During the late 1970s, Sylvia J. Czerkas (then Massey) and I made contact with the heirs of Charles R. Knight, the great artist of prehistoric life who worked from the late 1890s and into the 1950s. Because of this contact we, and others who loved Knight’s work, were able to purchase some of his original pieces.
The photo was taken when I decided to buy this original prehistoric-man oil painting, which Knight created for his book Prehistoric Man: The Great Adventure. Unfortunately (for me, anyway) my friend William Stout beat me in getting Knight’s classic Tyrannosaurus rex sculpture, cast in bronze (below).
But I was able to get several more original Knight pieces — including a previously unpublished drawing of the ostrich-like dinosaur Struthiomimus, which appeared for the first time in print in my book The New Dinosaur Dictionary, the dust jacket of which features a photo of Sylvia’s own Tyrannosaurus sculpture.
Sylvia and I went on to co-author a book about the artist, Dinosaurs, Mammoths and Cavemen: The Art of Charles R. Knight (1982) Sylvia also organized a traveling exhibit of original Knight art pieces to coincide with the release of our book.