REVIEWS:
"… far more than a commemorative exercise, for it succeeds in placing a familiar figure in an entirely new perspective, revealing the surprising extent to which Darwinian ideas, in changing our ways of understanding the world, have changed our ways of seeing it."
- Times Literary Supplement, 17th July 2009

DESCRIPTION:
Charles Darwin has had a profound influence on the fields of biology and natural history. But his ideas also imbued the work of many nineteenth-century artists. The slow process of evolution by 'natural selection', the dynamic interplay of life forms, the 'struggle for existence' all greatly stimulated the imaginations of artists of his era. This lavishly illustrated book is the first to explore Darwin's impact on the visual arts in Europe and America during the second half of the nineteenth century.Exceptionally broad ranging, the book brings together art and science in a new way. It shows the visual influences on Darwin through his life, especially on the Beagle voyage, as well as the creative effects of his theories. The book demonstrates that in artists as diverse as Church, Landseer, Liljefors, Heade, Redon, Cezanne and Monet, in new forms of landscape painting and dioramas, imaginary scenes of prehistory, and depictions of animals, Darwin's sense of the interplay of all living things and his response to the beauties of colour and form in nature proved inspirational.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Diana Donald is the former Head of the Department of History of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University. Jane Munro is Senior Assistant Keeper of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

SUBJECT CLASSIFICATIONS:
Art forms, treatments & subjects
Evolution

SERIES:
Yale Center for British Art

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Illustrations: 100 black-&-white illustrations + 150 colour images
Number of Pages: 288
Dewey: 701.03