The squid Loligopsis Veranii

 Loligopsis Veranii (B. 564), watercolour 2011 (c. 30 x 20 cm)

 I felt challenged to do a study on the squid  Loligopsis Veranii, or more precisely: to do a study of its image as it is produced and reproduced over and over again.

The original design starts in the mid nineteenth century.  In 1851 Jean Baptiste Vérany, published his “Mollusques méditeranéens”. Our squid is then pictured at plate # 38. 

Father and son Blaschka based a glass model of this species on this very image, and a photograph of it can be found on the site of the Corning Museum of Glass. 

In the  Blaschka sales cataloge for the 1880s it was offered as model # 564.

Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist  and inspriration of Jugendstil (which mor or less equals to "German Art Nouveau")  presented the shape of this squid as natural beauty.

He was driven to stimulate the decorative arts  by means of the images and shapes found in nature in his Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in nature). In this Album, published in installments in the period 1899-1904, our squid is pictured at plate # 54. 

And here is my study, at last.