McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Samples or parr
Atlantic Salmon, immature
Salmo salar
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Peter Paillou was born in London into a Huguenot family and was recognised in his own time as an eminent ‘bird painter’. In 1744 he began to paint for Taylor White and worked for him for almost thirty years, painting chiefly birds and mammals. He painted as well for Robert More, Joseph Banks, and for the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Many of his paintings of birds were used as the basis for book illustrations, often engraved by his colleague and fellow Huguenot, Peter Mazell. Paillou was elected to the Society of Artists and in 1763 he exhibited ‘A Piece of Birds, in Watercolours; the Hen of the Wood and Cock of the Red Game’. In 1778, to considerable approval, he also showed a picture of ‘A Horned Owl from Peru’, completely made from feathers.
Drawing of an immature Atlantic Salmon from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: The North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea, and the North Sea.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Samples or parr (Salmo salmulus)
Scientific name: Salmo salar
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Pisces Abdominales Salmo.
The Samlet
is about 6 inches in Length Tail is forked
Three fins on the Back and 3 on the Belly
placed in pairs oposite to each other.
Colour uper part of the head & back &
fins are brown.
The sides bluish or Silver colour the
the Belly White indented or waved into
the sides with nine waves in each of
of which is a red spot placed in a line
from the finn to the Tail.
it either not described or ill described by
Linaeus [it] abounds in the River Severne