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The Art of "True Type" Breed Standards
Ross Butler, Canadian Livestock Artist (1907-1995)
by Irene Crawford-Siano
Born and raised in Norwich, Ross Butler was a direct
descendant of the famous Loyalist colonel John Butler and a self-taught
artist who made a lasting impresson on the agricultural and art communities
in Canada and the United States. Working out of his studio
overlooking the Woodstock Town Square, Butler was commissioned by the Ontario
government in the 1930s to paint "true types" of Canadian livestock breeds
to be used for agricultural education and breeding purposes.
Butler's theories of animal proportion significantly influenced agricultural
scientists at the University of Guelph. His early portrait of Springbank
Snow Countess served as a model for the life-size monument of this famous
Holstein cow which identifies Oxford County as the "Dairy Capital" of Canada.
Butler was also commissioned by the Percheron breeding association in the
United States to sculpt true types, which led to his work creating logo-statues
for Black Horse Ale.
A Jersey breeder himself, Butler was a founding father
of the Oxford Jersey Club, the Oxford Historical and Museum Society, and
the Oxford Breeding Unit, later named the Central Unit, for livestock breeding
through artificial insemination. Among his many accomplishments as
an artist were the "butter" sculptures of livestock he created for the
annual Royal Winter Fair and his true-type paintings of cattle and horse
breeds.
Ross Butler's remarkable achievements as an agricultural
artist were recognized posthumously in June 1997 when he was inducted into
the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame.
Extract of "Corpulent Cattle and Milk Machines: Nature, Art and the
Ideal Type"
by Michael S. Quinn
-------------- Tomkins, Bakewell and the Collings, with their methods
of livestock improvement, established themselves as the "fathers of breed
improvement" (Whitlock, 1977). The adoption of their standards of perfection
was, at least in part, mediated through visual representation in the form
of paintings and prints. They provided forms for other breeders to aspire
to. It was obvious to anyone who saw the paintings, prints or animals themselves
that formal breeds were a reality; they were there for all to see. However,
livestock portraiture was not only important in the establishment of a
breed, but in its continuance and "improvement." The rediscovery of Mendel's
genetic experiments and the increasing demand for cattle products created
a heightened sense of urgency for livestock "improvement" in the first
decade of the twentieth century. By this time, the newly formalized breeds
of Europe were well established in North America. The following Canadian
example illustrates the role portraiture played in cattle breeding.
Jersey cows in Canada have at various times established
world records for production, notably those set
up by Brampton Basilua in 1933, when she gave 1,313
lb. of butterfat. She was owned by Messrs. B.H.
Bull and Son, who had imported her from Jersey and
who established a famous high-yielding family
from her descendents.
The Brampton herd has had a profound influence on
Jersey breeding in Canada and the United States,
the owners having imported a large number of outstanding
animals from Jersey.
In 1930, a young artist and farmer from Norwich, Ontario was commissioned
to do a portrait of the new world champion Jersey Cow from the nearby town
of Brampton. The Canadian Jersey Cattle Club was so impressed by Ross Butler's
painting that they approached him to create a "model type" for the breed.
They wanted a painting of the perfect Jersey Cow. Butler accepted the assignment
with relish but was soon faced with a perplexing question: What would this
perfect animal look like?
Butler purchased a Jersey heifer of outstanding pedigree named "Major
Sea Girl." His plan was to pamper and study her to form a conception of
perfect proportions. He began to take various measurements of Major Sea
Girl in an attempt to reduce the notion of excellence to something approaching
a mathematical formula. His discoveries astonished him:
...from the tip of her nose to her tailsetting, was exactly equal to
her largest girth measurement...her height at the withers was equal to
her height at the rump and...it was also precisely the distance between
her front and rear hooves...The length of the head was a unit measurement
duplicated in 22 proportions of her body...from her throat to her dewlap,
from dewlap to udder...the length of her neck to her withers, twice from
her withers to her hipbones, from hip to pinbone and hip to stifle joint,
from stifle to hock, hock to hoof and more (in Webster, 1985).
Butler concluded that the ideal Jersey cow was framed around a perfect square. His perfect animal was a series of boxes within a
box, a notion
he entitled "Butler's theory of relativity."
Butler extended his theory to other breeds of cattle and then other
domestic animals. He quickly became established as the Canadian authority
on what was called the True Type, Ideal Type or Standard of Perfection.
He was granted one of the widest reaching commissions in Canadian art history
when in 1937 he began work on 22 paintings depicting the perfect male and
female of every major dairy breed, beef breed and draught horse. The completed
series was sent to every school in Canada and rare was the classroom that
did not display a print or two on the wall above the blackboard, up there
beside the carefully lettered Aa Bb Cc. Generations of daydreaming school
children settled their eyes on the bony hips and soft contours of Butler's
ideal jersey cow or the great feet and mighty haunches of his perfect Percheron
stallion (Webster, 1985).
References
Klinkenborg, G. (1993). Barnyard biodiversity. Audubon, 95, 1, 78-88.
Webster, M. (1985). Perfection on canvas: Ross Butler's images set
husbandry's highest standards. Harrowsmith, 9, 5, 62-71.
Whitlock, R. (1977). Bulls through the ages. Rugby, Warwickshire: Lutterworth
Press.]
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