Darwin’s Camera jJ PhilliP Prodger D C arwin’s amera jJ Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution 1 2009 Frontispiece: Oscar Rejlander, Profile portrait of Charles Darwin, c.1871–72 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Prodger, Phillip. Darwin’s camera : art and photography in the theory of evolution / Phillip Prodger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-19-515031-5 1. Darwin, Charles, 1809 – 1882. — Illustrations. 2. Darwin, Charles, 1809 – 1882 — Art collections. I. Title. QH365.Z9P76 2009 704.9'495 — dc22 2008033854 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper LO, here a camera obscura is presented to thy view, in which are lights and shades dancing on a whited canvas, and magnified into apparent life! — if thou art perfectly at leisure for such trivial amusement, walk in and view the wonders of my enchanted garden. — Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden This page intentionally left blank Timeline 1806 Charles Bell’s Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting published 1809 Birth of Charles Darwin 1816 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, founded 1824 National Gallery of Art, London, founded 1825–27 Darwin studies at University of Edinburgh, attends Charles Bell’s lectures on expression 1827–31 Darwin studies at University of Cambridge, visits Fitzwilliam Museum 1831–36 The voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle 1839 Journal of Researches, also called The Voyage of the Beagle, published; Invention of photography announced 1851–52 Wet-plate negatives available 1857 Oscar Rejlander, The Two Ways of Life, exhibited 1859 On the Origin of Species published 1862 G. B. Duchenne de Boulogne, Mechanism of Human Facial Expression, published vii 1865 Louis Agassiz, photographic survey of Brazil to disprove evolution 1869 Thomas Henry Huxley begins photographic survey of peoples of British Empire c. 1869 Darwin begins to collect photographs of emotional expressions 1871 The Descent of Man published 1872 Expression of the Emotions published 1872–73 Muybridge photographs of galloping horses 1874 First gelatin dry-plate negatives available (not mass-produced until 1880) c. 1878 Francis Galton begins to make composite photographs 1882 Death of Charles Darwin viii j timeline ConTenTs Preface xi Photographic plates from Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) xii Introduction xxi 1. Darwin’s Art Collection 3 The prints, drawings, and photographs Darwin collected in the 1860s and 1870s 2. Illustration and Illusion 21 Strategies Darwin used in illustrating his books 3. Art, Experience, and Observation 35 Darwin’s knowledge of art history and use of illustration in his books 4. Darwin and the Passions 51 How passion manuals informed Darwin’s research 5. Photography and Evolution Meet 61 Connections between photography and biology in the 1860s 6. Method to Their Madness 81 How photography in mental hospitals influenced Darwin ix