A Clever Song About the Classic Chromolithographs of Cephalopods by Jean Baptiste Vérany
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Matthijs Van Mierlo of The Gaze created a clever song about the career of French artist Jean Baptiste Verany and his iconic chromolithographs of various cephalopods that were featured in his 1851 book Mollusques Mediteraneens.
Jean Baptiste Verany (1800-1865) was obsessed with cephalopods. And honestly, can you blame him? He even discovered a few new species while researching these sea creatures. Plus, the guy could seriously draw.
As the song states, these chromolithographs became quite famous when Victor Hugo copied one of the images for his 1866 novel Les Travailleurs de la mer (Toilers of the Sea), which made people afraid of these incredible sea creatures.
The novelist Victor Hugo was a fan, so he copied one of Verany's images and used it as the cover for his novel The Toilers of the Sea". While Verany described the creatures as incapable of harm," Hugo saw tentacles and thought perfect villain!" And so, the poor cephalopod got its bad reputation.
Thanks Jason Fields!