We’re again with extra German dinosaur playing cards from the Reichardt cocoa firm! In components one and two, we mentioned two sequence of 1900s illustrations by one F. John. Within the late 1910s, Reichardt as soon as once more hit the market with collectible playing cards themed to extinct animals. By the way, after Collection 1 and Collection 2, the third sequence was numbered Collection 1a, as a result of that’s what makes essentially the most sense. The unique featured artist, F. John, was, to not put too advantageous a degree on it, a little bit of a hack. For his or her third card sequence, Reichard enlisted the assistance of a distinct artist: Heinrich Tougher.
Tougher is a little bit of an unsung hero within the historical past of palaeoart. At this level on this life, he was already an skilled artist who taught courses on the Prussian academy of advantageous arts in Berlin. Specializing in landscapes, Tougher got here to palaeoart late in life. He labored with science author Wilhelm Bölsche for some articles and books within the late 1900s, earlier than being commissioned these thirty illustrations for Reichardt round 1916. A few of these playing cards are up to date variations of illustrations he made for Bölsche, however quite a lot of them are all-original, as effectively. His different main palaeoart works are the murals of the Berlin Aquarium, partially destroyed in World Struggle Two and restored within the Seventies, however these are a narrative for one more day. As soon as extra, these scans are from copyrightexpired.com.
The variations between F. John and Heinrich Tougher couldn’t be better. Tougher is a much more completed and actually rather more critical artist, who did what he might to provide his creatures a foundation in science. He additionally wasn’t above including his personal inventive and speculative touches. He was additionally, as we will see, often given some dodgy scientific recommendation.
Ignoring the apparent for the second, this Stegosaurus is fairly good. Anatomically not fairly on the extent of Joseph Smit, perhaps, however positioned in a easy however vigorous panorama and filled with character. That is the model of Stegosaurus with two parallel rows of plates, and an eight-spiked thagomizer. Most attention-grabbing of all is the serration on the plates; I don’t know if this was one thing Tougher got here up with, or if this was requested by his commissioners or scientific advisors. On the entrance finish of the animal’s again, the plates appear to be joined collectively, to provide a extra ridge-backed impression. However you’re most likely its legs. That dinosaur has some intensely bent knees. That is very a lot emblematic of Tougher’s dinosaurs, and it’s about to get a lot, a lot stranger.
Right here it’s: probably the most well-known oddities of classic dinosaur artwork. In case you are in any respect aware of Heinrich Tougher, this is likely to be the primary picture of his you consider, and I usually confer with this once I discuss concerning the “Tougher sprawl”. There was a faculty of thought, began by Oliver Hay and adopted by Gustav Tornier, that dinosaurs typically and sauropods specifically had been interpreted flawed by the likes of Owen, Marsh and Cope and that their limbs had been extra lizard-like and splayed. This illustration might be essentially the most infamous and excessive instance of this concept in palaeoart. So what’s up with this? Timur Sivgin has written a superb piece about it right here, so I gained’t elaborate an excessive amount of on the how and why.
This isn’t the one, or the primary, sprawling sauropod in palaeoart. I suppose the rationale why the legs stick out a lot (pun not meant besides I completely meant it) right here specifically is that Tougher has the remainder of the anatomy of the animal down so effectively. Should you evaluate this to earlier illustrations by F. John and Oliver Hay, you may inform that Tougher frolicked trying on the skeletons and fascinated by the underlying bone and muscle construction. He follows Tornier’s swan-like Diplodocus skeletal fairly faithfully. Paradoxically, the result’s an animal that makes completely no sense. These legs appear to need to be straight beneath it. As a way to help the animal’s large weight this fashion, you may think it having fairly huge thighs and biceps… nevertheless it doesn’t. It has scrawny lizard muscle groups. What a dreamlike picture; the animal appears to defy the legal guidelines of nature.
Taking a look at a picture that takes Tornier’s concepts on dinosaurs severely, you may see why his views didn’t catch on. However let’s give credit score the place credit score is due: Tornier did think about Diplodocus to have a versatile, swan-like neck that it held erect, and that appears to be broadly in line with fashionable thought on sauropods. We’ve seen quite a lot of WWD-style stiff beam necks within the years to return. Look previous the legs and this actually is a good and well-researched piece of dinosaur artwork.
