Charles Robert Knight (October 21, 1874 – April 15, 1953) was an American

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

and

paleoart Paleoart (also spelled palaeoart, paleo-art, or paleo art) is any original artistic work that attempts to depict prehistoric life according to scientific evidence. Ansón, Fernández & Ramos (2015) pp. 28–34. Works of paleoart may be represen ...

ist best known for his detailed paintings of

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s and other

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

animals. His works have been reproduced in many books and are currently on display at several major museums in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. One of his most famous works is a mural of ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived througho ...

'' and ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsia, ceratopsian dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 to 66 million years ago on the island ...

'', which helped establish the two dinosaurs as "mortal enemies" in popular culture. Working at a time when many fossil discoveries were fragmentary and dinosaur anatomy was not well understood, many of his illustrations have later been shown to be incorrect representations. Nevertheless, he has been hailed as "one of the great popularizers of the prehistoric past". Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus by Knight

Biography

Early life

Knight was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on October 21, 1874. As a child, Knight was deeply interested in nature and animals, largely thanks to his father's passion for the outdoors and spent many hours copying the illustrations from his father's

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

books. His father also took him on trips to the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

which fueled his knowledge for nature. Knight began drawing when he was around five or six years old. In later years he abandoned the practice of drawing from books altogether, and instead drew from life. Though legally blind because of

astigmatism Astigmatism is a type of refractive error due to rotational asymmetry in the eye's refractive power. The lens and cornea of an eye without astigmatism are nearly spherical, with only a single radius of curvature, and any refractive errors ...

he inherited from his father and after his right eye was struck by a rock by a playmate, Knight pursued his artistic talents with the help of specially designed glasses which he used to paint inches from the canvas for the rest of his life. At the age of twelve, he enrolled at the Metropolitan Art School to become a commercial artist. In 1890, he was hired by church-decorating firm J. & R. Lamb to design

stained-glass windows Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

, and after two years with them, became a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

illustrator for children's books and

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s, specializing in nature scenes. At this time, he met people like

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

and

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

. When Knight was eighteen, his father died and he took the little money his father left him and left home. In his free time, Knight visited the American Museum of Natural History, attracting the attention of Dr. Jacob Wortman, who asked Knight to paint a restoration of an extinct hoofed mammal, '' Elotherium'', whose

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

ized bones were on display. Knight applied his knowledge of modern pig

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

, and used his imagination to fill in any gaps. Wortman was thrilled with the final result, and the museum soon commissioned Knight to produce an entire series of

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

s to grace their fossil halls. After a tour of Europe by visiting many museums and zoos, Knight returned home where he met two key people in the history of

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontology, paleontologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist, herpetology, herpetologist, and ichthyology, ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker fam ...

and

Henry Fairfield Osborn Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. (August 8, 1857 – November 6, 1935) was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was professor of anatomy at Columbia University, president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 y ...

. Osborn then created the new Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at AMNH and he had a revolutionary idea to put entire skeletons of dinosaurs on display. Originally, fossils were kept out of the public's eye and were then stored in store room shelves for study by scientists only. But Osborn had the idea of creating these new exhibits for the public. He assembled a team of himself, Knight, and Dr.

William Diller Matthew William Diller Matthew FRS (February 19, 1871 – September 24, 1930) was a vertebrate paleontologist who worked primarily on mammal fossils, although he also published a few early papers on mineralogy, petrological geology, one on botany, one on ...

. Knight sketched the skeletons while Matthew and Osborn mounted them. Cope died shortly after Knight met with him after he became impressed by Knight's sketches. The museum was amazed by his watercolor paintings and the successful exhibits.

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...

(the famous banker), who was a patron to the museum, helped finance the restorations of prehistoric life. His paintings were hugely popular among visitors, and Knight continued to work with the museum until the late 1930s, painting what would become some of the world's most iconic images of dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, and prehistoric humans. One of Knight's best-known pieces for the American Museum of Natural History is 1897's ''Leaping Laelaps'', which was one of the few pre-1960s images to present dinosaurs as active, fast-moving creatures (thus anticipating the " Dinosaur Renaissance" theories of modern

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

s like

Robert Bakker Robert Thomas Bakker (born March 24, 1945) is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded). Along with his mentor ...

