T. W. Wood
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T. W. Wood (born Thomas Wood, summer 1839 – c. 1910) was an English
zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
responsible for the accurate drawings in major nineteenth century works of natural history including Darwin's ''
The Descent of Man ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...
'' and
Wallace Wallace may refer to: People * Clan Wallace in Scotland * Wallace (given name) * Wallace (surname) * Wallace (footballer, born 1986), full name Wallace Fernando Pereira, Brazilian football left-back * Wallace (footballer, born 1987), full name ...
's ''
The Malay Archipelago ''The Malay Archipelago'' is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, S ...
''. He studied the courtship display behaviour of
pheasants Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasi ...
, observing them closely and publishing the first description of the double-banded argus pheasant. He illustrated many books, often of birds but also of moths and mammals.


Life and work

Wood was born in the London borough of
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
in June 1839. He became a
zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
, well known in the nineteenth century for his many
engravings Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
for major works of natural history including
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
's ''
The Descent of Man ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...
'' (1871) and
Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...
's ''
The Malay Archipelago ''The Malay Archipelago'' is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, S ...
'' (1869).


Camouflage

It appears that Wallace introduced Wood to Darwin, as in a letter to Darwin of 8 March 1868 Wallace writes: Wood was interested in insect
camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...
, and Wallace again cites him in his 1895 book ''Natural Selection and Tropical Nature'', writing that the orangetip butterfly's underwing pattern "completely assimilates with the flower heads and renders the creature very difficult to be seen".


Illustration

Wood was chosen along with other eminent
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
illustrators such as
Joseph Wolf Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820 – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Liv ...
and
Johann Baptist Zwecker Johann Baptist Zwecker (1814–1876) was a German illustrator of books and magazines. Life and work Zwecker studied art in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, Germany. Around 1860 he set up a studio in London with Joseph Wolf. He illustrated children' ...
for the large task of providing a set of drawings for the
parson-naturalist A parson-naturalist was a cleric (a "parson", strictly defined as a country priest who held the living of a parish, but the term is generally extended to other clergy), who often saw the study of natural science as an extension of his religious wor ...
John George Wood John George Wood, or Rev J. G. Wood, (21 July 1827 – 3 March 1889), was an English writer who popularised natural history with his writings. Life and work Early life and ordination John George Wood was born in London, son of the surgeon J ...
's ''Illustrated Natural History: Birds'' (1875). J.G. Wood (no relation), being an illustrator himself, had difficulty finding other illustrators whose work he liked; among those working on his ''Birds'', he found
Harrison Weir Harrison William Weir (5 May 18243 January 1906), known as "The Father of the Cat Fancy", was a British artist. He organised the first cat show in England, at the Crystal Palace, London, in July 1871. He and his brother, John Jenner Weir, bo ...
"always picturesque, but never correct", while T. W. Wood was the opposite, though he did like
Joseph Wolf Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820 – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Liv ...
's artwork. The English broadcaster and naturalist
David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...
notes that in Wallace's ''Malay Archipelago'', Wood, like earlier illustrators of the
lesser bird-of-paradise The lesser bird-of-paradise (''Paradisaea minor'') is a bird-of-paradise in the genus ''Paradisaea''. Description The lesser bird-of-paradise is medium-sized, up to 32 cm-long, maroon-brown with a yellow crown and brownish-yellow upper back ...
, showed the male's posture wrongly, with the plumes appearing to bush out from above the wings. Attenborough observes that "It seems very odd that such an accurate and meticulous observer as Wallace did not correct him." Many of Wood's drawings are signed with his distinctive "TWW" monogram, which he used both alone and in combination with his surname as a signature.


