Charles Robert Knight

Charles Robert Knight (1874-1953), American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and author, known especially for his detailed depictions of prehistoric life. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Knight studied at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Students League of New York, where he specialized in the painting of animals and birds. Later, basing his work on fossil remains, he made models of extinct animals and prehistoric humans for the United States government, the Carnegie Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. He also created murals depicting prehistoric people and animals for the Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum in Chicago, and the Los Angeles Museum. He was particularly known for his many restorations on canvas and in bronze and stone of prehistoric animals, shown in their natural surroundings and characterized by exceptional accuracy of detail. His illustrations appeared in numerous magazines, and he was the author and illustrator of Before the Dawn of History (1935), Life Through the Ages (1946), Animal Anatomy and Psychology for the Artist and Layman (1947), and Prehistoric Man (1949).