In the taxidermist's workshop

The work by Viktor Mikhailovich Evstafiev under the title “In the taxidermist's workshop” is included in a series of 21 drawings dedicated to the life of Charles Darwin, created in 1948 - 1957. This work depicts an episode from the life of a young Darwin during his studies in Edinburgh, where he found a new hobby - making taxidermied birds. His teacher was John Edmonston, a freed black slave from Guiana brought to Scotland by the ornithologist Charles Waterton. This is how Charles Darwin himself describes this acquaintance in his Autobiography: “By the way, a negro lived in Edinburgh, who had travelled with Waterton, and gained his livelihood by stuffing birds, which he did excellently: he gave me lessons for payment, and I used often to sit with him, for he was a very pleasant and intelligent man”.

Viktor Mikhailovich Evstafiev (1916-1989) fought during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), was a troop leader, a senior lieutenant. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, medals “For Courage”, “For Victory over Germany”, “For Valorous Labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945”. In 1953 Evstafiev graduated from a studio of the Moscow Association of Artists, where he was taught by I. Leizerov, G. Smirnov, M. Matorin. From 1947 to 1960, he worked with the State Darwin Museum. This collaboration resulted in a wonderful series of graphic works, paintings, and sculptures. V.M. Evstafiev was not an animal painter, so the founder and first director of the State Darwin Museum Alexander Fedorovich Kohts entrusted him to do portraits of famous military leaders and prominent scientists, as well as to continue series of biographical paintings about the life of Charles Darwin and I.V. Michurin.