Jay Matternes
Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter
Published on 31. July 2024
Book
Hardback
196 pages
978-0-7892-1480-5 (ISBN)
Description
"In conclusion, I have nothing but praise for this book. The production values are top-notch and I am so pleased that Milner both took his time to write this book, and was able to see it through to completion together with Matternes." - The Inquisitive Biologist
The first career-spanning volume on Jay Matternes (b. 1933), whose scientific rigor and artistic skill set a new standard in natural history illustration.
Millions have grown up inspired by Jay Matternes' murals of extinct mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. Others have savoured his depictions of human origins in such prestigious publications as Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and Natural History. Matternes' art has also graced popular books by such trailblazing wildlife scientists as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Louis Leakey.
Now, for the first time, the entire scope of Matternes' achievement is revealed in this full-colour retrospective, prepared with the artist's full cooperation and featuring many works never before published. Here are his depictions of living species, whose anatomical accuracy and vivid detail owe much to Matternes' lifelong devotion to painting from nature: the wildlife of Africa, the birds of America, chimpanzees and gorillas, and more. Here, too, is his paleoart, meticulously reconstructed from the fossil evidence and ranging from dinosaurs, through the rise of mammals, to our hominid ancestors - including Matternes' groundbreaking reconstruction of the 4.4-million-year-old hominin Ardipithecus, on which he laboured in secrecy for more than a decade. The highly readable text includes, among other special features, selections from the artist's 20-year correspondence with the late Dian Fossey.
Jay Matternes: Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter will be an essential volume not only for aspiring illustrators and paleoartists, but for anyone with an interest in the natural world and how we visualise it.
The first career-spanning volume on Jay Matternes (b. 1933), whose scientific rigor and artistic skill set a new standard in natural history illustration.
Millions have grown up inspired by Jay Matternes' murals of extinct mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. Others have savoured his depictions of human origins in such prestigious publications as Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and Natural History. Matternes' art has also graced popular books by such trailblazing wildlife scientists as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Louis Leakey.
Now, for the first time, the entire scope of Matternes' achievement is revealed in this full-colour retrospective, prepared with the artist's full cooperation and featuring many works never before published. Here are his depictions of living species, whose anatomical accuracy and vivid detail owe much to Matternes' lifelong devotion to painting from nature: the wildlife of Africa, the birds of America, chimpanzees and gorillas, and more. Here, too, is his paleoart, meticulously reconstructed from the fossil evidence and ranging from dinosaurs, through the rise of mammals, to our hominid ancestors - including Matternes' groundbreaking reconstruction of the 4.4-million-year-old hominin Ardipithecus, on which he laboured in secrecy for more than a decade. The highly readable text includes, among other special features, selections from the artist's 20-year correspondence with the late Dian Fossey.
Jay Matternes: Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter will be an essential volume not only for aspiring illustrators and paleoartists, but for anyone with an interest in the natural world and how we visualise it.
Reviews / Votes
"In conclusion, I have nothing but praise for this book. The production values are top-notch and I am so pleased that Milner both took his time to write this book, and was able to see it through to completion together with Matternes." - The Inquisitive BiologistMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 284 mm
Width: 259 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
1512 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7892-1480-5 (9780789214805)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Richard Milner is an anthropologist and historian of science whose books include Charles R. Knight: The Artist Who Saw through Time and Darwin's Universe: Evolution from A to Z. An Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, Milner has appeared on the History Channel, Discovery, and NPR, and has been profiled in the New York Times and Time Out New York. Ian Tattersall is Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History and a leading paleoanthropologist. Mauricio Anton is a celebrated paleoartist based in Spain.
