Ernst Haekel - part 2

Ernst Heinrich Haekel (1834-1919), a German physician, biologist and nature philosopher. Guided by his father into the practice of medicine, he soon forsook this early career to follow a path more to his liking. In 1862 he began his academic career as a biologist and professor of zoology at the University in Jena where he taught and conducted research until 1909.

During his tenure at Jena, he devoted time to traveling as a field naturalist, collecting specimens along the way. He is noted for his discovery of radiolarian, a type of amoeboid protozoa that produces intricate mineral skeletons found as plankton throughout the ocean. These oceanic organisms are reflected in diverse forms that are strikingly beautiful, almost like the snowflakes of the sea. Notably, he also coined the terms “phylum” and “ecology.”

Haekel's academic and literary output was enormous, and by the time he was 60, he had produced 42 works of over 13,000 pages, including numerous scientific memoirs. 
He was a flamboyant & controversial character who espoused Lamarckian rather than Darwinian concepts, though he did contribute to the popularisation of Darwin’s work in Germany. Something of a maverick in the scientific world, many of his drawings are closer to art than reality, as he was not above inventing creatures to substantiate his theories.

1899 Kunstformen der Natur part 1.

In many ways, Kunstformen der Natur was a synthesis of Haeckel's work and his endless fascination with life forms on earth. Published as booklets with 10 illustrations each from 1899-1904, it is considered by many his greatest work. Like his contemporary, Karl Blossfeldt, who utilised photography to depict nature in a convergence of many disciplines, including scientific, creative & artistic, Haeckel brought together a vision of the zoological world that is full of symmetry and is vibrant & powerful. Between them they were seminal influences, not only in the Art Nouveau movement of the early 1900’s, but in the entire art world of the 20th century, bridging the world between nature and art.

Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904 and collectively in two volumes in 1904, it consists of 100 prints of various organisms, many of which were first described by Haeckel himself. Over the course of his career, over 1000 engravings were produced based on Haeckel's sketches and watercolours; many of the best of these were chosen for Kunstformen der Natur, translated from sketch to print by lithographer Adolf Giltsch. 

According to Haeckel scholar Olaf Breidbach, the work was "not just a book of illustrations but also the summation of his view of the world." The over-riding themes of the Kunstformen plates are symmetry and level of organisation. The subjects were selected to embody these to the full, from the scale patterns of boxfishes to the spirals of ammonites to the perfect symmetries of jellies and microorganisms, while images composing each plate are arranged for maximum visual impact.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on the works of Ernst Haeckel:

Plate 1 Phaeodaria

Plate 2 Thalamophora

Plate 3 Ciliata

Plate 4 Diatomea

Plate 5 Calcispongiae

Plate 6 Tubulariae

Plate 7 Siphonophorae

Plate 8 Discomedusae

Plate 9 Hexacoralla

Plate 10 Ophiodea

Plate 11 Discoidea

Plate 12 Talamophora

Plate 13 Flagellata

Plate 14 Peridinea

Plate 15 Fucoideae

Plate 16 Narcomedusae

Plate 17 Siphonophorae

Plate 18 Discomedusae

Plate 19 Pennatulida

Plate 20 Crinoidea

Plate 21 Acanthometra

Plate 22 Spyroidea

Plate 23 Bryozoa

Plate 24 Desmidiea

Plate 25 Sertulariae

Plate 26 Trachomedusae

Plate 27 Ctenophorae

Plate 28 Discomedusae

Plate 29 Tetracoralla

Plate 30 Echinidea

Plate 31 Cyrtoidea

Plate 32 Rotatoria

Plate 33 Bryozoa

Plate 34 Melethallia

Plate 35 Hexactinellae

Plate 36 Leptomedusae

Plate 37 Siphonophorae

Plate 38 Peromedusae

Plate 39 Gorgonida

Plate 40 Asteridea

Plate 41 Acanthophracta

Plate 42 Ostraciontes

Plate 43 Nudibranchia

Plate 44 Ammonitida

Plate 45 Campanariae

Plate 46 Anthomedusae

Plate 47 Aspidonia

Plate 48 Stauromedusae

Plate 49 Actiniae

Plate 50 Thuroidea