
 
 Page 27. African Crocodiles at Home. 
 See also a few plates in Routledge's smaller Natural Histories. 
 
 IN THE SIXTIES. 
 
 i860. Bennett, George, M.l). Gatherings of a Naturalist in 
 Australia. Van Voorst. 8vo. [Lithographs.] 
 
 Frontispiece: Australian Jabiru. (After F. Angas. ) 
 Page 135. Australian Water-mole (Platypus). (Auto-lithograph.) 
 ,, 264. The Mooruk. (Auto-lithograph.) 
 
 i860. Dunlop, R. H. W. Hunting in the Himalaya. Demy 8vo. 
 Bentley. [Lithographs.] 
 
 Frontispiece : Bunchowr brought Page 108. A Prompt and Public 
 
 to Bay. Execution. 
 Page 86. Addressing a Stranger ,, 286. Heemachul and its Inha- 
 
 without an Intro- | bitants. 
 duction. 
 
 i860. Atkinson, T. W. Travels in the Region of the Lower and 
 Upper Anwor. Hurst and Blackett. [Woodcuts.] 8vo. 
 
 Page 114. The Maral's Leap. Page 147. Bearcoots and Wolves. 
 
 ,, 352. The Tiger and its ,, 347. The Bearded Eagle and 
 
 Victim. Steinbok. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 315 
 
 i860. Montgomery, James. Poems. Selected and edited by Robert 
 A. Willmott. Illustrated by John Gilbert, J. Wolf, Birket 
 Foster, &c. Routledge. 4to. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 67. Giraffes. 
 
 216. Swan. 
 
 ,, 309. Pelicans. 
 
 311. Pelicans and Young. 
 
 Page 315. Flamingoes. 
 
 ,, 323. Tiger seizing a Zebu. 
 ,, 369.^01156 Martin and Nest. 
 
 I86l. 
 
 :86i. 
 
 Traits and Anecdotes of Animals. With illustrations by Wolf. 
 Bentley. 8vo. [Two of the illustrations are by Zwecker. 
 Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 69. The Bull and the Bear. 
 ,, 96. An uncalled-for Assault. 
 ,, 151. The Briton and his Beef. 
 ,, 238. Starved to Death. 
 
 Frontispiece : An Unpleasant 
 
 Predicament. 
 Page 26. Retreat of the Leo- 
 nidae. 
 
 [Reprinted under the title of Curious and Instructive Stories about H ild 
 Animals and Birds. Nimmo. 1873.] 
 
 Tennent, Sir James Emerson. 
 History of Ceylon. Longmans. 
 
 Sketches of the Natural 
 [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page *5« Ceylon Monkeys. 
 
 ,,'""14. Group of Flying Foxes. 
 
 ,, 23. Indian Bear. 
 
 ,, *26. Ceylon Leopard and 
 
 Cheetah. 
 
 ,, "^38. Mongoose. 
 
 ,, 41. Flying Squirrel. 
 
 ,, *44. Coffee Rat. 
 
 *58. Mouse Deer. 
 
 ,, 69. The Dugong. 
 
 Page 184. 
 
 188. 
 
 189. 
 203. 
 204. 
 
 2 43- 
 247. 
 
 Mode of Tying an Ele- 
 phant. 
 
 His Struggles for Free 
 
 dom. 
 Impotent Fury. 
 Obstinate Resistance. 
 Attitude for Defence. 
 Singular Contortions. 
 The Hornbill. 
 The Devil Bird. 
 
 * These cuts also appear in Haitwig's Tropical World. Longmans. 1863. 
 
 I 861. The Alphabet of Birds, with pictures by Wolf, Weir, Zwecker, 
 &c. Engraved by Brothers Dalziel. Routledge. [1 Wood- 
 cut. The Apteryx.] 
 
 1 861. P. H. Gosse. The Romance of Natural History. Nisbet. 8vo. 
 [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Frontispiece : The Gorilla. Page 1 
 
 Page 42. The Hyoena in the ,, 200 
 
 Deserted City. 
 , , 60. A Brazilian Forest 
 
 Scene. 
 
 82. A Tropical Bird Sta- 
 tion. 
 
 The African Elephant. 
 Wildfowl on Solitary 
 River. 
 208. A Moose Yard. 
 250. Encounter with a Rhino- 
 ceros. 
 
 1 86 1. The Romance of Natural History. Second Series. 
 
 Frontispiece : Fascination. Page 310. Mourning the 
 
 Page 36. Encounter with a Moa. Cuckoo. 
 
 304. Antelopes. ,, 326. Peacock Shooting. 
 
 Dead 
 
316 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J, WOLF 
 
 1861. Eliza Cook. Poems. Selected and edited by the Author. Illus- 
 trated by John Gilbert, J. Wolf, H. Weir, J. D. Watson, &c. 
 [Woodcuts. Engraved by Dalziel Brothers.] Routledge. 4to. 
 
 Page 55. 'Song of the Sea- Page 215. ' The Rook sits high.' 
 
 gulls.' ,, 241. ' To the Robin.' 
 
 ,, 195. 'Birds.' ,, 402. ' Not as I used to do.' 
 
 „ 197- " I 
 
 1861. English Sacred Poetry. Selected by R. A. Willmott. Illustrated 
 by Holman Hunt, J. I). Watson, John Gilbert, J. Wolf, &c. 
 [Woodcuts engraved by Dalziel Brothers.] Routledge. 4to. 
 
 Page 40. Search after God. Page 127. The Garden. 
 
 59. Decay of Earthly , ,, 160. God s Argument with Job. 
 Pomp. 347. The Truant Hour. 
 
 ,, 119. The Bird. I „ 358. Wisdom Unapplied. 
 
 [Another Edition was published in 1877.] 
 
