19th-century scientific illustration: the Blaschkas and Haeckel

19th-century scientific illustration: the Blaschkas and Haeckel

by Miranda Gavin
in illustration nature scientific sculpture writing
posted May 11, 2019

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Octopus vulgaris & Carmarina hastata stage 4. Photos Guido Mocafico © 2013

This blog is also a space to point to inspirations and works that I have been thinking about and resonate. This morning after numerous segmented dreams of home, mostly ones that seem rather banal upon waking—centred on life events, work and people who are not usually in my daily-life sphere—I felt compelled to write this post about 19th-century scientific illustrations and art, especially as this month’s residency embraces nature, receptiveness and connectivity. It is 7.15am and I do not have to be ready to face the world and other people until 8.30am when we open the day with the daily, Mon-Fri, circle-walking ritual.

I first came across these amazing glass works a few years ago after listening to a Radio 4 Natural History podcast. When I further researched the artists—a father and son team, Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939) who were born in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, but worked in Dresden—I was astounded.

Harvard University Herbaria. © President & Fellows Harvard College.

The pair created around 700 varieties of scientific marine models as well as a collection of glass models of plants known as the Glass Flowers, (over 4,000 models representing more than 830 plant species now part of The Ware Collection in the Harvard Museum of Natural History), all rendered with a delicacy and attention to detail that is still incredible. I would so love to see some of them in real life.

The Ware Collection. © President & Fellows Harvard College.

According to the article, The Delicate Glass Sea Creatures of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, at one point, there were over 10,000 pieces in circulation around the world. There is little need to describe the work, just take a look, though there is still some mystery surrounding the precise techniques, including glass blowing, that they used. More beautiful Sea Creatures of the Deep can be seen at the Museum of Wales

“the darkness of the sea, which is as smooth as a mirror; there emerges all around in various places a flashlike bundle of light beams, as if it is surrounded by thousands of sparks, that form true bundles of fire and of other bright lighting spots.”

Ernst Haeckel, Basimycetes and Sea Squirts (Ascidiacea)

This led to another association and the work of Ernst Haeckel, an evolutionary scientist whose scientific illustrations are well-known and who coined terms such as ‘stem cell’ and ‘ecology’. This article, Ernst Haeckel: the art of evolution – in pictures, gives further information and insights into the 19th century artist and biologist.