I praised F. John for his or her water results however Tougher is certainly in the next tier in that regard. Such magnificent, detailed waves! In comparison with most ichthyosaur reconstructions, Tougher’s are fairly unusual; a lot much less of the acquainted rounded dolphin shapes and extra sharp, fishy ones. The snouts and fins are pointy, the eyes enormous and glassy. Despite the fact that it’s technically an instance of shinkwrapping, Tougher exhibits his familiarity with the odd anatomy of the ichthyosaur flipper by displaying all these bizarre bones on the one which’s leaping the best.
What I mentioned about waves and water additionally goes for the extra sedate waves on this plesiosaur piece. That is additionally the primary instance of an animal dealing with left! I all the time have barely much less to say about marine reptile art work. The skulls are well-observed, so far as I can inform.
Right here’s a splendidly moody piece of pterosaurs at sundown. I feel we’re each short-tailed Pterodactylus and long-tailed Rhamphorhynchus, each German species. There’s so much you might decide aside right here by way of anatomy, however not less than Tougher makes them into animals reasonably than the shrieking monsters we’d see in palaeoart earlier than this. The clouds are very good. I like the usage of perspective, with a strongly outlined foreground, middleground and blurry, pale background. Tougher applies this all through his work. Let’s not overlook Tougher was illustrating a bunch of collectible playing cards, his technology’s equal of pogs. He actually didn’t have to go so laborious, however he did and I’m pleased he did. I’m keen on the F. John playing cards, however the step up the Tougher sequence represents from the John sequence could be very profound.
Right here’s an early Archaeopteryx. I can’t consider many older ones moreover Knight, although Archaeopteryx was recognized to science for a really very long time. A resident of Berlin, Tougher would have been very aware of Archaeopteryx. Depicted on the shoreline, Tougher’s Urvogel is curiously seabird-like. I’ve usually seen it look duck-like, however Tougher’s imaginative and prescient appears to make it extra like a gull. The dreaded claws on the wings are particularly pronounced. The one within the foreground really appears to make use of them for steadiness and foraging. The opposite one appears to be coming to have a look. There’s a way of narrative right here. The dragonfly, the beached ichthyosaurs and the starfish are good particulars.
Tougher’s Iguanodon is great for the time. Gone are the far too literalist iguana-like touches from Hawkins and the sooner works by Heilmann; these are absolutely, unambiguously, dinosaurs, with glossy our bodies, huge toes and robust muscle groups. I like the raised-up tails, though the one within the very background nonetheless appears to tug its tail. If there’s something letting the facet down, other than the Tornier-advised sprawling legs, it’s the arms. They give the impression of being very flimsy and lizard-like, and don’t talk the thumb’s proposed position as a defensive weapon very effectively. These Iguanodons don’t fairly maintain up in addition to Gerhard Heilmann’s working Iguanodons from across the identical time, however this can be a imaginative and prescient of Iguanodon that will stand the take a look at of time for many years to return.
That is most likely my favorite Tougher dinosaur piece. It’s atmospheric in a delicate means. I like what he does with skies and landscapes, and with blurring within the distance. Being a panorama knowledgeable, I suppose that’s to be anticipated. The panorama right here seems fairly acquainted, fairly a distinction to the alien, rocky planets with dramatic orange skies F. John positioned his dinosaurs in… There’s actually no comparability between the 2 Reichardt artists. The piece is kind of just like sure Knight Trachodon items, however Tougher provides his personal idiosyncrasies. The pores and skin is extra tough and pebbly, and the tails are, as soon as once more, not dragging! There’s these bizarre bent limbs once more within the background one, however Knight’s Trachodon had that, too. The opposite factor that’s putting is, after all, the shockingly spherical, staring fowl eye. Very completely different from Knight. It does make this hadrosaur look unsettling, however isn’t that simply what animals are like typically?
