#theodore susemihl

[earlypalaeoart]

Deinotherium from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f179.item

[nocountryforiguanodon]

Once upon a time the plesiosaurs of France were snake-tongued anaconda-skinned tree-hugging land-lubbers (kind of). We have one by Théodore Susemihl (above) and other that seems to be attributed to Pierre Boitard (below). Both were illustrations for the science fiction of Boitard, a botanist and a geologist. However Susemihl created the first image for a shorter article in 1836, while the second appears in a posthumous novelized version of Boitard's story published in 1851. If you are fluent in French you can enjoy the original article Paris avant les hommes in the Google Books edition of Musée des Familles, starting from page 257: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mus%C3%A9e_des_familles/nKc_AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

From there the Susemihl/Boitard plesiosaur seems to have spread to Austria, into the painting Vorweltliche Landschaft by Leander Russ (1842), and survived long enough to appear on the cover of Le Pélerin in 1922. A respectable run in the pre-Internet times. If you manage to find more of these amphibious spotted plesiosaurs somewhere, please let me know. They may yet have a future...

[earlypalaeoart]

Pterodactyls by Théodore Susemihl, in Pierre Boitard, “Paris avant les hommes” [Paris before man], 1st article, Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir , volume III, June 1836, 257-281.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mus%C3%A9e_des_familles/nKc_AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

[earlypalaeoart]

Megatherium from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f291.item

[earlypalaeoart]

Plesiosaur by Théodore Susemihl, in Pierre Boitard, "Paris avant les hommes" [Paris before man], 1st article, Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, volume III, June 1836, 257-281.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mus%C3%A9e_des_familles/nKc_AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

[earlypalaeoart]

Megatherium by Théodore Susemihl, in Pierre Boitard, "Paris avant les hommes" [Paris before man], 1st article, Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir , volume III, June 1836, 257-281.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mus%C3%A9e_des_familles/nKc_AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

[earlypalaeoart]

Plesiosaur from Paris avant les hommes (Paris Before Man) by Pierre Boitard after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f88.item

[earlypalaeoart]

Mammoth from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f277.item

[earlypalaeoart]

Woolly Siberian rhino from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f271.item

[earlypalaeoart]

Palaeotherium from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f198.item

[earlypalaeoart]

Asaphus buchii trilobite life restoration from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f54.item

[earlypalaeoart]

"Fossil rhinoceros" by Théodore Susemihl, in Pierre Boitard, “Paris avant les hommes” [Paris before man], 1st article, Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir , volume III, June 1836, 257-281.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mus%C3%A9e_des_familles/nKc_AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

[earlypalaeoart]

Dinotherium giganteum by Pierre Boitard, 1837, “Paris avant les hommes” [Paris before man], 2nd article, Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir , volume V, November 1837, 45-63.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/OUZAAAAAcAAJ?gbpv=0

[earlypalaeoart]

Anoplotherium from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f207.item

[earlypalaeoart]

"Grand et petit pterodactyles" [Large and small pterodactyls] from Paris avant les hommes [Paris Before Man] written and illustrated by Pierre Boitard, after Théodore Susemihl

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 with art by Susemihl

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6416941b/f109.item

[earlypalaeoart]

"Période anthropique: Dernier âge paléontologique - Apparition de l'homme" [Anthropic Period: Last Paleontological Age - Appearance of Man]

from Paris avant les hommes (Paris Before Man) by Pierre Boitard

Published posthumously as a novel with updated illustrations in 1861, first published in Musée des Familles – Lectures du Soir, 1836-1837 and illustrated by Théodore Susemihl

https://www.trussel.com/prehist/boitarde.htm