Scientist of the Day - Charles Knight
“Leaping Laelaps,” watercolor by Charles R. Knight, 1897, American Museum of Natural History (Wikimedia commons)
Charles Robert Knight, an American wildlife painter, paleo-artist, and sculptor, died Apr. 15, 1953, at the age of 78. He was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 21, 1874, and began drawing animals from books at an early age, despite severe astigmatism that required him to have his eyes very close to the drawing surface. He spent time growing up in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in Central Park, and when he was 18, one of the curators, Jacob Wortman, saw his sketches and asked Knight if he would like to bring an extinct animal back to life on paper. Knight jumped at the chance, did a credible restoration of an Elotherium, a Paleocene mammal (you can see his painting at our post on Wortman), which pleased Wortman immensely, and Knight's career as a paleo-artist was off and running.
Charles R. Knight at work in his studio, undated photograph, source unknown
Knight was one of the first, and to many, the greatest paleo-artist of all times, for reasons we tried to explain in our first post on Knight (which was in fact the very first post in the Scientist of the Day series, on Oct. 21, 2014). Knight, unlike most contemporary paleontologists and artists, portrayed dinosaurs as active and intelligent animals, behaving very much like mammals and birds. His Ornitholestes of 1914, which we showed as the second image in our first post, is quintessential Charles Knight in its dynamism and liveliness. Everyone draws dinosaurs like this now, but no one did in 1914, except Knight.
Agathaumas (Triceratops), photo-reproduction of a watercolor by Charles R. Knight, Century Magazine, p. 18, Nov. 1897 (Linda Hall Library)
We thought we would show you today Knight's first published dinosaur reconstructions, which appeared in 1897 in the November issue of Century Magazine. They don't yet have the vivacity of the later drawings, with one exception, but it is clear that a gifted artist is at work. The exception is our first image, called “Leaping Laelaps,” which depicts two small theropods (now known as dryptosaurs), fighting, playing, or mating, with unprecedented vitality. You can see a preparatory sculpture that Knight did for this watercolor as the last image in our first post on Knight.
Dimetrodon, photo-reproduction of a watercolor by Charles R. Knight, Century Magazine, p. 13, Nov. 1897 (Linda Hall Library)
Leaping Laelaps, photo-reproduction of a watercolor by Charles R. Knight, Century Magazine, p. 13, Nov. 1897 (Linda Hall Library)
Our first image is the original watercolor. The editors of Century Magazine were looking for someone to illustrate an article by a hack author on dinosaurs, Knight showed them his stuff, and they were sold. He provided them with watercolors, from which wood engravings were made, depicting an Agathaumas (Triceratops, third image), a Dimetrodon (fourth image), and the”Leaping laelaps,” as a woodcut (fifth image). Our sixth image shows two Trachodons. We do not show the final image in the article, with two Brontosaurus in a swamp.
Two Trachodons, photo-reproduction of a watercolor by Charles R. Knight, Century Magazine, p. 17, Nov. 1897 (Linda Hall Library)
Charles R. Knight sculpting a Stegosaurus, photograph, 1899, American Museum of Natural History (Wikimedia commons)
Knight collaborated with Edward D. Cope on the Century drawings, but Cope died that year, and Knight began working with Henry F. Osborn at the AMNH. Together, they would prepare both physical and visual restorations of a variety of dinosaurs, such as Ornitholestes. Many of these were showcased within the pages and on the cover of Scientific American, in a period from 1903 to 1915. We will look at those in our next post on Knight.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
