Henry De La Beche
"Awful Changes," 1830.
Auction Closed
July 14, 07:13 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Henry De la Beche
(1796-1855)
"Awful Changes," 1830.
Lithograph, 12½ x 10¼ inches (31.6 x 25.7 cm), unframed, depicting a lecture by "Professor Ichthyosaurus" discoursing on a human skull ("...the skull before us belonged to some of the lower order of animals..."), captioned "H.T. de la Beche del. & lith. 1830."
A CARICATURE FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF PALEONTOLOGY THAT REIMAGINES PREHISTORIC LIFE REBORN
Geologist Henry De la Beche (1796-1855) was well known for his lively sense of humor, including his caricatures. This image lampoons Charles Lyell and his uniformitarian theory of geological change as expounded in Principles of Geology ("...Then might those genera of animals return, of which the memorials are preserved in the ancient rocks of our continents. The huge iguanodon might reappear in the woods, and the ichthyosaur in the sea, while the pterodactyl might flit again through the umbrageous groves of tree ferns...").