Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)
by Ernst Haeckel
from Prestel Publishing
Every biology student knows Ernst Haeckel as the originator of the "Biogenetic Law": ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Haeckel was a passionate student of the evolutionary shaping of biological forms, and Art Forms in Nature captures both his artistic sensibility and the scientific rigor he applied to all his studies. First published in 1904, Art Forms in Nature is a glorification of function and form, a demonstration of organic symmetry that has nothing--and everything--to do with nature as it actually exists. Each plate exhibits organisms carefully arranged and exquisitely detailed, "a symbiosis between decorative sketches and descriptive observations of nature," as Olaf Breidbach states in his fascinating introductory text. The radiolarians, medusae, rotifers, bryozoans, and even frogs and turtles lovingly recreated here are gorgeous and self-explanatory, rendered in delicate, filigreed lines, and colored gently with muted green, delicate pink, and sepia. Art students will appreciate the designs found in nature--scientists will love the evolutionary statement of form inherent in the beauty. --Therese Littleton
Painter in a Savage Land: The Strange Saga of the First European Artist in North America
by Miles Harvey
from Random House
In this vibrantly told, meticulously researched book, Miles Harvey reveals one of the most fascinating and overlooked lives in American history. Like The Island of Lost Maps, his bestselling book about a legendary map thief, Painter in a Savage Land is a compelling search into the mysteries of the past. This is the thrilling story of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, the first European artist to journey to what is now the continental United States with the express purpose of recording its wonders in pencil and paint. Le Moyne’s images, which survive today in a series of spectacular engravings, provide a rare glimpse of Native American life at the pivotal time of first contact with the Europeans–most of whom arrived with the preconceived notion that the New World was an almost mythical place in which anything was possible.
In 1564 Le Moyne and three hundred other French Protestants landed off the coast of Florida, hoping to establish the first permanent European settlement in the sprawling territory that would become the United States. Their quest ended in gruesome violence, but Le Moyne was one of the few colonists to escape, returning across the Atlantic to create dozens of illustrations of the local Native Americans–works of lasting importance to scholars. Today, he is also recognized as an influential early painter of flowers and plants.
A Zelig-like persona, Le Moyne worked for some of the most prominent figures of his time, including Sir Walter Raleigh. Harvey’s research, moreover, suggests a fascinating link to the notorious Mary Queen of Scots. Largely forgotten until the twentieth century, Le Moyne’s pieces have become increasingly sought after in the art world–at a 2005 auction, a previously unknown book of his botanical drawings sold for a million dollars.
In re-creating the life and legacy of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Miles Harvey weaves a tale of both intellectual intrigue and swashbuckling drama. Replete with shipwrecks, mutinies, religious wars, pirate raids, and Indian attacks, Painter in a Savage Land is truly a tour de force of narrative nonfiction.
Praise for Painter in a Savage Land
"Inspired, beautiful, and wholly original. Miles Harvey is an archeologist of forgotten stories, a master of finding astounding characters folded into the crevices of withered documents. In Painter in a Savage Land, he has breathed life into a thrilling and unlikely tale that, in the end, connects us all." --Robert Kurson, author of Shadow Divers and Crashing Through
"Like some lovable sleuth of the esoteric--a sort of scholarly Columbo--Miles Harvey has a way of stumbling onto intriguing historical tales entirely missed by others. With equal parts rigor and wonder, he has transported us to a surprising dawn-world when a bewildered Europe was making its first contacts with a bizarre and vulnerable continent." --Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers
"A fantastic brew of art, exploration and exploitation. Miles Harvey's story bristles with surprises on every page." --Laurence Bergreen, author of Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu and Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe
"Miles Harvey has outdone himself with this absorbing account of the life and work of a mysterious French artist who was the first European to record visual impressions of North America. Harvey's investigation into the curious life, swashbuckling adventures and enduring legacy of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is appealing on a number of compelling levels, adeptly done with style, elegance and a sure sense of story." --Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of A Gentle Madness, Among the Gently Mad and A Splendor of Letters
