This is Throwback Thursday #293. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks!  email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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The Field Museum has an interesting Photo Archive page about Charles Knight. Knight was an American wildlife and paleoartist during the early 1900s. He is probably best known for his many detailed paintings of dinosaurs and prehistoric life created for multiple major museums in the United States. His iconic painting of a battle between Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops horridus was created in 1927 for the Field Museum.

The painting is still on display in Dinosaur Hall.

Knight was born in Brooklyn, NY on October 21st, 1874. His father had a deep passion for the outdoors, which ignited Knight’s interests in nature and animals. He and his father visited the American Museum of Natural History often.

Knight began drawing at around 5 or 6 years of age, using books as his models. Unfortunately, an astigmatism and a childhood injury to his right eye left him legally blind. He used specially designed glasses to continue to pursue his artistic talents. However, the glasses forced him to paint  inches from the canvas for the rest of his life. In 1886 at age 12, he enrolled in the Metropolitan Art School to begin training as a commercial artist. His first job came at age 16, designing stained-glass windows for churches. In 1892, he became a freelance illustrator for children’s books and magazines. His specialty was nature scenes.

He still visited the AMNH often, where he met Dr. Jacob Wortman. Wortman was impressed by his painting of Elotherium, a fossil on display at the AMNH. Knight used his imagination and his knowledge of modern anatomy to fill in gaps in his subjects. He was commissioned to do a series of paintings for the museum, which led to one his most famous paintings in 1897… Leaping Laelaps.

Laelaps was especially striking as it portrayed dinosaurs not as slow lumbering animals, but as active, vital creatures. Many of his paintings made their way into dinosaur books during the middle 20th century, familiar favorites included portrayals of Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Smilodon.

The Field Museum commissioned Knight to do a series of 28 murals in 1926. The project took four years to complete. The paintings are some of the museum’s most treasured possessions. They adorn the walls of “Evolving Planet” providing a nice backdrop to the fossil exhibits.

In the early 1920s, among Knight’s great admirers was Dr. George Kunz, the renowned gemologist for Tiffany. Visiting Knight’s studio, Kunz was struck by the fact that The Field Museum did not own any of Knight’s work. Dr. Kunz worked with Knight’s daughter Lucy, to secure a contract to create his biggest commission yet: a series of 28 murals to enclose the Museum’s new fossil hall. The murals show the development of life on earth, from its earliest origins through the ages of amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Knight and Lucy traveled to Chicago in 1926 to begin the project. While in Chicago, Knight met the Museum’s anthropologist Henry Field and accompanied him to France and Spain. The Field Museum mural project consumed four years of Knight’s life, and remains today among the Museum’s most popular treasures.