Zdeněk Burian

Zdeněk Michael František Burian (February 11, 1905 Kopřivnice - July 1, 1981 Prague) was a Czech painter and book illustrator. He is known as a painter whose work played a central role in the development of paleontological reconstructions.

His artworks are estimated to number more than 15,000 paintings and drawings (pen and pencil). He illustrated over 500 book titles (including natural history subjects and numerous classic novels such as Robinson Crusoe, Tarzan, Plutonia) and some 600 book covers, but it is within the fields of palaeontology (US=paleontology) and palaeo(US=paleo)-anthropology that Burian's influence has been most notable. Since the 1960s when Burian's work became known in the west, most illustrated scholarly books on prehistoric life have featured his work, either as originals or as art based closely on them.

Burian worked in initial cooperation with university palaeontologist Josef Augusta from 1938/39 (during WW II all universities in Czechoslovakia were closed due to the German occupation) and subsequently (following Augusta's death in 1968) with Zdeněk Špinar, painting magnificent reconstructions that represented all forms of prehistoric life, from the earliest invertebrates to a vast array of fish, amphibians, reptiles (including dinosaurs), mammals and birds, as well as panoramic vistas of the landscapes in which they lived. Close to 500 prehistoric images were painted by him over a period of five decades from the early 1930s to the late 1970s.

Whilst some of Burian's earliest palaeo works were inspired by the American palaeo-artist Charles R. Knight (see for example, his first renditions of "Stegosaurus" and "Brontotherium") Burian's work was less stylised and more convincing (particularly with respect to the landscapes) and soon became very highly regarded among palaeontologists, especially in Europe. Most of Burian's works were done with oils, both in colour and black and white, and exhibit keen attention to detail and unmistakable realism, while maintaining a strong presence and sense of atmosphere. A feature of many Burian paintings, and one that is missing from the work of other palaeo artists of his time, is the realistic effect of movement and action, which was achieved not only by the dynamic positions of the subjects, but by a clever 'feathering' of the edges of moving objects (eg. waves, leaves or palm fronds) to produce an effect of photo-realism. It has been noted that Burian's renditions appear to have been painted from life, so close is the perceived association between the subject and its environment (Burian was already well accomplished at painting natural history subjects before he began painting prehistoric scenes). Burian's reconstructions of dinosaurs are all the more remarkable when one considers that he did not have access to skeletal material, but rather depended largely on drawings and photographs provided by Augusta and Špinar. His paintings vary from A4 to square metres in size, and many of his originals are on exhibit at Dvůr Králové Zoo (especially his large oil canvas), at the National Natural History Museum in Prague and at the Anthropos Museum in Brno (particularly his anthropological reconstructions). Some of his paintings have become iconic images within palaeontology and anthropology, especially his frequently reproduced paintings of "Pteranodon" (pterosaur), "Elasmosaurus" (plesiosaur), "Tylosaurus" (mosasaur), "Diplodocus", "Brachiosaurus", Brontosaurus, "Styracosaurus", and "Tyrannosaurus" & "Trachodon". His evocative depictions of Ice Age mammals and a remarkable series of paintings of early hominids through to modern man are without equal (he also painted extant native peoples of the world, including those of Africa, South America and the South Pacific). Burian sometimes painted more than one version of a palaeontological subject (particularly if the first version had been painted in b&w), examples being "Dimetrodon", "Tylosaurus", "Brachiosaurus", "Diplodocus", "Stegosaurus", "Brontotherium", "Arsinoitherium", "Phororhacos", "Archaeopteryx" etc.

Burian's palaeontological works were initially reproduced by the Czech publishing house Artia and later by western publishers such as Paul Hamlyn and Thames & Hudson, as well as being widely reproduced in countless other texts. His work has probably inspired more imitators than any other artist in his field, and his prehistoric paintings have frequently been directly copied (and not always with acknowledgement).

External links

* [http://allday.ru/2007/11/25/kartiny_pervobytnojj_prirody__zdenek_burian.html Gallery of 31 paintings with descriptions] (ru icon)
* [http://farisles.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1668 Gallery of 152 paintings] (ru icon)
* [http://macroevolution.narod.ru/burian.htm Gallery of 60 paintings] (ru icon)