 1 86 1. Zoological Sketches by Joseph Wolf. Made for the Zoological 
 Society of London from Animals in their Vivarium in the 
 Regent's Park. Edited with notes by Philip L. Sclater, 
 M.A. Graves. [Lithographs by Mr. Smit. Coloured by 
 hand after the original water-colour drawings.] 
 
 Mammals. 
 
 1. The Chimpanzee 
 
 2. The Pluto Monkey . 
 
 3. The Lion 
 
 4. Tha Leopard . 
 
 5. The Painted Ocelot . 
 o. The Eyra . 
 
 7. The Clouded Tiger . 
 
 8. The Serval 
 
 9. The Egyptian Cat . 
 
 10. The Caracal 
 
 11. The Red Caracal 
 
 12. The Canadian Lynx 
 
 13. The Cheetah . 
 
 14. The Bassaris . 
 
 15. The Patagonian Skunk 
 
 16. The Grey Fox . 
 
 17. The Syrian Bear 
 
 18. The Walrus . 
 
 19. The Wapiti Deer . 
 
 20. The White-tailed deer 
 
 21. The Eland 
 
 22. The Persian Gazelle 
 
 23. The Leucoryx Antelope . 
 
 24. The Punjaub Sheep . 
 
 25. The Thar Goat 
 
 26. The Alpaca 
 
 27. The Hippopotamus . 
 
 28. The Bosch Vark 
 
 29. The Red River Hog 
 
 30. The Great Anteater . 
 
 31. The Thylacine . 
 
 32. The Ta^manian Wombat 
 
 Troglodytes niger. 
 Ceropithecus pluto. 
 Felis leo. 
 
 , , leopardus. 
 
 ,, picta. 
 
 . , eyra. 
 
 macrocelis. 
 
 , , serval 
 
 , , chaus. 
 
 , , caracal. 
 
 ,, canadensis, 
 jubata. 
 Bassaris astuta. 
 Mephitis humboldtii. 
 Canis azarae. 
 Ursus syriacus. 
 Trichecus rosmarus. 
 Cervus canadensis. 
 
 leucurus. 
 Oreas canna. 
 Gazella subgutturosa. 
 Oryx leucoryx. 
 Ovis cycloceros. 
 Capra jemlaica. 
 Auchenia pacos. 
 Hippotamus amphibius. 
 Potomochoerus afncanus. 
 
 ,, pencillatus. 
 Mymecophaga jubata. 
 Thylacinus cynocephalus. 
 Phascolomvs wombat. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 317 
 
 1862. 
 
 1863. 
 
 1863. 
 
 1863. 
 
 :864- 
 
 864. 
 
 Birds 
 
 33. The Saker Falcon 
 
 34. The Greenland Falcon 
 
 35. The Iceland 
 
 36. The Angoloan Vulture 
 
 37. The Chinese Pheasant 
 
 38. The Japan 
 
 39. Horsfield's Kaleege . 
 
 40. The Caspian Snow Partridge 
 
 41. The Painted Spur-Fowl . 
 
 42. The American Rhea 
 
 43. The Mooruk . 
 41. Mantel's Apteryx 
 
 45. The Great Bustard . 
 
 46. The Mantchurian Crane . 
 
 47. The Australian mycteria . 
 
 48. The Black-necked Swan . 
 
 49. The Ashy-headed Goose . 
 
 Reptiles. 
 
 50. The Green Boa 
 
 Falco sacer. 
 
 , , greenlandicus. 
 
 ,, islandicus. 
 
 , , Gypohie ? 
 Phasianus torquatus. 
 
 ,, versicolor. 
 Gallophasis horsfeildii. 
 Tetrogallus caspius. 
 Galloperdix lunulosa. 
 Rhea americana. 
 Casuarius benetti. 
 Apteryx mantelli. 
 Otis tarda. 
 Grus montignesia. 
 Mycteria australis. 
 Cignus nigricollis. 
 Chloephaga poliocephala. 
 
 Xiphosoma caninum. 
 
 JOHNS, The Rev. B. A. British Birds in their Haimts. S.P.C.K. 
 8vo. [One hundred and ninety woodcuts. There were 
 subsequent Editions.] 
 
 Baldwin, W. C. African Himting. ' Illustrated by James 
 Wolf and J. B. Zwecker.' Bentley. 8vo. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 
 Page 79. River Scene. 
 ,, Q2. Inyalas. 
 
 187. Chasing Harris Buck. 
 
 Page 372. An African Serenade. 
 410. Night Shooting. 
 , , 424, A Narrow Escape. 
 
 [Third Edition, 1895.] 
 
 Reade, W. W. Savage Africa. Smith, Elder. 8vo. [Three 
 Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 220. Gorilla and Nest. 1 Page 463. A Flood in Senegambia. 
 ,, 397. The Djikikunka. 
 
 [Second Edition, 1854.] 
 
 Bates, H. W. The Naturalist on the River Amazons. Murray. 
 2 vols. 8vo. [4 Woodcuts.] 
 
 Vol. 1. Frontispiece : Adventure 
 
 with Curl - crested 
 
 Toucans. 
 Page 177. Ant-Eater grappling 
 
 with Dog. 
 
 [There were subsequent Editions.] 
 
 Campbell, Col. Walter. My Indian Journal. Edmonston 
 
 & Douglas. 8vo. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 
 Frontispiece : The Tiger in Am- 
 bush. 
 
 Page 101. Indian Bison. 
 
 Quarterly Journal of Science. Pages 214-219. P. L. Sclater. 
 The Mammals of Madagascar. [Auto-lithographs.] 
 
 Page 232. Flat-topped Mountains of 
 Parauaquara. 
 
 Vol. 2. Page 306. Scarlet-faced and 
 Parauacu Monkeys. 
 
 Page 369. Tbex of the Neilgherries. 
 ,, 377. Sambar. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 1864. 
 
