Maurice Wilson (1914-1987)
Aepyornis maximus,
Elephant bird, 1950.
Watercolour on paper, 395 x 285
mm.
For generations, dinosaurs and fossils have inspired
children and adults. Stimulating this interest has been
artwork of the prehistoric world, reproduced as illustrations
in many books.
These drawings used scientific fact deduced from the fossil
record, combined with the artist's imagination, resulting in
an impression of a world that existed millions of years
ago.
Maurice Wilson (1914-1987)
Maurice Charles John Wilson was a prolific artist whose
work reached a wide audience ranging from scientific books to
collections of cards distributed in tea packets.
He was born in London in 1914 and spent most of his life in
south-east England. Educated at the Hastings School of Art and
the Royal Academy Schools, he later taught anatomical and
plant drawing as well as undertaking commissioned work. He
worked closely with many of the scientists at the Natural
History Museum from the 1950s to just before his death.
Wilson's style was very versatile, but he is best known for
his prehistoric reconstructions. His talent for representing
prehistoric life lay in his ability to bring to life creatures
never seen by humans by giving a sheen to feathers, or by
using a light and dark contrast to hairs of mammals. By
painting scenery in a realistic way, he also gave his subjects
a definite scale and placed prehistoric animals in an
historical context.
His anthropological work can be found in Peter Andrews and
Chris Stringer's publication Human Evolution: An
Illustrated Guide (1989), with his animal reconstructions
published in W. E. Swinton's very popular handbooks which
included Fossil Amphibian and Reptiles (1954) and
Fossil Birds (1958). Wilson also illustrated Wilfrid Le
Gros Clark's, A History of the Primates (1949) with a
series of fine black and white drawings whilst other
illustrations have accompanied displays in the Museum's public
galleries.
As with all artists concerned with palaeontological
reconstruction, their art reflects the current scientific
thinking and theories. Therefore they do not always remain
accurate representations. Before the emergence of
animatronics, Wilson's work succeeded in inspiring several
generations of young people seeking to learn about our fossil
history.
Aepyornis
maximus
Commonly known as the Elephant bird, Aepyornis
maximus is an extinct flightless bird whose close
relatives include ostriches, emus, cassowaries, kiwis, rheas,
and moas. They stood three metres tall and weighed an
estimated 450 kilos. Stout and robust birds, they lived by
grazing leaves from branches.
Aepyornis remains are found in the Pleistocene to
recent deposits in Madagascar. It is believed that their
extinction was most likely caused by the invasion of humans
onto Madagascar, maybe as late as 2,000 years ago, as there
are few natural predators except for crocodiles and
eagles.
Their giant eggs are still to be found, washed up on
beaches or on lake shores, mostly as fragments but
occasionally whole. They are notable for their large size, and
may be up to nine litres in capacity. Some may contain bones
of embryos.
The bird was very probably the inspiration for the
legendary Roc, in the tales of Sinbad the Sailor, and in the
travel accounts of Marco Polo. The novelist H. G. Wells, who
originally trained as an anatomist under T. H. Huxley, wrote
about the elephant bird in his short story Aepyornis Island (1894).
The Maurice Wilson Drawings
Collection
Maurice Wilson's original drawings in the Museum are held
in the Earth Sciences Library. They consist of fossil
reconstructions of reptiles, amphibians, birds and hominoids.
Exhibition and publication
details
Andrews, P. and Stringer, C. (1989) Human Evolution: An
Illustrated Guide. BM(NH): London. 46pp.
Swinton,
W. E. (1975) Fossil Birds. 3rd ed. BM(NH): London.
81pp.
References and further
reading
Feduccia, A. (1980) The Age of
Birds. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass. ;
London. 196pp.
Feduccia, A. (1996) The Origin and
Evolution of Birds. Yale University Press: New Haven ;
London. 420pp.
Milner, A. C. (2002) Dino-Birds: From Dinosaurs to
Birds. Natural History Museum: London. 64pp.
Wilson, M. (1964) Drawing Animals. Studio Vista:
London. 56pp.
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