Fish imagery in art 36: Friedli's Lahontan cutthroat

Abstract

Lahontan cutthroat, Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi. This painting by contemporary artist Robert Friedli was used as an illustration in a popular book on cutthroat trout (Trotter 1987). It demonstrates how much the boundaries between fine art and illustration have become blurred. On one hand, it is clearly not a scientific illustration. The colors are accurate because Friedli bases his paintings on photographs of trout he has caught himself, but features important to taxonomists, such as scale rows and fin rays, are painted with considerable liberty. On the other hand, modern paintings of this nature would rarely be found in a museum devoted to fine arts, even though an equivalent painting from sixteenth century Holland (a still life with fish) would be prominently displayed. Yet Friedli's watercolor paintings on paper are quite different from standard trout-leaping-out-of the-water paintings, usually painted with cold realism, that are so popular with anglers today. His style is clearly based on Japanese brush paintings, where a few brush strokes and white spaces tell the viewer as much about the environment of the fish as more detailed paintings of other artists. However, the trout also dominates the painting much more than is typical of traditional Japanese brush paintings (with the notable exception of Nakajima Raisho, 1796-1871, whose scrolls of fish are highly prized).Freiedli, Professor of Computers and Technology at Boise State University, Idaho, is clearly painting for an increasingly sophisticated audience of fly fishermen. Such anglers presumably appreciate his ability to catch the essence of a wild trout in an unsentimental way. The paintings deserve a wider audience.Lahontan cutthroat is used with permission of the artist and of Patrick C. Trotter.Trotter, P.C. 1987. Cutthroat: native trout of the West. Colorado Associated University Press, Boulder. 219 pp.