Charles Knight Collection

Charles Knight Collection

Knight was a master of the depiction of nature and a pioneer in the art of "re-animating" long-extinct and unfamiliar animals. More than any other artist, he has framed our views of life in the distant past. Knight's murals depicting ancient life grace the halls of America's greatest natural history museums, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Field Museum in Chicago.

Since April 21, 2007, the Florida Museum has displayed seven study paintings and a self-portrait by renowned paleo-artist  (1874–1953) in the Hall of Florida Fossils. Knight completed the paintings, on loan from his granddaughter Rhoda Knight Kalt of New York, nearly a century ago as studies for some of his famous large murals. They include many animals that once lived in Florida, and Knight visited the state many times throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.