Musk deer with its calf

The painting was performed in the State Darwin Museum under the annual plan on the subject “Organism and environment.” A. F. Kots wrote in a letter of explanation to the budget for 1940 that the museum interpreted the subject in the following way: “The subject focuses on one of the central chapters of evolutionism, namely, age-related adaptation in the animal world and application of the ‘Biogenetic Law’ (reproduction of ancestors’ features in younger animals). The planned examples include representations of a series of species with remarkably bright motley colors and patterns during the first years of their life — these are elementary examples normally placed in books on evolutionism, which, however, have not been used for museum purposes so far…” Two paintings were performed on the subject, illustrating age-related changes in animals: “A boar and its piglets” and “A musk deer with its calf.”