"Insatiable curiosity and fierce pursuit of fact combine to create a graceful exploration of worlds old and new." --Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating exploration of the obscure life and violent times of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. … Harvey's volume hits the sweet spot for both adventure buffs and history fans." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"One astonishing discovery after another …Â Harvey's groundbreaking, fun-to-read biography blows dust off significant swathes of history and makes for a rousing read." --Booklist (starred review)
"[A] rip-roaring account of Le Moyne's adventures. ... It's a testament to Harvey's research and style that he can powerfully evoke a man about whom so few documentary traces remain." --Entertainment Weekly
Art Forms in Nature (Dover Pictorial Archives)
by Ernst Haeckel
from Dover Publications
The Book of Plants: The Complete Plates (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series)
by Basilius Besler
from Taschen
TASCHEN's 25th anniversary - Special edition! New design, new low price! The most famous botanical record ever committed to paper: Basilius Besler's complete Book of Plants of 1613 A magnificent pictorial document of the flowers grown in the greatest German garden of its time, the Book of Plants is in a class of its own when it comes to the variety and range of flowers engraved. Working under Basilius Besler, a team of at least ten engravers worked on this massive project, translating in situ and specimen drawings faithfully to copper plates. Nearly four hundred years old, the book has survived though the gardens did not; they were destroyed by invading Swedish troops in 1634. However, in 1998 a reconstruction of the original garden opened to the public in Eichst?tt. This facsimile's reproductions - structured by seasons - are taken from a hand-painted edition, one of only a few still extant. In auction, the asking price for a first edition copy is half a million dollars. You can now enjoy its unique qualities for somewhat less.
Africa: An Artist's Safari
by Fred Krakowiak
from Maverick Brush Strokes
Birds: Mini Edition: The Art of Ornithology
by Jonathan Elphick
from Rizzoli
This breathtaking collection of important and beautiful ornithological art from London’s Natural History Museum traces its development from the Renaissance through the scientific approach favored in the Age of Exploration. Included are brilliantly reproduced artworks by the world’s great naturalists and scientists such as Audubon and Humboldt, along with the legion of Victorian explorers who catalogued the world’s avifauna before photography finally prevailed as the primary means of recording the natural world. The lively and informative text tells how ornithological art grew out of the naturalistic tradition of European painting to become a genre of its own where the artist’s focus on aesthetics was married to the scientist’s need for precision and detail. Weaving together science, art history, biography, and travel, it paints a wondrous picture of a bygone world of artist-scientists, exotic birds, and faraway lands, making it truly the perfect gift for anyone who loves vintage prints and drawings or has an interest in nature or birding.
The Art of Natural History: Illustrated Treatises and Botanical Paintings, 1400-1850 (Studies in the History of Art Series)
from NGW-Stud Hist Art
“Making knowledge visible” is how one 16th-century naturalist described the work of the illustrator of botanical treatises. His words reflected the growing role played by illustrators at a time when the study of nature had been assuming new authority in the world of learning. An absorbing exploration of the relationship between image and text, this collection considers how both aided the development and transmission of scientific knowledge.
Presenting images found throughout Europe in works on natural history, medicine, botany, horticulture, and garden design, and studies of insects, birds, and animals, the contributors emphasize their artistic as well as scientific values. Illustrators are shown to have been both artists and either naturalists or gardeners, bringing to their work aesthetic judgment and empirical observation. Their fascinating images receive a fresh, wide-ranging analysis that covers such topics as innovation, patronage, readership, reception, technologies of production, and the relationship between the fine arts and scientific depictions of nature.
How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration
by Keith West
from Timber Press, Incorporated
The best introductory book on the subject examines plant structures and the problems they present to illustrators, then discusses the artist's tools and how to use them: pencils, erasers, papers, brushes, watercolors, gouache, and acrylics.
The best introductory book on the subject examines plant structures and the problems they present to illustrators, then discusses the artist's tools and how to use them: pencils, erasers, papers, brushes, watercolors, gouache, and acrylics.
Besler's Book of Flowers and Plants: 73 Full-Color Plates from Hortus Eystettensis, 1613 (Pictorial Archive Series)
by Basilius Besler
from Dover Publications
Drawing Trees (Step-by-Step Leisure Arts)
by Denis Naylor
from Search Press
+++
