Cave Painters at Work, 1915
- 44. Osborn, Henry Fairfield (1857-1935).
Men of the Old Stone Age, Their Environment, Life and Art. New York: Scribner’s, 1915.
The artist Charles Knight (1874-1953) cut his prehistoric teeth on dinosaurs, like his patron and mentor Henry F. Osborn. When Osborn turned his attention to cave men, Knight followed suit. Osborn commissioned two paintings from Knight for this book. One shows several Neanderthals standing outside their cave and can be seen on the exhibition wall panel, “Neanderthals;” it is much more sympathetic than the crude depiction by Wilser’s artist in item 39. The other Knight painting, seen here, shows an Altamira cave painter at work. Knight cleverly includes an invention without which cave paintings would have been impossible: the oil lamp.