Content
PALEOART'S RENAISSANCE MAN. 6
Foreword by Mauricio Anton
INTRODUCTION: THE ART OF JAY MATTERNES. 8
By Richard Milner and Ian Tattersall
CHILDHOOD DRAWINGS. 16
"Chimparillas," Wild West, and Airmen at War
ELEGANT UNGULATES. 18
Kudus, Big Horn Mountain Sheep, Bongo,
Sable Antelope, Oryx
ETERNAL ADVERSARIES. 22
Zorilla and Viper, Sketches for Lions vs Cape Buffalo,
The Fight on the Pan, Two Cheetahs, Three Grizzlies
ECOSYSTEMS INSIDE AND OUT . 28
Sonoran Desert Day and Night, American Prairie:
Beneath Where Buffalo Roam, Mississippi River:
Underwater Monsters
HOMAGE TO HOUNDS. 34
Beagles, Pointer and Setter, Black Lab, Britts on Point
BIRD-WATCHING. 37
Snowy Owls, Golden Eagles, Red-Tailed Hawks
DUCK STAMP PAINTINGS. 40
MEDITATIONS ON ORANG-UTANS. 42
Zoo Drawings from Life, Anatomical Dissections,
Orang with Hornbills in Forest Canopy
JANE GOODALL'S CHIMPANZEES
AND NOELL'S ARK. 48
Field Sketches at Gombe Stream Reserve,
Violent Male Kills Baboon, Chimps' Rain Dance,
Man Fights Ape, Dissections of Chimpanzee,
Anatomy of Human vs. Chimp
GORILLA MY DREAMS. 56
TWO BROOKLYN GORILLAS. 58
ADVENTURES WITH THE GORILLAS
OF KARISOKE. 62
Dian Fossey-Jay Matternes Correspondence,
Sketching Wild Gorillas
A POIGNANT PONGID PORTRAIT. 74
ENDING THE DREAM OF KONG. 76
DINOSAURS . 77
Bringing Back the Dinosaurs: Thescelosaurus,
Monoclonius, Gorgosaurus, Triceratops, Ornitholestes,
Struthiomimus, Plesiosaur and Elasmosaurus
RESTORING SOME EARLY MAMMALS. 88
Restorations of Early Arboreal Mammals and Bear-Dog,
Showing Fossil Skeletons, Musculature and Skin,
Eocene Habitat. Smilodectes, Valpavis, Amphycyon, Diacodexis,
Paramys, Earliest Known North American Mammal
LARGE MAMMALS . 98
Cenozoic Murals, Uintatherium, Deinotherium (Early
Elephants), Oligocene-Miocene Mural with
Small Horses, Pelorovis in Mud Wallow, African
Black Rhinos, When Olduvai Was Green.
HOLD YOUR HORSES!. 106
Equine Evolution In Art
FAIRBANKS MURAL. 112
Alaska Pleistocene Mural
PRIMATES . 116
Early Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes (American Museum
of Natural History Mural), Scaling the Family Tree:
Movement Studies of Aegyptopithecus
LEMURS . 124
Golden-Crowned Sifaka, Brown Lemur
BABOONS . 126
Pleistocene Giant Baboons, Modern Olive Baboons,
Art Deco Baboons
THE SECRET OF ARDIPITHECUS. 130
How Matternes Restored A 4.4 Million-Year-Old
Ethiopian Hominin: The Backstory
PARANTHROPUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Paranthropus Family, Australopiths
HOMININ HIGHLIGHTS
HIPPO FEAST AT ILERET. 142
FAMILY FEAST. 146
DISMANTLING A ZEBRA. 147
HOMO ERECTUS AND PRAIRIE FIRE. 148
LAETOLI FOOTPRINTS. 150
ONCE WE WERE NOT ALONE. 152
MARATHON MAN . 154
AUSTRALOPITHS STEAL A HYENA'S KILL. 156
OLDUVAI LAKESHORE
1.8 MILLION YEARS AGO. 158
HOMO ERECTUS VS. PARANTHROPUS. 160
A FAMILY ALBUM. 162
A. Africanus, H. Habilis, H. Neanderthalensis
THE NEANDERTHALS . 164
Reindeer Hunters On The River Vezere,
Neanderthals in the Pyrenees
GEORGIA ON MY MIND. 168
Dminisi Restoration
ICE AGE BISON SCULPTURES
OF THE TUC D'AUDOUBERT CAVES. 170
PATHFINDERS
DARWIN'S HMS BEAGLE IN RIO HARBOR. 172
TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND JOHN MUIR
IN YOSEMITE. 174
KILPATRICK SCOUTS OREGON TRAIL,
NEBRASKA . 176
NATIVE AMERICANS. 178
Paleoindians Butchering Mastodon Carcass,
Buffalo Jump, Pulling Even
STORY TELLING. 184
Sioux Indian Village, 1880
LIST OF ARTWORKS . 190
INDEX . 192
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 194
ABOUT THE AUTHORS. 196
Richard Milner, Jay Matternes, Ian Tattersall,
