Representations
Majestic landscapes, intricate camouflage, or shimmering iridescence – structures in nature frequently inspire artistic interpretations, but visual representations often have more academic uses too.
Models of minerals, organisms or geological formations can be used as teaching aids. They can also represent characteristics that are otherwise hard to preserve, such as colouring in sea anemones. In the case of creatures now lost entirely except for their fossil remains, drawings and models may be the only way of visualising their appearance and habitats.
Before photography, collectors and scientists drew or painted specimens as a documentary record, or as a means of publishing research. Many were gifted artists, as you can see below in the ichthyosaur drawing by 19th-century fossil collector Elizabeth Philpot (1780-1857) and the geological representation of Derbyshire by geologist and sculptor White Watson (1760-1835).