How you can use this image
This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
You can reproduce this image for non-commercial purposes and you are not able to change or modify it in any way.
Wherever you reproduce the image you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s) and the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other rights holders.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
Georges Cuvier was one of the world's greatest naturalists. His pioneering studies, comparing living creatures with fossils, helped to establish the fields of palaeontology and comparative anatomy. He also established 'extinction' as an accepted scientific phenomenon and is known for having opposed early theories of evolution, pre-Darwin, among many other achievements. He worked for most of his career at the Jardin des Plantes (later the National Museum of Natural History) in Paris, where he gave his first series of lectures in 1795. He refused an invitation to become a naturalist on Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt from 1798 to 1801, in order to continue his research there. Sir John Soane owned a copy of the first volume of 'The Animal Kingdom', the English translation of Cuvier's most famous work, 1817's 'Le Règne Animal', which was published in English in several volumes between 1827 and 1835.
In his 1835 description, Soane notes that this bust of Cuvier is 'said to be an excellent likeness', from which we can deduce that he never met Cuvier personally.
In addition to knowing of his scientific work, Soane may have admired Cuvier for his promotion of public museums and role in establishing provincial French universities and must have heard of him first-hand from Sir Thomas Lawrence. The fact that Cuvier was a surgeon general to Napoleon in 1815 may also have made him a figure of interest to Soane. Cuvier was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1806 but never visited England.
Sir John Soane’s Museum
London
Title
Baron Georges Cuvier (1769–1832)
Date
1827
Medium
plaster
Accession number
M306
Acquisition method
acquired by Sir John Soane, before 1837
Work type
Bust
Inscription description
inscribed on front: G. COUVIER; signed on the back: P MERLIEUX 1827
