Rudolph F. Zallinger

Rudolph Franz Zallinger (; November 12, 1919 – August 1, 1995) was an American-based Austrian-Russian artist. His most notable works include his mural The Age of Reptiles at Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History, and the March of Progress (1965) with numerous parodies and versions. His painting of a Tyrannosaurus heavily influenced the creature design of Toho Studios' Godzilla (1954). Two of Zallinger's dinosaurs—the T. rex and Brontosaurus—are seen in that film as part of a slide demonstration during a lecture in the National Diet Building.

Born in Russia, he was raised in Seattle and became a prominent member of Yale University after painting his murals, gaining him awards and honors. He made illustrations for Life magazine and illustrations for dinosaur books, which made more people aware of his mural work. Because of the time in which they were painted, his murals have errors that are noticeable today but still remain a large achievement in his life.

Early life and education Rudolph Franz Zallinger was born in Irkutsk, Siberia in 1919 to Siberian refugees, Franz Xavier Zallinger and Maria Maria (Koncheravich) Zallinger. Zallinger had one sister. His family immigrated to Seattle, Washington in 1924.

Zallinger graduated at the Queen Anne High School in 1937. In 1938, he won a scholarship at Yale University when he was urged to apply by John Butler, an artist from Seattle. He graduated in 1942 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He later got a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale university in 1971, and a Doctor of Fine Arts at the University of New Haven, in 1980.

Career

The same year Zallinger graduated from Yale University, he worked as a teacher in painting in Yale School of Fine Arts from 1942 to 1950 where he painted his famous The Age of Reptiles. He worked as an instructor for five years, and then two more until 1950 as an assistant professor. In 1950, he went back to Seattle to work as a freelance artist and taught at the Burnley School (now called The Art Institute of Seattle) for three years before returning to Yale again after accepting a commission by Life magazine to create The Age of Mammals. He also enrolled as a Fellow in Geology to study for his next work. It features a timeline of 350 million years of animal and plant evolution, showing the rise and fall of dinosaurs as the rulers of Earth. Zallinger used trees to divide it into the various periods of geologic time, as the chronology moves from right to left. This was later reversed when used in Life magazine to go from left to right in 1952.

The museum's Great Hall had the fossil reconstructions of various dinosaurs, including that of an Apatosaurus with an incorrect skull. Lewis York, an art professor at the School of Fine Arts, also suggested that Zallinger would be up to the task. most often used in the 15th century. The underpainting was finished in 1944, and the mural was finally completed in June 1947.

Great Seattle Fire (1953) A 10 feet high by 24 feet wide (3 by 7.3 meters) mural was commissioned by General Insurance Company of America (SAFECO) in 1953. The mural depicts the Great Seattle Fire which occurred on June 6, 1889. Zallinger spent a long time researching and studying historic photos and their every detail to capture the moment of that fire. The painting was unveiled in 1953, at the Museum of History & Industry, with 50 surviving witnesses and 100 other curious visitors at the event.

March of Progress (1965) The March of Progress (as it is commonly called, although it is titled "The Road to Homo sapiens") was created for the Early Man volume of the Life Nature Library, published in 1965 by Time Life. It shows the evolution of man, from ape to Homo sapiens. Many consider this to be wrong as it presents a "linear evolution", whereas evolution is much more complex, and thus has been heavily criticized despite making its way into popular culture. Many parodies have been made, as it stands as one of the most recognizable scientific images of all time.

The Age of Mammals (1967) As Zallinger had previously done work for Life magazine, they commissioned another work of art from him, The Age of Mammals. The drawing for The Age of Mammals was published in October 1953, but there were insufficient funds to begin work on the mural until the 1960s. In 1961, Zallinger began work on the mural on the south wall of the Hall of Mammalian Evolution in Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. and it depicts a variety of plants, animals and landscapes of western North America in the span of 65 million years. It shows the domination of mammals after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. It was painted using the fresco-secco technique.

Life magazine The Age of Reptiles earned Zallinger recognition from the Pulitzer Foundation in 1949 but remained unknown to most of America. It wasn't popular until New Haven's former mayor Richard C. Lee, at that time head of the Yale News Bureau, brought it to the attention of the editors of Life magazine. Soon after, it was published in Life in 1952, which gained it much attention. However, this wasn't the only assignment Zallinger received from Life. His paintings portrayed reptiles and dinosaurs, he painted eight pages of the tropical rain forests of Dutch Guiana, drew animals and birds with his wife Jean Day Zallinger, recreated scenes of the Minoans in ancient Crete, contributed to illustrations in the series "The World We Live In", "Wonders of Life on Earth", two of the 12 chapters in "The Epic of Man", illustrated a series on the Russian Revolution, and many others. The book talks about various life forms around the world and the science behind them based on the studies of paleontologists. The cover features three dinosaurs. Rhodes's book, Evolution, was published in 1974 and was illustrated by Zallinger and Rebecca A. Merrilees (1922–2012). He also illustrated the book Dinosaurs for Golden Press in 1960.

Awards and honors Zallinger's first award was an honorable mention for the Prix-de-Rome in 1941. After finishing the mural The Age of Reptiles, in 1947, he received the Pulitzer Award for Painting in 1949.

At 69 years old (1988), Zallinger received the James E. and Frances W. Bent Award, which is given annually to a faculty member of the University of Hartford for "unusual creativity and innovation in the pursuit of his or her scholarship".

Death Rudolph Zallinger died on August 1, 1995, of cancer in Branford, Connecticut.