). Other familiar American Museum paintings include Knight's portrayals of ''

Agathaumas ''Agathaumas'' (; "great wonder") is a dubious genus of a large ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in Wyoming during the Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian stage, 66 million years ago). The name comes from - 'much' and - 'wonder'. It was seen a ...

'', ''

Allosaurus ''Allosaurus'' ( ) is an extinct genus of theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic period ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian ages). The first fossil remains that could definitively be ascribed to th ...

'', ''

Apatosaurus ''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1877, a ...

'', ''

Brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from the Ancient Greek, Greek words , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in present-day United States during the Late Jurassic period. It was describe ...

'', ''

Smilodon ''Smilodon'' is an extinct genus of Felidae, felids. It is one of the best known saber-toothed predators and prehistoric mammals. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats ...

'', and the

Woolly Mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived from the Middle Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with the African ...

. All of these have been reproduced in numerous places and have inspired many imitations. Knight's work for the museum was not without critics, however. Although he spent considerable time at zoos studying the movements and habits of living animals, many curators argued that his work was more artistic than scientific, and protested that he did not have sufficient scientific expertise to render prehistoric animals as precisely as he did. While Knight himself agreed that his murals for the Hall of the Age of Man were "primarily a work of art," he insisted that he had as much paleontological knowledge as the museum's own curators. In 1900, Knight married Annie Humphrey Hardcastle and had a daughter named Lucy.

Nationwide attention

After Knight established a reputation at the American Museum of Natural History, other natural history museums began requesting paintings for their own fossil exhibits. In 1925, for example, Knight produced an elaborate mural for the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are par ...

which portrayed some of the

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s and

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s whose remains had been found in the nearby

La Brea Tar Pits La Brea Tar Pits comprise an active Paleontological site, paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural Bitumen, asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; ''brea'' ...

. The following year, Knight began a 28-

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

series for

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

, a project which chronicled the history of life on earth and took four years to complete. At the Field Museum, he produced one of his best-known pieces, a mural featuring ''

'' and ''

''. This confrontation scene between a

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

and its

prey Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not ki ...

became iconic and inspired a huge number of imitations, establishing these two dinosaurs as "mortal enemies" in the public consciousness. The Field Museum's Alexander Sherman said, "It is so well loved that it has become the standard encounter for portraying the age of dinosaurs". Charles R

Knight's work also found its way to the Carnegie Museums in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, and Yale's

Peabody Museum of Natural History The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University (also known as the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History or the Yale Peabody Museum) is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It ...

, among others. Knight also created

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s of animals both living and extinct. Several

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

s, such as the

Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and the largest Metropolis, metropol ...

Lincoln Park Zoo Lincoln Park Zoo, also known as Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens, is a zoo in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois. The zoo was founded in 1868 and is the second oldest zoo in the United States. It is also one of a small number of zoos to offer fr ...

, and

Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo Chicago, known until 2024 as simply Brookfield Zoo, and also known as the Chicago Zoological Park, is a zoo located in Brookfield, Illinois. Brookfield Zoo is owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and is managed ...

, also approached Knight to paint murals of their living animals, and Knight enthusiastically complied. Knight was actually the only person in America allowed to paint Su Lin, a

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white animal coat, coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. ...

that lived at Brookfield Zoo during the 1930s. Although Knight's interest in animals and animal anatomy is well known, Knight also had an interest in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He often traveled to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and used the palm trees for his prehistoric paintings. While making murals for museums and zoos, Knight continued illustrating books and magazines, and became a frequent contributor to ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

''. He also wrote and illustrated several books of his own, such as ''Before the Dawn of History'' (Knight, 1935), ''Life Through the Ages'' (1946), ''Animal Drawing: Anatomy and Action for Artists'' (1947), and ''Prehistoric Man: The Great Adventure'' (1949). Additionally, Knight became a popular

lecture A lecture (from ) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theo ...

r, describing prehistoric life to audiences across the country. Eventually, Knight began to retire from the public sphere to spend more time with his grandchildren, mostly his granddaughter Rhoda, who shared his passion for animals and prehistoric life. In his later years, his eyesight began to deteriorate and he painted less often. From 1944 to 1946 he painted his final series of paintings at the National History Museum of Los Angeles County. In 1951, he painted his last work, a mural for the

Everhart Museum The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art is a non-profit art and natural history museum located in Nay Aug Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1908 by Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhar ...

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...

