3-021-009 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Baffled Hawk", by A. Munro, in the exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1868. Engraving of a marble statue. 'The catalogue of the Academy Exhibition...intimates [it] is a portrait: "Ronald, son of Colonel Munro Ferguson, of Raith and Novar"...the artist has certainly been most fortunate in lighting upon a very charming and original "motive" for a child-portrait in sculpture - an incident, moreover, which may very possibly be founded on fact. The smaller and more timid birds will sometimes, when pursued by the hawk or other birds of prey, fly for protection towards human beings; and in this instance it may well be a pet dove which, flying in terror from its natural enemy, now flutters, confident of protection, on a familiar bosom. The little fellow's joy at having suddenly found himself the preserver of his pet affords pleasing testimony to the gentleness of his nature'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.