Also this issue: Casting Call The ghostly work of Leonardo Drew is on display at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. -Robin Rice Summertime Singing -Debra Auspitz Keiko Miyamori -Debra Auspitz Dynamic Duo -Steve Cohen Rodin -Debra Auspitz

June 13-19, 2002

art

Go Fish

Sarah Bowdich, Rudd Scardinius erythropthalmus, from Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain.

by Susan Hagen

Drawn from the Deep: The Fish in Science, Art and the ImaginationThrough Sept. 30, the Academy of Natural Sciences' Ewell Sale Stewart Library, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-299-1000

Tucked away in one of the less public areas of the Academy of Natural Sciences, there’s a little jewel of an exhibition celebrating the wonderful uniqueness of the world’s fishes (and the people who love them) that you won’t want to miss. Many of the rare and valuable natural history books and drawings from the Academy’s collection on display are from a time when scientists were accomplished artists, and often philosophers, historians or physicians, too. Fish were studied and appreciated for their physical attributes and beauty, but also for their philosophical virtues and their flavor when eaten. The evolution of scientific illustration is shown through 40 examples, selected and co-organized by Robert Peck and Daniel Elliott, beginning with Paolo Giovio’s study of the fishes of Rome published in 1527 and ending with the 1998 Catalog of Fishes, three volumes and a CD-ROM.

The early books are wonderfully imaginative, especially Conrad Gesner's Historiae Animalium, 1551-1587, a 4,500 page zoological encyclopedia. On display is a woodcut plate from his volume on fishes and aquatic animals (including mermaids, sea monsters and other mythical creatures) showing two species of sturgeon from the Venetian Lagoon. The fish, with long up-turned snouts and rows of diamond patterns and jagged hooks along their bodies, are graphic, primitive and elemental. In a 1657 book by Joannes Jonstonus, there's an engraving that shows 16 wriggling sea monsters and fish laid out together like a fish market stand over two dense pages. To make these early depictions, the artist sometimes had a specimen to study, but frequently he extrapolated from hearsay.

Some of the most spectacular hand-colored engravings are in a 1754 book by Louis Renard on tropical fish. In one, a black- and gray-banded angelfish, with lemon yellow fins and a masklike face with sections of green, pink and blue, is presented with two smaller fish with bodies that look like they're enameled in gold. This book, which has recently been made available as a CD-ROM, is one of the few that includes an assessment of each fish's edibility and even recipes. From the same period and equally captivating is Edmé Billardon de Savigny's Histoire Naturelle des Dorades de la Chine, the first European book on goldfish and the only complete book out of only four surviving copies. On display is a delightful carp with a puckery snout, labeled "l'Agréable," which has been densely hand-colored with fleshy pink and charcoal watercolors on a shimmering background of pale aqua.

Sarah Bowdich, an important 19th-century scientist and the only woman with work included in the show, is known for her accurate and richly detailed illustrations. Her book, Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain, is opened to a page showing a marvelously visceral fish, a rudd with a silver-leaf body over-painted with dark-gray watercolor and blood-red fins and tail. The exhibit also includes a wonderful lithograph by Charles Lesueur, a scientist who moved from Paris to Philadelphia in 1817 to work at the Academy of Natural Sciences. It is one of the first lithographs produced in the U.S. and the silvery softness of litho beautifully captures the textured bodies of a rock bass and a freshwater drum. From the 20th century, the exhibition includes one example from a collection of 6,300 detailed pen and ink drawings by Henry Fowler, an ichthyologist and an artist who worked at the Academy for 63 years. Fowler illustrated all of his 40 books about fish and in this decidedly malevolent piranha on display he articulated every detail, delicately and accurately.

Though only one fish illustration from each book or body of work can be seen in this small exhibition, the accumulative effect is magnificent. It's as if all of these fish have been together raised, fresh and glistening, from the watery depths. Go fishing this summer -- see the show!

--Susan Hagen