Ernst Haeckel

Foraminifera (Thalamophora): 20 specimens of the shells of mollusc like organisms. Key available.

Ernst Haeckel, scientist,
philosopher and artist, made a significant contribution
to early evolutionary theory, and was profoundly
influential on the Fine and Decorative Arts of his time. Initially Haeckel trained
as a physician, and then studied comparative anatomy with an emphasis on sea
organisms and embryology. After completing his
studies in 1859 he was invited to survey the sea life around Messina, which
resulted in his 1862 monograph Die Radiolarien of the little known protozoa encased in silica skeletons. It
was received with great acclaim, particularly by Charles Darwin, and he was
subsequently offered a professorship in zoology which also allowed him to marry
his childhood sweetheart Anna Seth. Two years later his happiness was cut tragically
short by his wife’s death, and his direction in science and belief in God
forever altered.

Already a follower of Charles Darwin, in
1868 Haeckel published Natürliche
Schopfungsgeschichte (The Natural History of Creation) asserting
the central thesis of Darwin’s Origin of
Species but in language more accessible to a wider audience, and arguably
more influential then Darwin’s rather technical Origin. Although he would become one of the greatest disseminators
of Darwinism, he conversely argued evolution
was progressive, asserted a Biogenetic Law
(developmental stages of an embryo are a replay of that species evolution), and
incorporated the recapitulation theory of Jean-Babtiste Lamarck (traits
acquired in a lifetime could be biologically inherited). He further argued that
the origin of humans lay in Asia from the mythical lost continent of Lemuria,
which continued as a legitimate argument to Darwin’s Africa theory until the
1990’s and speculated that ‘missing links’ would be found to connect apes with humans
decades before Eugene Dubois’s Java man
was found.

Haeckel published further monographs, and in 1876 was commissioned
to undertake the identification and
illustration of the HMS Challenger
expedition, which travelled more than 65,000 nautical miles, and was the first
such scientific survey of the oceans, cataloguing over 4000 unknown species and
ultimately establishing oceanography as a science. Haeckel published his Challenger
reports over the subsequent decade, and became an inexhaustible, controversial
lecturer and author of science, philosophy and travel. He would name thousands of new species, established terms such as
stem cell, ecology (oecologia)
and phylum.

However it is through Kunstformen der Nature (Art Forms of Nature), published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904, and as
a complete volume in 1904, that he is best known.

Haeckel’s expertly drafted
sketches of meticulously organised, stylized sea life, translated into
lithographs by Adolf Gilitsch, would be reinterpreted by all areas of the fine
and decorative arts to inform the style of the Art Noveau, and inspire some of
the great artists, designers and decorators of the Belle Epoque such as Rene
Binet, Antoni Gaudi, Gustav Klimt, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Charles Worth. Kunstformen gave insight into a world largely unknown, emphasising its symmetries and patterns to
express the science in art, the art in science, and the connectivity of all
living things. Ultimately our modern view of life has its foundations in Haeckel’s
understanding of the natural world, and his holistic approach continues to be the framework
adopted by emerging scientific fields whilst his extraordinary illustrations
have never ceased to enliven all areas of the arts.