 1864. 
 
 864. 
 
 1866. 
 
 1866. 
 
 1867. 
 
 867. 
 
 The Illustrated Pemiy Almanack. 
 [Twelve wood-cut bird designs.] 
 
 Vickers, 172 Strand 
 
 The Golden Harp. Hymns, Rhymes, and Songs for the Young. 
 Adapted by H. W. Dulcken. Illustrated by J. D. Watson, 
 T. Dalziel, and J. Wolf. [Woodcuts. Engraved by the 
 
 Brothers Dalziel.] Routledsre. 
 
 4to. 
 
 Pd£e 
 
 29. Joy Everywhere. 
 67. Live in Peace. 
 74. Morning Song in 
 
 Country. 
 115. The Little Lamb. 
 
 ' Page 125. The Chickens and the 
 Hawk. 
 
 the ,, 130. The Four Seasons. 
 
 159. The Lion and the Wolf. 
 
 Odtheca Wolleyana. Edited by Alfred Newton, M.A. Part r. 
 
 Accipitres. Van Voorst. [Lithographs.] 
 
 Tab. C. Falco gyrfalco. | Tab. F. Eagle's Nest. 
 
 Tab. G. Eagle's Nest. 
 
 Stevenson, 
 Voorst. 
 
 Henry, 
 8vo. 
 
 F.L.S. The Birds of Norfolk. Van 
 
 Vol. 1. Frontispiece : Bargate, 
 Surlingham Broad. 
 [ ' Lithographed by 
 J. Wclf and J. Jury.'] 
 
 Page 376. Pallas's Sand Grouse. 
 [Auto-lithograph. ] 
 
 Vol. 2. Frontispiece : Great 
 
 Bustard. [Lithographed by 
 Smit. After J. Wolf.] 
 Vol. 3. Frontispiece : Scoulton Mere. 
 
 The Breeding Place of the 
 BlackheadecfGull. [' Litho- 
 graphed by J. Wolf and 
 J- Jury.'] 
 
 Harting, J. E. The Birds of Middlesex. Van Voorst. Frontis- 
 piece : ' The Head of Kingsbury Reservoir.' [Auto-litho- 
 graph.] 
 
 Tennent, Sir James Emerson. The Wild Elephant, and the 
 Method of Capturing and Taming it in Ceylon. Longmans. 
 Post 8vo. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 124. Noosing Wild Ele- 
 phants. (Full 
 page.) 
 
 ,, 126. Mode of Tying an 
 
 Elephant. 
 ,, 127. His Struggles for 
 
 Freedom. 
 
 Page 130. 
 i3 2 - 
 
 .. *34- 
 
 *35- 
 147- 
 
 Impotent Fury. 
 
 Singular Contortions of an 
 
 Elephant. 
 Attitudes of Captives. 
 
 (Full page.) 
 Obstinate Resistance. 
 Attitude for Defence. 
 
 sEsop's Fables. 
 
 With 100 
 
 T. Dalziel. 
 
 Page i. The Cock and the 
 Jewel. 
 
 15. The Eagle and the 
 Fox. 
 
 65. The Jackdaw and the 
 Peacocks. 
 
 [There is an earlier edition.] 
 
 A new edition edited by Edward Garrett, M.A. 
 illustrations by J. Wolf, J. B. Zwecker, and 
 Strahan. 321110. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 95. The Fighting Cocks and 
 
 the Eagle. 
 ,, 119. The Eagle and the Crow. 
 ,, 1^3. The Tortoise and the 
 
 Easrle. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 319 
 
 1867. 
 
 1867. 
 
 1867. 
 
 1867. 
 
 1867. 
 
 Tristram, The Rev. H. B. The Natural History of the Bible. 
 S.P.C.K. i2mo. [About 20 woodcuts, mostly taken from 
 Johns' British Birds in their Haunts.'] 
 
 Lloyd, L. The Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and 
 
 Norway. Day & Son. Royal 8vo. [Full-page woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 37. The Capercailzie Lek. 1 Page 370. The Bird Cloud. 
 
 ,, 241. The Rurf Lek. ,, 457. Walrus and Polar Bear. 
 
 Argyll, The Duke of. The Reign of Law. Strahan. 8vo. 
 
 [Woodcuts illustrating the flight of birds.] 
 
 Page 166. Sparrow-hawk, Merlin, 
 and Kestril hovering. 
 
 Page 154. The Swift. 
 ,, 162. Wing of Gannet 
 ,, 164. Wing of Golden 
 Plover. 
 
 Maunders'' Treasury of Geography. Hughes' edition. Longmans. 
 Frontispiece, line engraving : 1 Animal Life in South Africa 
 in its Native State, from an original drawing by J. Wolf, 
 under the direction of C. J. Andersson.' 
 
 Zoological Sketches, by Joseph Wolf. Made for the Zoological 
 Society of London. Edited with notes by Philip L. 
 Sclater, &c. Second series. Graves. [Lithographed 
 by Mr. Smit after the original water-colour drawings. 
 Coloured by hand.] 
 
 Mammals. 
 
