Robert Farren, Duria Antiquior (An Earlier Dorset) (c. 1850), courtesy Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. |
Joining the many global celebrations commemorating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, the Yale Center of British Art in New Haven has staged a wide ranging and fascinating exhibition called “Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts.” Organized by the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge University in England with the collaboration of the Yale Center, the exhibition both reveals the cultural and visual environment of Darwin’s time and explores the impact of Darwin and his revolutionary ideas on the art of the later nineteenth century. Dividing their exhibition into discrete categories (The History of the Earth, The Struggle for Existence, The Descent of Humankind, etc.), the curators have assembled a wealth of visual material including paintings, sketches, models, and photographs to illustrate Darwin’s work and its impact.
We are confronted straightaway with the powerful, unforgettable portrait of Charles Darwin painted (posthumously) by John Collier in 1883. With his piercing eyes and powerful brow, the “Great Disturber” stands alone, an unflinching island of calm in the midst of the swirling debate he unleashed during his lifetime and ever since. To suggest the visual environment prevailing in Darwin’s early days, we see many examples of the natural life drawings of insects and flowers that were so popular at the time, including a remarkable giant rendering of