. Two years later, on April 15, 1953, Knight died in

Legacy

Knight has been hailed as "one of the great popularizers of the prehistoric past", and as having influenced generations of museum-goers. Examples of Knight's work frequently appeared in dinosaur books published in the US during the first half of the twentieth century and countless other artists and illustrators borrowed heavily from Knight's conceptions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. More recent works also include examples of Knight's paintings; for example,

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...

used one of Knight's paintings for the cover of his 1991 book ''

Bully for Brontosaurus ''Bully for Brontosaurus'' (1991) is the fifth volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column "This View of Life" in ''Natural History'' magazine, to which Gould contribu ...

'' and another in his 1996 book ''

Dinosaur in a Haystack ''Dinosaur in a Haystack'' is a 1995 book by the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. It collects essays culled from Gould's monthly column "The View of Life" published in '' Natural History'' magazine, which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book ...

''. Though many other paleoartists have equaled Knight (perhaps

Zdeněk Burian Zdeněk Michael František Burian (11 February 1905 – 1 July 1981) was a Czech painter, book illustrator and palaeoartist. Burian's artwork played a central role in the development of palaeontological reconstruction and he is regarded as one ...

) Knight's paintings still remain very popular among dinosaur and paleontology enthusiasts. A commemorative edition of Knight's 1946 book ''Life Through the Ages'' was recently published by

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

, and a 2007

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

of Knight's paintings is also currently available. Additionally, fantasy artist

William Stout William Stout (born September 18, 1949) is an American fantasy artist and illustrator with a specialization in paleontological art. His paintings have been shown in over seventy exhibitions, including twelve one-man shows. He has worked on over ...

has compiled a series of ''Charles Knight Sketchbooks'', which contain many rare and previously unpublished drawings and

studies Study or studies may refer to: General * Education **Higher education * Clinical trial * Experiment * Field of study * Observational study * Scientific study * Research * Study skills, abilities and approaches applied to learning Other * Study ...

by Knight. Because Knight worked in an era when new and often fragmentary fossils were coming out of the American west in quantity, not all of his creations were based on solid evidence; dinosaurs such as his improbably adorned ''

'' (1897) for example, were somewhat speculative. His depictions of better-known

ceratopsians Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Late Jura ...

as solitary animals inhabiting lush grassy landscapes were largely imaginative (the grasslands that feature in many of his paintings didn't appear until the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

). Although Knight sometimes made musculoskeletal studies of living animals, he did not do so for his dinosaur restorations, and he restored many dinosaurs with typical reptilian-like limbs and narrow hips (Paul, 1996). In the 1920s, studies by the celebrated palaeontologists

Alfred Romer Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution. Biography Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...

and

Gerhard Heilmann Gerhard Heilmann (later sometimes spelt "Heilman") (25 June 1859 – 26 March 1946) was a Danish artist and paleontologist who created artistic depictions of ''Archaeopteryx'', '' Proavis'' and other early bird relatives apart from writing the 1 ...

(Heilmann, 1926) had confirmed that dinosaurs had broad avian-like hips rather than those of a typical reptile. Knight often restored extinct mammals, birds and marine reptiles in very dynamic action poses, but his depictions of large dinosaurs as ponderous swamp-dwellers destined for extinction reflected more traditional concepts (Paul, 1996). In his catalogue to ''Life through the Ages'' (1946), he reiterated views that he had written earlier (Knight, 1935), describing the great beasts as "slow-moving dunces" that were "unadaptable and unprogressive" while conceding that small dinosaurs had been more active. Some of his pictures are now known to be wrong, such as the tripod kangaroo-like posture of the

hadrosaurs Hadrosaurids (), also hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod fami ...

and

theropods Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodom ...

, whereas their spinal column was roughly horizontal at the hip; and the

sauropods Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...

standing deeply in water whereas they were land-dwellers. Knight also drew dinosaur tails dragging on the ground, whereas they were held out approximately horizontally. Font-de-Gaume

The late

was one of Knight's most well-known fans, notably refusing to refer to ''Brontosaurus'' as "''

''" because Knight had always referred to the creature with the former name. Gould writes in his 1989 book '' Wonderful Life'', "Not since the Lord himself showed his stuff to Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones had anyone shown such grace and skill in the reconstruction of animals from disarticulated skeletons. Charles R. Knight, the most celebrated of artists in the reanimation of fossils, painted all the canonical figures of dinosaurs that fire our fear and imagination to this day". Other admirers have included

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

artist

Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of both fields. In a career spanning more than 40 ...