 1. Ashy-black Macaque 
 
 2. Black-fronted Lemur 
 
 3. Aye Aye . 
 
 4. Fennec Fox 
 
 5. Yaguarundi Cat 
 
 6. Norwegian Lynx 
 
 7. Viverrine Cat . 
 
 8. Rasse 
 
 9. The Ratels 
 
 10. Bintnrong 
 
 11. The Sea Bear . 
 
 12. Persian Deer . 
 
 13. Mantchurian Deer 
 
 14. Formosan Deer 
 
 15. Japanese Deer . 
 
 16. Rusa Deer 
 
 17. Swinhoe's Deer 
 
 18. Pudu Deer 
 
 19. Leucoryx 
 
 20. Markhore 
 
 21. Aoudad * 
 
 22. Andaman Pig . 
 
 23. Collared Peccary 
 
 24. African Elephant 
 
 25. Three-toed Sloth 
 
 26. Red Kangaroo 
 
 27. Hairy-nosed Wombat 
 
 Macacus ocreatus. 
 Lemur nigrifrons. 
 Chiromys madagascariensis. 
 Canis cerdo. 
 Felis yaguarundi. 
 , , lynx. 
 ,, viverrina. 
 Viverricula malaccensis. 
 Mellivora capensis and Melli 
 
 vora indica. 
 Arctictis binturong. 
 Otaria hookeri. 
 Cervus maral. 
 
 mantchuricus. 
 ,, tiavanus. 
 ,, sika. 
 ,, rusa. 
 
 swinhoii. 
 humulis. 
 Oryx leucoryx. 
 Capra megaceros. 
 Ovis tragelaphus. 
 Sus andamanensis. 
 Dycotyles torquatus. 
 Elephas africanus. 
 Bradypus tridactylus. 
 Macropus rufus. 
 Phascolomvs latifrons. 
 
3 2o WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 Birds 
 
 28. Satin Bower Bird 
 
 29. Concave-casqued Hornbill 
 
 30. Rhinoceros Hornbill 
 
 31. Spotted Eagle 
 
 32. Soemmerring's Pheasant 
 
 33. Reeves' Pheasant 
 
 34. Rufous-tailed Pheasant 
 
 35. Siamese Pheasant 
 
 36. Viellot's Fireback 
 
 37. Swinhoe's Pheasant 
 
 38. Lineated „ 
 
 39. Horned Tragopan 
 
 40. Talegalla 
 
 50. 
 
 Ostrich 
 Weka Rail 
 Saddle billed Stork 
 Shoe-bill . 
 Kagu 
 
 African Wood Ibis 
 Indian Wood Ibis 
 Upland Goose 
 Shielded Duck 
 
 The Clotho 
 
 Reptiles. 
 
 Ptilonorhyncus holosericeus. 
 Buceros bicornis. 
 
 ,, rhinoceros. 
 Aquila naevia. 
 Phasianus scemmerringii. 
 
 ,, reevsii. 
 Euplocamus erythropthalmus. 
 prnelatus. 
 ,, viellotti. 
 
 swinhoii. 
 , , lineatus. 
 Ceriornis satyra. 
 Talegalla lathami. 
 Struthio camelus. 
 Ocydromus australis. 
 Ciconia senegalensis. 
 Bataeniceps rex. 
 Rhinochetus jubatus. 
 Tantalus ibis. 
 
 leucocephalus. 
 Chloe'phaga magellanica. 
 Anas scutulata. 
 
 Clotho nasicornij 
 
 1868. Buchanan, Robert W. North Coast, and Other Poems. Rout- 
 ledge. Small 4to. [Four woodcuts at pp. 189, 191, 
 and 213.] 
 
 1868. My Pefs Picture Book. Routledge. [A few electrotypes from 
 
 Wood's Natural History, in ' The Alphabet of Animals.'] 
 
 1869. Wallace, A. R. The Malay Archipelago, The Land of the 
 
 Orang-utan and the Bird of Paradise. Macmillan. 
 Frontispiece : ' Orang-utan attacked by Dyaks.' 
 
 On the title-page and at p. 41 : 'Female Orang-utan,' 
 from a photograph. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 [Also in subsequent editions.] 
 
 1869. Ewing, J. H. Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances. Bell & Daldy. 
 4to. Frontispiece only : ' The Albatross's Nest.' 
 [Another edition 1885.] 
 
 IN THE SEVENTIES. 
 
 1872. Knox, A. E. Autumns on the Spey. Van Voorst. [Lithographs 
 after J. Wolf.] 
 
 Frontispiece : ' Otherwise En- { Page 93. The Black Informer. ' 
 
 gaged.' 138. Ortgarr. 
 
 Page 46. The Last Chance. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 321 
 
 1872. Darwin, Charles. The Expressions of the Emotions in Ma?i 
 and A nimals. M urray. 
 [Page 136, 2 woodcuts. Cynopithecus niger.'] 
 
 1872. Elliot, D. G, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. A Monograph of the 
 Phasianidte. 2 vols. Folio. Published by the Author. 
 New York. [Lithographs by Smit & Keulemans, after 
 J. Wolf. Coloured by hand.] 
 
 Vol. 1. 
 
 Generic Characters. 
 
 Pavo cristatus. 
 ,, nigripennis. 
 , , muticus. 
 Polyplectron thibetanum. 
 
 bicalcaratum. 
 ,, germaini. 
 , , emphanum. 
 chalcurum. 
 Argus giganteus. 
 . . grayi. 
 ,, ocellatus. 
 ,, ' bipunctatus. 
 Crossoptilon thibetanum. 
 ,, drouyni. 
 
 mantchuricum. 
 
 18. Crossoptilon auritum. 
 
 19. Lophophorus impeyanus. 
 
 20. lhuysi. 
 
 21. sclateri. 
 
 22. Tetraophasis obscurus. 
 
 23. Ceriornis satyra. 
 
 24. ,, melanocephala. 
 
 25. ,, temminckii. 
 
 26. , , caboti. 
 
 27. ,, blythi. 
 
 28. Puerasia macrolopha. 
 
 29. , , davauceli. 
 
 30. xanthospila. 
 30 bis. danvini. 
 
 31. Meleagris gallopavo. 
 
 32. ,, mexicana. 
 
 33. , , ocellata. 
 
 Vol. 2. 
 
 I. 
 
 Phasianus shawi. 
 
 24. 
 
 2. 
 
 ,, cholchicus. 
 
 25- 
 
 3- 
 
 insignis. 
 mongolicus. 
 
 26. 
 
 4- 
 
 27. 
 
