Ernst Haeckel
Detailed nature illustrations influenced Art Nouveau
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms and coined many terms in biology, including ecology, phylum, phylogeny, and Protista. Haeckel promoted and popularised Charles Darwin's work in Germany and developed the influential but no longer widely held recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarises its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny. The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures, collected in his Kunstformen der Natur ("Art Forms of Nature"), a book which would go on to influence the Art Nouveau artistic movement. As a philosopher, Ernst Haeckel wrote Die Welträthsel (1895–1899; in English: The Riddle of the Universe, 1901), the genesis for the term "world riddle" (Welträtsel); and Freedom in Science and Teaching to support teaching evolution.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Emil August Göldi Student
Artworks by this artist
- Copepoda. – Ruderkrebse 1904
- Cystoidea. – Beutelsterne 1904
- Tetracoralla. – Bierstrahlige Sternkorallen 1904
- Leptomedusae. – Faltenquallen 1904
- Ascidiae. – Seescheiden 1904
- Asteridea. – Seesterne 1904
- Mycetozoa. – Pilztiere 1904
- Phaeodaria. – Rohrstrahlinge 2 1904
- Rotatoria. – Rädertiere 1904
- Discomedusae. – Schweibenquallen 1904
- Ammonitida. – Ammonshörner 1904
- Acephala. – Muscheln 1904
- Nepenthaceae. – Kannenpflanzen 1904
- Pennatulida. – Federkorallen 1904
- Ciliata. – Wimperlinge 1904
- Peridinea. – Geikelhütchen 1904
- Florideae. – Rotalgen 1904
- Antilopina. – Antilopen 1904
- Batrachia. – Frösche 1904
- Platodes. – Plattentiere 1904