Male gorilla
Date
1865
Creator
Joseph Wolf (1820, German) , Printmaker
Object type
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 314mm
width (print): 242mm
width (print): 242mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Natural history study of a male gorilla from Gabon in West Africa and therefore probably a Western lowland gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla, (here referred to as Troglodytes gorilla). The primate is posed against a tree trunk with bared teeth.
Plate 1 from the book Memoir on the gorilla (Troglodytes Gorilla, Savage), by Richard Owen (Taylor and Francis, London, 1865).
Inscribed above: ‘Plate I’. Below: ‘Wolf Lith. M. & N. Hanhart Imp. TROGLODYTES GORILLA mas adult.’
The plate is described as showing an ‘Adult male Gorilla (from Mr. du Chaillu’s collection, purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum.’ In the accompanying text the author makes clear that the individual studied was dead: ‘I subsequently enjoyed the opportunity of the well-preserved skins of the full-grown male, female and immature specimens (Pls I & II) killed at the Gaboon by the intrepid explorer of the interior of that part of Equatorial Africa, Mr. P.B. Du Chaillu; a selection of which specimens, now mounted and exhibited, was purchased by…the British Museum in 1861.’
Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) British comparative anatomist and paleontologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1834.
Paul Belloni Du Chaillu (1831?-1903) French-American zoologist and anthropologist.
Joseph Wolf [formerly Mathias] (1820-1899), German painter, illustrator and lithographer, active in Britain, specialising in wildlife.
Plate 1 from the book Memoir on the gorilla (Troglodytes Gorilla, Savage), by Richard Owen (Taylor and Francis, London, 1865).
Inscribed above: ‘Plate I’. Below: ‘Wolf Lith. M. & N. Hanhart Imp. TROGLODYTES GORILLA mas adult.’
The plate is described as showing an ‘Adult male Gorilla (from Mr. du Chaillu’s collection, purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum.’ In the accompanying text the author makes clear that the individual studied was dead: ‘I subsequently enjoyed the opportunity of the well-preserved skins of the full-grown male, female and immature specimens (Pls I & II) killed at the Gaboon by the intrepid explorer of the interior of that part of Equatorial Africa, Mr. P.B. Du Chaillu; a selection of which specimens, now mounted and exhibited, was purchased by…the British Museum in 1861.’
Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) British comparative anatomist and paleontologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1834.
Paul Belloni Du Chaillu (1831?-1903) French-American zoologist and anthropologist.
Joseph Wolf [formerly Mathias] (1820-1899), German painter, illustrator and lithographer, active in Britain, specialising in wildlife.
Associated place