 5- 
 
 torquatus. 
 
 28. 
 
 6. 
 
 formosanus. 
 
 
 7- 
 8. 
 
 decollatus. 
 
 29. 
 
 elegans. 
 
 3°- 
 
 9- 
 
 versicolor. 
 
 3 1 - 
 
 10. 
 
 wallichi. 
 
 3 2 - 
 
 11. 
 
 ,, reevesi. 
 
 33- 
 
 12. 
 
 ,, scemmerringi. 
 
 34- 
 
 13- 
 
 scemmerringi, 
 
 35- 
 
 
 var . scintillans. 
 
 36. 
 
 13 bis. Calophasis ellioti. 
 
 37- 
 
 14- 
 
 Thanmalea amherstioe. 
 
 38. 
 
 15- 
 
 picta. 
 
 39- 
 
 16. 
 
 obscura. 
 
 40. 
 
 17- 
 
 Hybrid pheasant. 
 
 4i. 
 
 j8. 
 
 Euplocamus albocristatus. 
 
 42. 
 
 19. 
 
 melanotus. 
 
 43- 
 
 20. 
 
 ,, horsfeildi. 
 
 44. 
 
 21. 
 
 nycthemerus. 
 
 45- 
 
 22. 
 
 andersoni. 
 
 46. 
 
 23- 
 
 , , lineatus. 
 
 47- 
 
 Euplocamus proelatus. 
 , , swinhoii. 
 ignitus. 
 nobilis. 
 
 erythrophthal- 
 
 raus. 
 pyronotus. 
 Ithaginis cruentus. 
 
 geoffroyi. 
 Gallus ferrugineus. 
 ,, lafayetti. 
 , , sonnerati. 
 , , varius. 
 Phasidus niger. 
 Agelastes meleagrides. 
 Acryllium. 
 Numida meleagris. 
 coronata. 
 ,, mitrata. 
 
 ptilorhynca. 
 granti. 
 ,, verrauxi. 
 cristata. 
 pucherani. 
 ,, plumifera. 
 
 Y 
 
322 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 1873. Lyrics of Ancient Palestine. With illustrations by A. de 
 Neuville, P. Skelton, J. Wolf, J. D. Watson, &c. Re- 
 ligious Tract Society. 8vo. (Page 86, ' Samson's Riddle/; 
 [Woodcut.] 
 
 1873. GOULD, John. The Birds of Great Britain. Published by 
 the Author, at 26 Charlotte Street, Bedford Square, W.C. 
 5 vols. Atlas folio. [Lithographs by Richter, after J. Wolf, 
 of the following species. Coloured by hand.] 
 
 Vol. 1. 
 
 Egyptian Vulture. 
 Golden Eagle. 
 Spotted Eagle. 
 Sea Eagle. 
 Osprey. 
 
 Common Buzzard. 
 Rough-legged Buzzard. 
 Goshawk. 
 Sparrow-hawk. 
 Ieeland Falcon. 
 Iceland Falcon, Young. 
 Greenland Falcon. 
 Greenland Falcon, Dark. 
 
 Gyr Falcon. 
 
 Peregrine. 
 
 Hobby. 
 
 Merlin. 
 
 Kestril. 
 
 Kite. 
 
 Black Kite. 
 Tawny Owl. 
 Eagle Owl. 
 Long-eared Owl. 
 Snowy Owl. 
 Little' Owl. 
 
 Vol. 3. 
 
 Hooded Crow attacking eggs of Black Game. 
 
 Vol. 
 
 Capercailzie. 
 Black Game. 
 Red Grouse. 
 Ptarmigan in Winter. 
 Ptarmigan in Summer, 
 
 young. 
 Ptarmigan in Autumn. 
 Red-legged Partridge. 
 
 with 
 
 Great Bustard. 
 Little Bustard. 
 Common Crane. 
 Grey Plover. 
 Golden Plover. 
 Woodcock. 
 Coot. 
 Moorhen. 
 
 Grey Lag Goose. 
 Bernicle Goose. 
 Mute Swan. 
 Whooper. 
 Bewick's Swan. 
 Shoveller Duck. 
 Mallard. 
 
 Ferruginous Duck. 
 
 Vol. 5. 
 
 Stella's Duck. 
 Scoter. 
 Smew. 
 Gannet. 
 Iceland Gull. 
 Herring Gull. 
 Blackheaded Gull. 
 Pomatorhine Skua. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 323 
 
 Elliot, D. G., F.L.S., &c. A Monograph of the Birds of 
 Paradise. Published by the Author. Atlas folio. [Litho- 
 graphs by Smit, after J. Wolf. Coloured by hand.] 
 
 1. Generic Characters. 
 
 2. Paradisea apoda. 
 
 3. , , raggiana. 
 
 4. , , minor. 
 
 5. ,, sanguinea. 
 
 6. Manucodia atra. 
 
 7-8. keraudreni. 
 
 9. Astrapia nigra. 
 
 10. Parotia sexpennis. 
 
 11. Lophorina atra. 
 
 12. Diphyllodes speciosa. 
 
 13. ,, chrysoptera. 
 
 14. ,, respublica. 
 
 15. Xanthomelus aureus. 
 
 16. Cicinnurus regius. 
 
 17. Paradigalla carunculata. 
 
 18. Semioptera wallacii. 
 
 19. Epimachus speciosus. 
 
 20. Epimachus ellioti. 
 
 21. Depranornis albeitisi. 
 
 22. Seleucides alba. 
 
 23. Ptiloris magnificus. 
 
 24. ,, alberti. 
 
 25. ,, paradiseus. 
 
 26. ,, victorise. 
 
 27. Sericulus melinus. 
 
 28. Ptilonorhynchis violaceus. 
 
 29. ,, rawnsleyi. 
 
 30. Chlamydodera maculata. 
 
 31. nuchalis. 
 