, who writes in his autobiography ''An Animated Life'', "Long before Obie (

Willis O'Brien Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962), known as Obie O'Brien, was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known im ...

), myself, and

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

, he put flesh on creatures that no human had ever seen. ��At the L.A. County Museum I vividly remember a beautiful Knight mural on one of the walls depicting the way the tar pits would have looked in ancient times. This, plus a picture book about Knight's work my mother gave me, were my first encounters with a man who was to prove an enormous help when the time came for me to make three-dimensional models of these extinct beings". Paleoartist

Gregory S. Paul Gregory Scott Paul (born December 24, 1954) is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology. He is best known for his work and research on theropoda, theropod dinosaurs and his detailed illustrations, both l ...

has also mentioned Knight as a big influence on him. In 2012, a book about Knight and his art written by Richard Milner titled ''Charles R. Knight The Artist Who Saw Through Time'' was published. It starts with an introduction by Knight's granddaughter Rhoda. A website dedicated to Knight was created and maintained by Rhoda Knight Kalt (1936-2024) and features many of his paintings. An homage to the painter was also made in the 1998

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

feature film, '' T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous'', in which he was portrayed by actor Tuck Milligan.

Works

Knight's works are currently included as part of the permanent collections of these colleges, libraries, museums, and zoos: *

Academy of Natural Sciences The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natur ...

(

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

) *

(

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) * Bethune-Cookman College (

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach is a coastal Resort town, resort city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. Located on the East Coast of the United States, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Deltona� ...

) *

(

Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

) *

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by List of people from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Pit ...

(

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

) * The Dinosaur Museum (

Blanding, Utah Blanding () () is a city in San Juan County, Utah, San Juan County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,394 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the most populated city in San Juan County. It was settled in the late 19t ...

) *

(

Scranton Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...

) *

(

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

) *

Florida Museum of Natural History The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, Gaine ...

(

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Illinois State Museum The Illinois State Museum features the life, land, people and art of the State of Illinois. In addition to natural history exhibits, the main museum in Springfield focuses on the state's cultural and artistic heritage. Exhibits include local foss ...

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New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

) In addition, a touring exhibit, Honoring the Life of Charles R. Knight, was launched in 2003 and has visited several locations throughout the United States.

Gallery I

File:DimetrodonKnight.jpg , ''Dimetrodon'' File:Edmontosaurus annectens, by Charles R. Knight.jpg, ''Edmontosaurus'' File:Knight hadrosaurs.jpg, ''Hadrosaurus'' File:Ornithosteles-knight.jpg , ''Ornithosteles'' File:C diplodocus.jpg, ''Diplodocus'' File:Diplodocus cknight.jpg, Rearing ''Diplodocus'' File:Allosaurus4.jpg , Feeding ''Allosaurus'' File:Allosaurus eating.jpg, ''Allosaurus'' eating File:T. rex old posture.jpg, ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' File:Stego.jpg , ''Stegosaurus'' File:Triceratops - 1904.jpg, ''Triceratops'' from 1904 File:EB1911 Palaeontology - ichthyosaur with young - restoration (facing downwards).jpg, Ichthyosaur with young File:The Snake-necked Elasmosaurus.jpg, Snake-necked ''Elasmosaurus'' File:Phorusrhacos.jpg , ''Phorusrhacos'' File:Arsinoitherium attacked by two Pterodon.jpg, ''Arsinoitherium'' attacked by two ''Pterodon'' File:Hoplophoneus by Knight.jpg, ''Hoplophoneus'' File:Dinictis and Protoceras, Charles R. Knight 1904.jpg, ''Dinictis'' and ''Protoceras'' from 1904 File:Mesonyx.jpg , ''Mesonyx'' File:Knight Coryphodon.jpg, ''Coryphodon'' File:Eohippus.jpg , ''Eohippus'' File:Knight Gomphotherium.jpg, ''Gomphotherium'' File:Knight Patriofelis.jpg, ''Patriofelis'' File:Knight Phenacodus.jpg, ''Phenacodus'' File:Paraceratherium C Knight.jpg, ''Paraceratherium'' File:Mesohippus by Knight.jpg, ''Mesohippus'' File:Entelodon.jpg , ''Entelodon'' File:Knight Mastodon 420x420.jpg, Mastodon File:Warren mastodon.jpg, Warren mastodon File:Imperial mammoth by Knight.jpg, Imperial mammoth File:Wooly Mammoths.jpg, Wooly mammoths File:Neanderthal Flintworkers (Knight, 1920).jpg, Neanderthal flintworkers from 1920

