Joseph Wolf
Joseph Wolf | |
---|---|
Born | 22 January 1820 |
Died | 20 April 1899 | (aged 79)
Nationality | German |
Known for | Natural history illustration |
Notable work | 340 illustrations for ZSL Proceedings |
Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820[1] – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates. Wolf depicted animals accurately in lifelike postures and is considered one of the great pioneers of wildlife art. Sir Edwin Landseer thought him "...without exception, the best all-round animal artist who ever lived".[2]
Germany
Joseph was the first son of a
Wolf travelled to
At the age of 20, Wolf was to appear at Maien to join the Army. As a fit young man with sharp-shooting abilities he could not be rejected, but it was peacetime and the surgeon, who knew him, helped him avoid recruitment under the pretext of a weak chest.[12] Back in Darmstadt, Wolf went on working on bird plates, and joined an art school where he worked on portraits, landscapes and copying of works in the Darmstadt Gallery. He was a keen observer of wild birds and once had a pit dug in which he sat all day to watch the courtship of black grouse.[13] In 1847, he left Darmstadt to join the Antwerp Academy to learn the Dutch oil painting techniques. Around this time, Kaup visited the British Museum, he was asked about the German artist who did the plates for Schlegel's book, and Wolf was invited to London to illustrate the genera of birds for a book by George Robert Gray.[14]
London
Wolf travelled to London on 20 March 1848 on the Soho, and was introduced by David William Mitchell, an amateur illustrator himself and a secretary of the Zoological Society of London, to Trübner of Longmans publishing. The very next day was set to work on Gray's The Genera of Birds.[15] While at work in the insect room of the British Museum, he met other naturalists including J. O. Westwood with whom he could converse in French.[16] He was a friend of William Russell, an accountant and a Campbell related to the Duke of Argyll. Russell brought Sir Edwin Landseer and the Duke of Argyll to see the works of Wolf. The Duke soon became a patron and he was also introduced to the Duke of Westminster. Wolf's paintings were also appreciated by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of London.[17]
John Gould admired Wolf and would have liked him on his staff, but Wolf only contributed illustrations on a freelance basis. Wolf accompanied Gould on a collection trip to Norway.[18] Wolf thought of Gould as a shrewd and uncouth man.[19] Wolf also noted that Gould lacked a knowledge of feather patterning, apart from knowing nothing about composition, with a tendency to add too much colour, claiming that specimens in the wild were brighter.[20]
Wolf was commissioned by the
Wolf joined an association called the German Athenaeum which was founded in 1869 and members met for scientific, literary and musical evenings. For their exhibitions he worked on a range of compositions often with natural elements. His favourite medium was charcoal and ink. Wolf became treasurer to a fund for German widows during the Franco-Prussian War (War of 1870.) After the war, he met Daniel Giraud Elliot in Paris and visited a battlefield. He rendered the image in a design called "Peace and War" with turtle doves on a bush over a soldier's helmet. He also produces some cartoon like illustrations including "Lecture on Embryology" in which he taunts certain men of science.[22] When Charles Darwin began his study of animal expressions, he was introduced by Abraham Dee Bartlett, the zoo superintendent, to the abilities of Wolf in illustrating minute details of animals in action. Darwin requested Wolf to make some illustrations from photographs and living animals in the zoological garden. Wolf held his own opinions on the reliability of others' observations and even doubted Darwin's interpretation of the face of a monkey as a "laugh".[23] Darwin visited him on several occasions and Wolf appreciated him for being very approachable, someone that even "a child could talk to".[24]
Impact
Wolf's abilities were widely acclaimed even in his lifetime. Wolf established
Wolf died in London, surrounded by his pet birds. He is buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.[31]
In 2002, a new road in Mörz, "Joseph Wolf Weg", was named after the artist.[citation needed]
Wolf had four daughters, two of whom had children. His direct descendants live in the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand.
His bicentenary was celebrated with a "Joseph Wolf year" in Mörz in January 2020.[32]
Notes
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 3.
- ^ "Joseph Wolf". National History Museum. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
- ^ Fisher 2004.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 5.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 17.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 19.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 25.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 26.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 28.
- ^ a b c "Artefact of the month – December". Zoological Society of London. December 2006. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 29.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 42.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 50.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 53.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 56.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 67.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 79.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 70.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 72.
- ^ "Artefact of the month – June 2007". Zoological Society of London. June 2007. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 180.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 195.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 197.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 185.
- ^ Newton, Alfred (1896). Dictionary of Birds. Adam and Charles Black. p. 26.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 68.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 216.
- ^ Moreau 1959.
- ^ Palmer 1895, p. 100.
- .
- ^ Morz
Cited references
- Fisher, Clemency Thorne (2004). "Wolf, Joseph (1820–1899)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29829. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wolf, Joseph". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 772. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- .
- Palmer, AH (1895). The life of Joseph Wolf. London and New York: Longmans, Green and Co.