 32. cerviniventris. 
 
 33. ,, xanthogastra. 
 
 34. ^Elurcedus crassirostris. 
 
 35. ,, me'anotis. 
 
 36. buccoides. 
 
 37. Amblyornis inornata. 
 
 1873. The Life and Habits of Wild Ajiimals. Illustrated with 
 designs by Joseph Wolf. Engraved by J. W. and Edward 
 Whymper, with descriptive letterpress by D. G. Elliot, 
 F.L.S., &c. Macmillan. Super royal 4to. 
 
 Who comes here ? 
 
 A Hairbreadth Escape. 
 
 The Struggle. 
 
 Bruin at Bay. 
 
 The Island Sanctuary. 
 
 At Close Quarters. 
 
 Strategy versus Strength. 
 
 Gleaners of the Sea. 
 
 The Siesta. 
 
 A Tropical Bathing Place. 
 
 Hunted Down. 
 A Race for Life. 
 A Happy Family. 
 Maternal Courage. 
 Rival Monarchs. 
 The King of Beasts. 
 The Shadow Dance. 
 Catching a Tartar. 
 The Ambuscade. 
 The Avalanche. 
 
 1874. Picture Posies. Poems chiefly by living authors, and drawings 
 by F. Walker, J. D. Watson, Birket Foster, J. Wolf, and 
 others. Engraved by Dalziel Brothers. Routledge. 4to. 
 
 [These woodcuts had for the most part appeared in 
 other works such as 'A Round of Days,' published by 
 Routledge.] J. Wolf's are as follows : — 
 
 Page 172. Live in Peace. 
 ,, 173. Morning Song in the 
 
 Country. 
 ,, 191. The Four Seasons. 
 194. Joy Everywhere. 
 205. The Chickens and the 
 Hawk. 
 
 Page 209. The First Spring Day. 
 
 213. The Death of the Deer, I. 
 
 214. ,, ,1 II. 
 , , 227. The Quail and her Young. 
 
 , , 233. By the River. 
 
3 2 4 WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 
 
 1879- 
 
 Dresser, H. E., F.L.S., &c. The Birds of Europe. Pub- 
 lished by the Author. 8 vols. [The following are litho- 
 graphs, after J. Wolf, coloured by hand.] 
 
 The designs for the title-pages : 
 
 ± iaie 30°- 
 
 Lapp Owl . 
 
 Syrnium lapponicum. 
 
 3IQ 
 
 Gnfton Vulture 
 
 Gyps fulvus. 
 
 ,, 3 22 - 
 
 Egyptian ,, 
 
 . Neophron percnopterus. 
 
 ... 3 26 - 
 
 Marsh Harrier . 
 
 Circus aerugiriosus c? 
 
 
 
 Q Ad. 
 
 . . 3 2 7- 
 
 Marsh Harrier 
 
 . Ad. $ 
 
 „ 328. 
 
 Montagu's Harrier 
 
 . Circus cineraceus. 
 
 M 329- 
 
 Hen Harrier 
 
 . Circus cyaneus. 
 
 - > 33°- 
 
 Pallid Harrier 
 
 ,, Swainsoni. 
 
 345- 
 
 Golden Eagle 
 
 Aquila chrysaetus. 
 
 375- 
 
 Lanner 
 
 . Falco feldeggi. 
 
 .. 376. 
 
 Saker ..... 
 
 ,, sacer. 
 
 381. 
 
 Merlin .... 
 
 ,, aesalon. 
 
 , , 466. 
 
 black-bellied Sand Grouse . 
 
 Pterocles arenarius. 
 
 '■„ 468. 
 
 Pallas's Sand Grouse . 
 
 . Syrrhaptes paradoxus. 
 
 „ 618. 
 
 Capped Petrel 
 
 . Gistrelata htesitata. 
 
 1876. 
 
 1876. 
 
 Thierleben. Kriegs- und Friedensbilder aus der Thierwelt. Von 
 B. Tumler. Mit 20 Illustrationen von Joseph Wolf. 
 Einsiedeln, New York, Cincinnati und St. Louis : Gebr. 
 Karl und Nikolaus Benziger. [This is a reprint of the 
 Wild Animals blocks.] 
 
 Brehm's Thierleben: allgcmcine Kimde des Thicrrcichs. Leipzig. 
 [In these volumes will be found a considerable number 
 of woodcuts copied from Wolfs designs in The Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society, or in other works. The animals 
 have in some cases been slightly altered, and other back- 
 grounds and accessories have been introduced. The 
 following are instances from among the mammals : — 
 Vol. 1. 
 
 Page 151. 
 
 Cynocephalus por- 
 carius. 
 166. Cynocephalus ge- 
 lada. 
 
 [89. Ateles bartletti. 
 Pithecia hirsuta. 
 Brachyurus calvul. 
 Lemur macaco. 
 Hapalemur griseus. 
 
 212. 
 215. 
 251- 
 254- 
 
 Page 265. Arctocebus calabarensis. 
 ,, 269. Otolicmus galago. 
 278. Chiromys madagasca- 
 riensis. 
 ,, 389. Felis eyra. 
 , , 390. Tigris regalis. 
 ,, 481. Felis viverrina. 
 , , 509. Lynx canadensis. 
 
 Vol. 2. 
 
 Page 28. 
 », 126. 
 ... I 33- 
 
 334- 
 
 Bassaris astuta. 
 Enhydris lutris. 
 Mephitis suffocans. 
 
 Page 215. 
 ,, 611. 
 
 Arctitis binturong. 
 Ornithorhyncus para- 
 doxus. 
 
 Vol. 3. 
 
 Capra jemlaica. 
 [There are also some Birds in the succeeding volumes.] 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 325 
 
 Golden Thoughts from Golden Fountains, illustrated by emi- 
 nent artists. Engraved by the Brothers Ualziel. Warne. 
 
