Celebrating 120 years of Zdeněk Burian, the artist who brought prehistory to life
Tuesday marks exactly 120 years since the birth of Czech artist Zdeněk Burian, one of history’s greatest illustrators of prehistoric life. Long before the era of computer-generated imagery, Burian brought the ancient world to life with remarkable accuracy and imagination.
Zdeněk Burian, often considered the most prolific paleoartist in history, was born in 1905 in the Moravian town of Kopřivnice, a region known for its prehistoric archaeological finds. These early discoveries may have sparked his fascination with ancient life, a passion that later led him to collaborate with Czech palaeontologist Josef Augusta on ground-breaking fossil reconstructions.
Throughout his career, Burian illustrated around 600 books. With roughly 20 illustrations per book, his total body of work could amount to an astonishing 12,000 illustrations. He recalled his early artistic journey in an interview for Czechoslovak Radio in January 1980:
“I was supposed to be a forester, because there was a forestry school just half an hour away from where we lived. But our arts teacher came to us one day and said that I should go to the School of Arts and Crafts, because my pictures were always the best on display at school.”
Burian never attended the School of Arts and Crafts. Instead, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts at just 14, but left after two years to work as a full-time illustrator. In the same interview for Czechoslovak Radio, Burian explained how he developed his deep understanding of anatomy, zoology and palaeontology:
“This is because I had the opportunity to observe small and large lizards, and frogs. Of course, visiting zoos was also helpful. For anatomy, it's absolutely necessary to know the composition of the muscles, but especially to understand how the muscles change in movement.”
Burian also described his unique artistic process:
“I have to see what I have to do, but not really with my eyes—rather with my mind’s eye. Drawing from models is different; what one really sees, one just puts on paper. But I have to have the painting finished in front of my eyes. Say at 11 o’clock in the evening, I see the painting down to the last detail, and in the morning I get up and start painting directly with paint.”
From 1935, Burian collaborated with Josef Augusta, a professor of palaeontology at Charles University, on reconstructing prehistoric animals. Their partnership led to From the Depths of the Prehistoric, a book that later inspired director Karel Zeman’s legendary film Journey to Prehistory.
Burian’s vivid and meticulously researched depictions of prehistoric life extended far beyond this collaboration. Decades later, Steven Spielberg drew inspiration from his work for Jurassic Park, influenced by the way Burian brought prehistoric creatures to life, even though modern science has since revised many of these representations.
To mark the 120th anniversary of Burian’s birth, several events are planned. The Zdeněk Burian Museum in Štramberk will host a series of lectures and a special exhibition, while his hometown of Kopřivnice will host a major celebration this Friday, including a special video-mapping tribute to the great Czech artist.