The Pteranodons are extraordinarily peculiar, with comparatively very small heads and the identical “dip” within the neck we noticed in Robert Youngster’s Pteranodon. Their wings look completely enormous. The opposite curious characteristic is the spherical markings on the wings, displaying that Tougher might have some enjoyable with colors on mesozoic reptiles; it’s too unhealthy his dinosaurs are all simply sand-coloured and uninteresting. I can solely consider one fashionable animal with markings like that: the damaging blue-ringed octopus. I suppose they each have beaks?
Tougher’s dinosaurs and dinosaur-adjacent reptiles are enjoyable, however his true power lies in mammals. In comparison with the Deinotherium reconstructions that got here earlier than this one – by the likes of Edouard Riou, Josef Smit and certainly F. John, this illustration is an amazing leap ahead. Earlier than this, no piece of palaeoart by anybody not named Charles Knight was ever this vigorous, detailed, dynamic and life like. In palaeoart previous, Deinotherium had been standing round idly, or elevating its trunk and snarling, however Tougher makes it a totally plausible animal just by making it work together with its atmosphere, in the way in which any elephant would. And but, it’s unmistakably not simply an elephant, with some bizarre stuff added to it. It’s its personal, distinctive beast. I like the little ridge from its neck to its chest; a testomony to how effectively Tougher knew his animals. And those within the water as soon as once more add depth and aptitude. Excellent palaeoart, all in all. I feel Tougher could be extra fondly remembered if, a number of many years later, Burian hadn’t come round and raised the bar additional nonetheless.
This Elasmotherium piece even jogs my memory of Burian, avant la lettre. There’s one thing very Burian concerning the look within the animal’s eye, numerous character and grit. I like how Tougher has made it stockier than a horse, however extra gracile than a rhino; a cross between the 2. Elasmotherium was most likely extra rhino-like than this.
This is likely one of the Tougher items I’m not likely feeling. The brief hair of the Elasmotherium appeared good, however Tougher has bother actually getting the shagginess of Megatherium to make sense. It seems like JPEG-fuzz greater than something. The neck appears connected to the physique in a bizarre means. The face is attention-grabbing, with black, beady eyes, huge cheeks and the nostril and mouth of a deer. I suppose he was going for “sloth”. Very completely different from the tapir-like or moose-like snouts you’d see in contemporaries like Robert Bruce Horsfall. I just like the foliage, however the animal is a uncommon misstep from Tougher.
That is one other one of many extra notorious Tougher items, prime materials for memes, not due to the glyptodont, however due to the people. They could be looking for meat, however they’re serving cake. That is the one piece in the entire Reichardt sequence with any people. Oddly, that additionally makes it certainly one of solely two items within the sequence with predator-prey interplay. The opposite is an illustration of an aurochs combating off wolves. There’s a stress right here absent from different Tougher items. Values since 1916 have come far sufficient that I’m rooting for the glyptodont, though that most likely wasn’t Tougher’s intention. I’ve no touch upon how correct the people are to what we all know of prehistoric civilisations in South America, however the glyptodont seems competently accomplished to me.
There have been two extra units within the Reichardt Tiere der Urwelt sequence, and the numbering made no sense in any way. Collection 2a was a rehash of among the in style playing cards from the earlier units, together with the F. John units. Then sequence 3 was a brand new sequence once more with authentic art work by Tougher. The issue is: it’s all mammals. It’s good, completely good, and it’s all mammals. I do know we’ve had mammal-centered weblog posts up to now however I’m not going to do this, I’m means out of my depth there. You possibly can examine them out for your self right here.
In order that’s the Reichardt sequence, and that’s the work of Heinrich Tougher. I really feel Tougher neatly bridges the hole between Knight and Burian. These two are a lot worthier factors of comparability for Tougher than F. John is. He really is an authentic of classic palaeoart; his mastery of landscapes, consideration to element, use of perspective and dedication to the science makes him maintain his personal within the shadow of Knight as one of many minor palaeoart greats of the early twentieth century. Look past the ridiculous sprawling limbs and there’s an actual expertise there.
And now, I feel I’m going to have a scorching chocolate.