Mauricio Anton
Foreword by Mauricio Anton
INTRODUCTION: THE ART OF JAY MATTERNES. 8
By Richard Milner and Ian Tattersall
CHILDHOOD DRAWINGS. 16
"Chimparillas," Wild West, and Airmen at War
ELEGANT UNGULATES. 18
Kudus, Big Horn Mountain Sheep, Bongo,
Sable Antelope, Oryx
ETERNAL ADVERSARIES. 22
Zorilla and Viper, Sketches for Lions vs Cape Buffalo,
The Fight on the Pan, Two Cheetahs, Three Grizzlies
ECOSYSTEMS INSIDE AND OUT . 28
Sonoran Desert Day and Night, American Prairie:
Beneath Where Buffalo Roam, Mississippi River:
Underwater Monsters
HOMAGE TO HOUNDS. 34
Beagles, Pointer and Setter, Black Lab, Britts on Point
BIRD-WATCHING. 37
Snowy Owls, Golden Eagles, Red-Tailed Hawks
DUCK STAMP PAINTINGS. 40
MEDITATIONS ON ORANG-UTANS. 42
Zoo Drawings from Life, Anatomical Dissections,
Orang with Hornbills in Forest Canopy
JANE GOODALL'S CHIMPANZEES
AND NOELL'S ARK. 48
Field Sketches at Gombe Stream Reserve,
Violent Male Kills Baboon, Chimps' Rain Dance,
Man Fights Ape, Dissections of Chimpanzee,
Anatomy of Human vs. Chimp
GORILLA MY DREAMS. 56
TWO BROOKLYN GORILLAS. 58
ADVENTURES WITH THE GORILLAS
OF KARISOKE. 62
Dian Fossey-Jay Matternes Correspondence,
Sketching Wild Gorillas
A POIGNANT PONGID PORTRAIT. 74
ENDING THE DREAM OF KONG. 76
DINOSAURS . 77
Bringing Back the Dinosaurs: Thescelosaurus,
Monoclonius, Gorgosaurus, Triceratops, Ornitholestes,
Struthiomimus, Plesiosaur and Elasmosaurus
RESTORING SOME EARLY MAMMALS. 88
Restorations of Early Arboreal Mammals and Bear-Dog,
Showing Fossil Skeletons, Musculature and Skin,
Eocene Habitat. Smilodectes, Valpavis, Amphycyon, Diacodexis,
Paramys, Earliest Known North American Mammal
LARGE MAMMALS . 98
Cenozoic Murals, Uintatherium, Deinotherium (Early
Elephants), Oligocene-Miocene Mural with
Small Horses, Pelorovis in Mud Wallow, African
Black Rhinos, When Olduvai Was Green.
HOLD YOUR HORSES!. 106
Equine Evolution In Art
FAIRBANKS MURAL. 112
Alaska Pleistocene Mural
PRIMATES . 116
Early Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes (American Museum
of Natural History Mural), Scaling the Family Tree:
Movement Studies of Aegyptopithecus
LEMURS . 124
Golden-Crowned Sifaka, Brown Lemur
BABOONS . 126
Pleistocene Giant Baboons, Modern Olive Baboons,
Art Deco Baboons
THE SECRET OF ARDIPITHECUS. 130
How Matternes Restored A 4.4 Million-Year-Old
Ethiopian Hominin: The Backstory
PARANTHROPUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Paranthropus Family, Australopiths
HOMININ HIGHLIGHTS
HIPPO FEAST AT ILERET. 142
FAMILY FEAST. 146
DISMANTLING A ZEBRA. 147
HOMO ERECTUS AND PRAIRIE FIRE. 148
LAETOLI FOOTPRINTS. 150
ONCE WE WERE NOT ALONE. 152
MARATHON MAN . 154
AUSTRALOPITHS STEAL A HYENA'S KILL. 156
OLDUVAI LAKESHORE
1.8 MILLION YEARS AGO. 158
HOMO ERECTUS VS. PARANTHROPUS. 160
A FAMILY ALBUM. 162
A. Africanus, H. Habilis, H. Neanderthalensis
THE NEANDERTHALS . 164
Reindeer Hunters On The River Vezere,
Neanderthals in the Pyrenees
GEORGIA ON MY MIND. 168
Dminisi Restoration
ICE AGE BISON SCULPTURES
OF THE TUC D'AUDOUBERT CAVES. 170
PATHFINDERS
DARWIN'S HMS BEAGLE IN RIO HARBOR. 172
TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND JOHN MUIR
IN YOSEMITE. 174
KILPATRICK SCOUTS OREGON TRAIL,
NEBRASKA . 176
NATIVE AMERICANS. 178
Paleoindians Butchering Mastodon Carcass,
Buffalo Jump, Pulling Even
STORY TELLING. 184
Sioux Indian Village, 1880
LIST OF ARTWORKS . 190
INDEX . 192
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 194
ABOUT THE AUTHORS. 196
Richard Milner, Jay Matternes, Ian Tattersall,
Mauricio Anton