There's a charming relaxed quality to the pictures as the drawings
seem to avoid the often rigid, but technically accurate execution
of many contemporary naturalist illustrations.
Until the invention of photography and in particular the dry plate
in the 1850's, which produced the ubiquitous albumen print, the
public relied on drawings for evidence, drawn proofs, as it were.
So as one drew an animal, so was the animal perceived.
There's a famous and likely apocryphal story
about Durer's famous print of the Rhinocerous.
An early owner of the print had, thinking the image a little bland
or grey, given it a pale yellow/ochre wash, and in doing so, convinced
generations of viewers of the then unknown creature that the
great beast was a bright and horrible breakfast nook yellow.
click to enrage
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