Gallery II (Field Museum murals 1926—1930)

File:Ordovician Sea Life by Knight.jpg, Ordovician Sea Life File:Early Land Plants by Knight.jpg, Early Land Plants from Devonian File:Permian Reptiles and Amphibians by Knight.jpg, ''Dimetrodon'', ''Edaphosaurus'', ''Casea'' and ''Diplocaulus'' from Permian (1930) File:Mammal like reptiles by Knight.jpg, Mammal-like Reptiles from Triassic File:Reptiles That Invaded The Seas by Knight.jpg, Pleisosaurs and Ichthyosaurs from Jurassic File:Brontosaurus by Knight.jpg, ''Brontosaurus'' from Jurassic (1930) File:Stegosaurus by Knight.jpg, ''Stegosaurus'' from Jurassic (1927) File:Archaeopteryx, Compsognathus and Rhamphorhynchus by Knight.jpg, ''Archaeopteryx'', ''Compsognathus'', and ''Rhamphorhynchus'' from Jurassic File:Late or Upper Cretaceous Seas by Knight.jpg, ''Tylosaurus'', ''Protostega'', and ''Pteranodon'' from Late Cretaceous Seas File:Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs by Knight.jpg, Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs File:Nesting Protoceratops.jpg, Nesting ''Protoceratops'' from Late Cretaceous File:Uintatherium and Orohippus by Knight.jpg, ''Uintatherium'' and ''Orohippus'' from Eocene File:Basilosaurus painting by Knight.jpg, ''Basilosaurus'' from Eocene File:Oligocene Titanotheres by Knight.jpg, Titanotheres from Oligocene File:Miocene Plains Mammals by Knight.jpg, Miocene Plains Mammals File:Pliocene Rhinoceros, Mastodonts, Oreodonts by Knight.jpg, Rhinoceros, Mastodonts, and Oreodonts from Pliocene File:American mastodon at Field Museum.jpg, American mastodon from Cenozoic File:Palorchestes as a giant kangaroo.jpg, ''Palorchestes'' from Pleistocene File:Rancho La Brea Tar Pools by Knight.jpg, Rancho La Brea Tar Pools from Pleistocene File:Megaloceros by Knight.jpg, ''Megaloceros'' from Pleistocene File:Woolly mammoths by Knight.jpg, Wooly Mammoths from Pleistocene File:Cave bears by Knight.jpg, Cave Bears from Pleistocene File:Dinornis by Knight.jpg, ''Dinornis'' from Holocene

Publications

*''Before the Dawn of History'', 1935 *''Life Through the Ages'', 1946 *''Animal Drawing: Anatomy and Action for Artists'', 1947 *''Prehistoric Man: The Great Adventurer'', 1949 *''Charles R. Knight, Autobiography of an Artist'', 2005

Notes

References

*Heilmann, G. (1926). ''

The Origin of Birds ''The Origin of Birds'' is an early synopsis of Origin of birds, bird evolution written in 1926 by Gerhard Heilmann, a Denmark, Danish artist and amateur zoologist. The book was born from a series of articles published between 1913 and 1916 in ...

''. London, H.F. & G. Witherby. *Paul, G.S. (1996). The art of Charles R. Knight. ''Scientific American'' ''274'' (6): 74-81. * * *For Knight's dark side see: Brian Regal, ''Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man'' (Ashgate, 2002).

External links

The World of Charles Knight
a website maintained by Knight's granddaughter Rhoda Knight Kalt (includes most of his paintings)
Charles R. Knight biography
at Field Museum website
Charles R. Knight biography
at American Museum of Natural History website
Time Traveler: The Art of Charles R. Knight; March 26, 2012; ''Scientific American''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Charles American animal artists American muralists 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Painters from Brooklyn 1874 births 1953 deaths Paleoartists People associated with the American Museum of Natural History People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists

Biography

Early life

Nationwide attention

Legacy

Works

Gallery I

Gallery II (Field Museum murals 1926—1930)

Publications

See also

Notes

References

External links