Full Record |
| Title |
A Male Quagga from Africa: The First Sire |
| Collection |
Royal College of Surgeons for England |
| Artist |
Agasse, Jacques Laurent (Swiss artist, 1767-1849) |
| Date |
1821 (dated) |
| Description |
This is one of a series of six paintings of living animals commissioned by Lord Merton for the Royal College of Surgeons by the Swiss artist Jacques-Laurent Agasse. The paintings were commissioned in order to record Lord Merton's experiments on Telegony, the study of whether the womb can be influenced by its past progeny. The animals in the series are mainly shown in profile and, although painted in a manner that reflects that the works are from life, are intended to be seen as scientific records. This is the first painting in the series and shows a male Quagga, a now extinct type of Zebra. |
| Current Accession Number |
RCSSC/P 278 |
| Former Accession Number |
Clift 1820 no. 43; Keith no. 53 |
| Subject |
animal (Quagga); landscape |
| Measurements |
48.0 x 58 cm.0 cm (estimate) |
| Material |
oil on canvas |
| Acquisition Details |
Purchased from the artist 1821. |
| Principal Exhibitions |
Jacques-Laurent Agasse, 1767-1849, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, 1988-1989 & Tate Gallery, London, 1989, cat. no. 47; Fierce Friends: Artists and Animals, 1750-1900, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2005-2006 & Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2006, nn. |
| Publications |
Clift, W., List of Paintings of the College, unpublished cat., 1820, cat. no. 43, p. 19 as A Male Quagga from Africa; Morton, The Earl of, 'A Communication of a Singular Fact in Natural History'; Philosophical Transactions, London, 1821, vol. 111, pp. 20-22; Keith, A. Illustrated Guide to the Museum of The Royal College of Surgeons, England, London, 1910, pp. 113-4; Keith, A., Sir, Hunterian and Other Pictures in the Museum Collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, 1930, cat. no. 53, p. ?; LeFanu, W., A Catalogue of the Portraits and Other Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture in the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Edinburgh & London, 1960, cat. no. 278, p. 91, ill. pl. 278; Jacques-Laurent Agasse, 1767-1849, London, 1988, cat. no. 47, p. 134, p. 140, ill. p.135; Lippincott, L., & Blühm, A., Fierce Friends: Artists and Animals, 1750-1900, London, 2005, pp. 76-7. |
| Notes |
Clift added to the 1820 hand-written manuscript as works were acquired. George, 15th Earl of Morton FRS. mated a male Quagga with an Arab mare, and their progeny had 'some of the marks and colour of both parents'. The mare was subsequently mated with an Arab stallion, and three successive foals showed markings which appeared to be like those of the Quagga. It is believed that this painting was based on Aggase's painting of a Quagga of April 1817. The Clift 1820 catalogue p. 19, records the following: 'The following are a Series of Six Pictures Painted from the living Animals for the College in 1821 by Mr. Agasse, to illustrate the history of a male Quagga from Africa, and an Arabian Mare, both formerly the Property of Lord Morton on which subject a paper was read before the Royal Society, on Thursday the .. of 182[?].' |
| Rights Owner |
Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons |
| Author |
Dr Madeleine Korn |
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