 Page 19. My Doves. Page 207. Linnets and Nest. 
 
 ,, 113. The Birds that awake j 
 the Morning. 
 
 [In an earlier Edition the designs are printed in brown ink.] 
 
 IN THE EIGHTIES. 
 
 1880. Harting, J. E., F.L.S., &c. British Animals extinct within 
 Historic Times. Trubner. Demy 8vo. 
 
 Page 11. The Bear. 
 
 ,» 77- ,. Wild Boar. 
 
 Page 115. The Wolf. 
 
 882. WILSON, DR. Wild Anijnals and Birds : their Haunts and 
 Habits. With illustrations by Wolf and Specht. Cassell. 
 4to. 
 
 [These illustrations by Wolf are reprints of the whole of 
 the Wild Animals series with different titles ; and, in 
 addition, there are four other subjects.] 
 
 The Gorilla at Home 
 
 Bonnet Monkeys 
 
 The Lion and his Prey . 
 
 A Fight for Life 
 
 The ) aguar on the Watch 
 
 Unconscious Victims 
 
 Strategy versus Strength 
 
 A Shadow Dance . 
 
 An Unequal Contest 
 
 Bruin at Bay . 
 
 Bison and Grizzly Bear . 
 
 An Intruder Baffled 
 
 Just Saved 
 
 In the Snow Drift . 
 
 The Wild Boar at Bay . 
 
 A Favourite Watering Place 
 
 Hunted Down 
 
 The Island Sanctuary 
 
 Only just Caught 
 
 The Harvest of the Sea . 
 
 An Arctic Scene 
 A Marauder . 
 A Midnight Attack 
 The Home of the Heron 
 
 [Who comes here ? 
 [A Happy Family, 
 j The King of Beasts. 
 [ The Struggle. 
 [The .Siesta. 
 [The Ambuscade. 
 
 [The Same. 
 ■ Catching a Tartar. 
 [The Same. 
 [Rival Monarchs. 
 [Maternal Courage. 
 [A Race for Life. 
 'The Avalanche. 
 
 At Close Quarters. 
 
 A Tropical Bathing Place, 
 j The Same. 
 [The Same 
 
 j A Hairbreadth Escape. 
 [Gleaners of the Sea. 
 
 ^ Polar Bear and Snowy Owls. 
 L Golden Eagle and Ptarmigan. 
 [Wild Cat and Ring Dove. 
 [A Lake with many Herons. 
 
 Elliot, D. G., F.L.S., &c. A Monograph of the Felidcs. Pub- 
 lished by the Author for the Subscribers. [Forty-three 
 lithographs by Smit after J. Wolf. Coloured by hand.] 
 
326 WORKS ILL USTRA TED BY J. WQLF 
 
 x. Felis 
 
 leo .... 
 
 . Lion. 
 
 2. , , 
 
 concolor . 
 
 Puma. 
 
 3- 
 
 tigris 
 
 . Tiger. 
 
 4- 
 
 uncia 
 
 . Snow Leopard. 
 
 5- 
 
 onca 
 
 Jaguar. 
 
 6-7. „ 
 
 pardus 
 
 . Leopard. 
 
 8: 
 
 diardi 
 
 . Clouded Leopard. 
 
 9. 
 
 marmorata 
 
 . Marbled Cat. 
 
 TO. , , 
 
 nianul 
 
 rallas s Cat. 
 
 II. 
 
 pageros 
 
 Pampas Cat. 
 
 12. , , 
 
 coloco'lo . 
 
 . The Colocollo. 
 
 13- 
 
 jaguarondi 
 
 . The Jaguarondi. 
 
 14- 
 
 eyra .... 
 
 1 ne h,yra. 
 
 15- 
 
 badia. 
 
 lO. , | 
 
 temminckii 
 
 vjoluen Cat. 
 
 17- 
 
 planiceps . 
 
 r lat-neaaeu (..at. 
 
 l8. , , 
 
 pardabs . 
 
 Ocelot. 
 
 19- 
 
 tigrina 
 
 . Margay. 
 
 20. , , 
 
 gcoffrovi. 
 
 21. 
 
 bengalensis . . 
 
 . Leopard Cat. 
 
 22. , , 
 
 vivernna . 
 
 t ishing Cat. 
 
 23. 
 
 tristris. 
 
 24. 
 
 scnpta. 
 
 
 25. 
 
 chrysothrix. 
 
 
 20. , , 
 
 serval . 
 
 I he Serval. 
 
 27. 
 
 euplilura. 
 
 
 2o. , , 
 
 javensis. 
 
 
 29. 
 
 rubignosa . 
 
 Rusty-spotted Cat. 
 
 3°- 
 
 catus 
 
 Wild Cat. 
 
 3 1 - 
 
 caffra 
 
 Kgyptian Cat. 
 
 3 2 - 
 
 ornata 
 
 Indian Desert Cat. 
 
 33- 
 
 chaus 
 
 . Jungle Cat. 
 
 34- 
 
 caudata. 
 
 
 35- 
 
 shawiana . 
 
 Shaw s Cat. 
 
 36. „ 
 
 cervaria. 
 
 
 37- 
 
 canadensis 
 
 Canada Lynx. 
 
 38. „ 
 
 pardina . 
 
 Pardine Lynx. 
 
 39- 
 
 
 
 40. ,, 
 
 rufa .... 
 
 . Red Cat. 
 
 41. 
 
 caracal 
 
 . The Caracal. 
 
 42. 
 
 domestica. 
 
 
 43. Cynailurus jubatus . 
 
 Hunting Leopard. 
 
 1883. Gould, John. The Birds of Asia. Published by the Author 
 and continued after his death. 1850 to 1883. 7 vols. Atlas 
 fol. [The following are lithographs by Richter, after 
 J. Wolf. Coloured by Hand.] 
 
