If you’ve ever visited the great animal halls of New York’s American Museum of Natural History or Chicago’s Field Museum, you have seen the paintings of Charles R. Knight. Despite being legally blind (due to a childhood injury), his depictions of animals in their natural environments were unrivaled at the time. To this day, they are an integral part of the magic of some of our greatest museums.
As any artist knows, behind every impressive painting is an equally impressive drawing, so it may come as no surprise that Knight’s drawings are stunning in their own right. Along these lines, there’s a lovely book by Dover Press called Animal Drawing: Anatomy and Action for Artists that deserves attention as an excellent resource and collection of Knight’s animal studies. The drawings provide insight into how much knowledge Knight had about his subjects’ anatomy. For today’s SciArt Blitz, we offer you a sample: