Art Forms in Nature: Prints of Ernst Haeckel

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Amazing drawings of exceptional detail, every time I look through it I see something I din't the time before.

Above all, when we examine them with a powerful glass or, better still, with a good microscope, we find everywhere in nature a new world of inexhaustible charms. This collection of plates was well-received not only by scientists, but by artists and architects as well. In every bit of moss and blade of grass, in every beetle and butterfly, we find, when we examine it carefully, beauties which are usually overlooked. Originally published in Germany as Kunstformen der Natur, it is long out of copyright and available online in various formats.In a beautiful celebration of the natural world, Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature is a masterful union of science and art.

In our collection, we honour Haeckel’s achievements with images such as ‘Actiniae’ (sea anemones), ‘Sea Snails’ and ‘Jellyfish Species’. Inspiration for the nature-lover, artist, or those like me who like to simply gaze in wonder at the infinite diversity and beauty, of lifeforms.Psychology he regarded as merely a branch of physiology, and psychical activity as a group of vital phenomena which depend solely on physiological actions and material changes taking place in the protoplasm of the organism in which it is manifested. I felt like he rendered the natural world as something both amazingly beautiful and terrifying and I loved it.

One prominent example is the Amsterdam Commodities Exchange designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage: it was in part inspired by Kunstformen illustrations. Haeckel was a 19th century biologist and illustrator who specialized in mapping and painting natural history in mathematical and symmetrical diagrams that are nothing less than stunning works of art.

I'd never heard of Ernst Haeckel until I read about Rorschach's inkblot tests (that is the great beauty of reading: books beget books). 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. There is a long queue of people who have this on reserve at the library, and the copy I have is almost due, so I can’t keep perusing it.