 Vol. 1. 
 
 Plate 
 
 Black Vulture . 
 Red-naped Falcon 
 Saker Falcon 
 Lanner , , 
 Jugger 
 
 9. Rufous-breasted Spilornis 
 10. 
 
 11. Govinda Kite . 
 
 Otogyps calvus. 
 Falco babylonicus. 
 , , sacer. 
 lanarius. 
 jugger. 
 Spilornis rufipectus. 
 Spizaetus alboniger. 
 Milvus govinda. 
 
WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY J. WOLF 327 
 
 Vol. 6. 
 
 Plate 74. Thibet Partridge 
 
 Perdix hodgsoniae. 
 
 Vol. 7 
 
 13. Bulwer's Pheasant 
 15. Viellot's Fireback 
 18. Cheer 
 
 29. Caspian Snow Partridge 
 
 30. Himalayan Snow Partridg 
 
 31. Altaic Snow Partridge 
 
 32. Thibetan Snow Partridge 
 34. Common Pheasant . 
 
 37. Soemmerring's Pheasant 
 
 38. Sparkling Pheasant . 
 
 40. Japanese Pheasant 
 
 41. Mongolian Pheasant . 
 47. Blythe's Horned Pheasant 
 62. Zic Zac 
 
 69. Mandarin Duck . 
 
 Lobiophasis bulweri. 
 Euplocamus viellotti. 
 ( latreus wallichi. 
 Tetraogallus caspius. 
 
 ,, himalayensis. 
 ,, altaicus. 
 tibetanus. 
 Phasianus colchicus. 
 ,, soemmerringi. 
 ,, scintillans. 
 ,, versicolor. 
 
 mongolicus. 
 Ceriornis blythii. 
 ,, Pluranus cegyptus. 
 
 ,, Aix galericuJata. 
 
 Harting, J. E., F.L.S., &c. Sketches of Bird Life from Twenty 
 Years' Observations on their Haunts and Habits. Illus- 
 trated by Whymper, Wolf, and others. Allen. Demy 8vo. 
 
 IN THE NINETIES. 
 
 Buxton, E. N. Short Stalks or Hunting Camps : North, 
 South, East, and West. Illustrated by Lodge, Whymper, 
 Wolf, &c. Stamford. 8vo. [Woodcuts.] 
 
 Page 174. ' Skrsemt." | Page 208. ' The Capra aegarus.' 
 
 RICHARD Lydekker. The Royal Natural History. Illus- 
 trated by Specht, Miitzel, Wolf, &c. Warne. In progress. 
 
 The illustrations copied from Wolf are confined for the most 
 part to reprints of the cuts in Brehm's Thierleben already 
 given, but without the acknowledgment of their author- 
 ship. They are here signed ' G. M.' Among other instances 
 in the first volume (for example) in which Wolfs work has 
 been made use of, the following may be mentioned : — 
 
 Page 150. White-cheeked Sapajou. . See Proceedings of the Zoo- 
 logical Society, 1865, plate 45. 
 ,, 164. Variegated Spider Monkey . See Ditto 1867, plate 47. 
 ,, 176. Humboldt's Saki . . . See Bates' Naturalist on the 
 
 River Amazons, vol. 2, p. 306. 
 Bald Uakari .... See Ditto. 
 ,, 192. The Silver Marmoset . . See Proceedings of the Zoo- 
 logical Society, 1868, plate 24. 
 ,, 226. The Senegal Galago . . See Ditto 1863, plate 28. 
 ,, 217, The Gentle Lemur . . . See Ditto 1863, plate 17. 
 ,, 235. The Awantibo .... See Ditto 1864, plate 28. 
 
328 WORKS ILLUSTRATED 
 
 BY J. WOLF 
 
 Page 261. The Red-necked Fruit Rat. 
 Signed ' J. Wolf ' . . 
 
 The Pen-tailed Tree-shrew. 
 Signed ' J. Smit.' 
 ,, 345. The Potomogale 
 
 ' The Struggle in the Stream ' . 
 
 , , 363. The Lion at the Pool. 
 
 ,, 410. The Fishing Cat. 'After Wolf.' 
 
 ,, 489. The Fyra . 
 
 , , 437. The Northern Lynx . 
 
 ,, 560. An Interesting Discovery . 
 
 See Tennent's Sketches of the 
 Natural History of Ceylon, 
 p. 14. 
 
 See Proceedings of the Zoo- 
 logical Society. Mammalia 2. 
 
 From a lithograph signed by 
 J. Wolf, and natural size. 
 
 Part only of ' The Struggle ' in- 
 Wild Animals. 
 
 See Elliot's Monograph of the 
 
 FelidcB, plate 22. 
 See Ditto, plate 14. 
 See Ditto. 
 
 Part only of ' The Shadow 
 Dance ' in Wild Animals. 
 
 1895. Badminton Library, Big Game Shooting. Longmans. 1895. 
 
 2 vols. In Vol. 1. Eleven reproductions of the drawings 
 which were made to illustrate Mr. W. C. Oswell's African 
 Adventures. 
 
 Page 40. Molopo River. 
 90. Odds — -3 to 1. 
 ,, 116. Feeling both Horns 
 
 of a Dilemma. 
 ,, 120. The Drop Scene. 
 ., 128. Elephants — Zouga 
 Flats. 
 
 , 140. Threatening of Ele- 
 phantiasis. 
 
 Page 
 
 52. 
 66, 
 70. 
 
 Death of Superior. 
 
 A Night Attack, Lupapi. 
 
 ' Post equitem sedet 
 "fulva" cura.' The 
 Lioness does the scan- 
 
 •3 
 
 sion. 
 
 02. Death of Stael. 
 Maneless Lions. 
 
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 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 LONDON