Gamebird display

Wood became fascinated by the display plumage of male birds such as pheasants, and in 1870 he published a description of the "lateral or one-sided" display of the male gold pheasant and the "Japanese pheasant", ''
Phasianus versicolor The green pheasant (''Phasianus versicolor''), also known as the Japanese green pheasant, is an omnivorous bird native to the Japanese archipelago, to which it is endemic. Some taxonomic authorities consider it a subspecies of the common pheasa ...
''. Darwin commented in the second edition of his ''
Descent of Man ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...
'' that "Some new illustrations have been introduced, and four of the old drawings y Brehmhave been replaced by better ones, done from life by Mr. T. W. Wood." Wood took the trouble to ask Darwin for a copy of the book "as I should wish to know what characters were particularly pointed out in the text". One of the new drawings was a "Side view of male
Argus pheasant An argus, or argus pheasant, is a member of a clade in the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, containing two species of bird that are closely related to peafowl. It has hundreds or thousands of tiny white spots on its plumage pattern, an ...
, while displaying before the female"; Wood based the drawing on his own careful observation of the birds in the
London zoological gardens London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. In 1831 or 1832, t ...
, and was praised for it by
William Bernhardt Tegetmeier William Bernhardt Tegetmeier FZS (4 November 1816 – 19 November 1912) was an English naturalist, a founding member of the Savage Club, a popular writer and journalist of domestic science. A correspondent and friend of Charles Darwin, Tegetme ...
, the editor of ''The Field'' magazine, for which Wood often worked, as "the first correct delineation of the display". One of the drawings that Wood replaced in ''Descent of Man'' was
Alfred Brehm Alfred Edmund Brehm (; 2 February 1829 – 11 November 1884) was a German zoologist, writer, director of zoological gardens and the son of Christian Ludwig Brehm, a famous pastor and ornithologist. Through the book title ''Brehms Tierlebe ...
's "'' Tetrao cupido: male''"; his drawing (for the second edition) shows large expanded vocal sacs behind the eyes, the male posing on a raised hummock with three females watching from below in long grass; Brehm's drawing in the first edition had not shown these important features. Darwin was concerned for accurate drawings, especially of features that related to courtship. However, Wood developed his own view of the purpose of the male argus pheasant's display, which he believed was to "fascinate his lady love", while display by a male animal "undoubtedly has for its object the winning of he female animal'sfavours." Wood was prepared to disagree with Darwin, too, as he felt that the eyespots in its plumage were perfect and thus signs of special creation: "although I feel convinced of the truth of your theory of the origin of species, he Argus pheasant's plumagecannot be explained by it ... ut rather itseems to point to (& almost to prove) the existence of a great artistic power." However the theory in question was not
natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...
as in Darwin's 1859 ''
Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
'', but
sexual selection Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex mate choice, choose mates of the other sex to mating, mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of t ...
. Wood's engraving and description of the double-banded argus in ''The Field'' magazine in 1871 formed the first account of the presumed species, for which he proposed the name ''Argus bipunctatus'', though it is now taken as a synonym of
Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
's ''Argusianus argus'', probably representing a mutant form of that species. The 'double-banded' refers to the only known part of the bird, feathers with a doubled pattern found in a milliner's shop as hat decoration.


Works illustrated by Wood

* Wood, John George, illustrated by Coleman W. S., Smith, E., Wood, T. W. (1864) ''Our Garden Friends and Foes''. Routledge, Warne, and Routledge. * Wallace, Alfred Russel (1869) ''
The Malay Archipelago ''The Malay Archipelago'' is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, S ...
''. * Wood, John George, illustrated by Coleman W. S., Smith, E., Wood, T. W. (1870) ''The Common Moths of England''. George Routledge and Sons. * Wood, T. W. (1871) ''Curiosities of Ornithology''. Groombridge. *
Darwin, Charles Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
(2nd ed, 1874) ''
The Descent of Man ''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...
''. * Beeton, Samuel Orchart. Illustrated by Harrison Weir, T. W. Wood and others. (1871) ''Beeton's Dictionary of Natural History a Compendious Cyclopaedia of the Animal Kingdom Containing Upwards of Two Thousand Complete and Distinct Articles''. Ward, Lock & Tyler. * Darwin, Charles (1872) ''
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals ''The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'' is Charles Darwin's third major work of evolutionary theory, following ''On the Origin of Species'' (1859) and ''The Descent of Man'' (1871). Initially intended as a chapter in ''The Descen ...
''. John Murray. * Weir, Harrison William; Wood, T. W. (1872) ''Wild Animals in Freedom and Captivity''. Ward, Lock, and Tyler. * Tegetmeier, William Bernhardt (1873) ''Pheasants for Coverts and Aviaries''. Horace Cox. (2nd ed. appeared in 1881) * Wood, John George, illustrated by Coleman, W.S., Weir, H., Wood, T.W., Wolf, J, Zwecker, J.B. (1875) ''The Illustrated Natural History: Birds''. George Routledge and Sons. * Wood, John George; Smith, Edward Alfred; Wood, T.W. (1875) ''Common British Beetles''. George Routledge and Sons. * Blyth, Edward (1881) ''The Natural History of the Cranes''. Horace Cox. * Sterndale, Robert A. (1885) ''Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon''. Thacker, Spink, and Co. * Taylor, J. E. (1889) ''The Playtime Naturalist''. Chatto and Windus. * Tegetmeier, William Bernhardt (1904) ''Pheasants their natural history and practical management''. Horace Cox. * Finn, Frank, with colour plates by unknown artists, black and white drawings by T.W. Wood (1911) ''Talks About Birds''. A&C Black.


Notes


References


External links


Darwin Online: Wood's interactions with Darwin
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, T. W. Natural history illustrators 1839 births 1910s deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists