The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1903-05-28
POSING WILD ANIMALS.
REPTILES MOST DIFFICULT OF
CREATURES TO PHOTOGRAPH.
Animal Trainers Have Found IL
Possible to Bring the Denizens
of the Woods to the Artists
Studirs-Iion Inclined To ~arinn,a


of the Woods to the Artists
Studirs-Lion Inclined to Laziness.
Teaching animals to pose for their
picture is a feature of animal training
nowadays and some trainers have be-
come so expert at this work that their
services are in great demand.
The amateur artists goes to the me-
nagerie or geological gardens, or trusts
to securing q good copy from some
photograph; but the first-class artist
must either go out into the wild jun
giles and woods to copy his posing ami
mails or get somebody to bring his
model to the studio where he can
study and work on it for days and
weeks. 1t Is no always possible to go
to the forests and woods to find models,
nor is 1t always a sure thing to find
what the artist requires after he gets
to the natural habitat of the wild ami
mails. Even leaving the question of
danger out, painting direct from wild
life it not altogether a pleasant and
profitable occupation when ferocious
animals are needed as models.
Therefore animals trainers have in
recent times found that it was possible
to bring the denizens of the woods to
the artists studios, and in this work
they have been so far successful that
they find it profitable to extend their
usefulness in this direction. Good pos
ing animals are hard to get, and they
are expensive Injuries to artists, but
in the end it pays q good animal pain
ter to secure such perfect models at
any cost. 1t is we'll enough to go to
the Bronx and sketch an elephant tug
ging at his chain or an angry lion pac-
ing up and down his cage; but to catch
the proper atmosphere it is necessary
for an artist to study his model day
after day in the same attitude. 1t is to
furnish the profession with wild ami
mails that will pose by the hour that
animal trainers have succeeded in
building up a new business.
Bears are among the easiest of wild
animals to teach to pose, and the cost
of n for a few weeks is not great. AL
most any tame bear can be taught to
pose, and pose in such a way that he
will appear fully as ferocious as a wild
bear intent upon hunting his prey.
Only successful animal trainers can
teach the animals to pose so that there
is life and atmosphere in their posi-
ton and expression. A bear standing
over a victim might give anything in
the world except the desired express
sion which the artist wishes to i'm
mortalize. Good animal painters are be-
coming more eXacting every veal in
their models. The camera has brought
to their studio fine wild birds and ami
mails in their natural haunts, and some
thing of the life and attitude of these
is desire. in the posing models. While
the bear is one of the easiest animals
to teach and train, he is nevertheless
a difficult creature to make very de-
sirable. The average bear in captivity
is a lazy beast and his posing it natur-
ally bad. Only good trainers can put a
little anger and ferocity into them.
Sometimes it is essential to prod them
with a sharp stick to make them actu-
ally worth anything. More than one
bear posing as a model has actually
been SO angry at his trainer as to long
to devour him. 1t is at such supreme
moments that the artist strives tt catch
the genuine wild bear attitude and ex-
preston. Some trainers exert them
selves to such an extent that they risk
their own lives. The artist, unmind-
full of his danger, proceeds to paint, en-
couraging the man to torment his
model until ready to spring upon him.
The lion is also inclined to laziness
and indifference in captivity, and he
does not make a good model for pos
ing unless he is painted in a %restful,
sleeping position, but that is not the
attitude which art demands today in
wild animals. 1t is expression of life
and activity that must illuminate the
canvas, and to catch this the wild
creature must have soma of his dor
mant instincts of anger and ferocity
aroused. To make good posers the ami
mails must be half starved before the
hour for sitting and then, lean and
hungry, their nerves are easily aroused.
L ISA IL 10 pOSSlDlc W lldhe tle eyes
snap and CLEAN, and the head to as
sumo the position of anger or cupidity.
+. The most difficult of wild beasts to
paint in attitudes of. activity is the rep
tile, and 1t has only been recently that
studios have been supplied with the
poisonous snakes which would prove
satisfactory models. A drugged snake
would not do, for it's motions are too
sluggish. Neither would a venomous
serpent with it's poisonous fangs ex-
tracted quite answer the purpose, for
the loss of it's terrible weapon seems to
daze and frighten the creature SO that
its defiant, angry appearance deserts
it. But some genius found a way to
obtain the desired effect, and for some
time his snake models were in great de-
mand.
The poisonous creatures were placed
on a large plate glass square and then
tempted by the trainer to assume the
striking attitude. 1t was found that a