26 Facts About Rudolph Zallinger

Rudolph Zallinger's painting of a Tyrannosaurus heavily influenced the creature design of Toho Studios' Godzilla.

Rudolph Zallinger made illustrations for Life magazine and illustrations for dinosaur books, which made more people aware of his mural work.

Rudolph Franz Zallinger was born in Irkutsk, Siberia in 1919 to Siberian refugees, Franz Xavier Zallinger and Maria Maria Zallinger.

Rudolph Zallinger graduated in 1942 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Rudolph Zallinger later got a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale university in 1971, and a Doctor of Fine Arts at the University of New Haven, in 1980.

Rudolph Zallinger worked as an instructor for five years, and then two more until 1950 as an assistant professor.

Rudolph Zallinger enrolled as a Fellow in Geology to study for his next work.

Rudolph Zallinger continued to work on projects, such as his Early History of Hartford.

Rudolph Zallinger used trees to divide it into the various periods of geologic time, as the chronology moves from right to left.

Rudolph Zallinger wanted to make a series of small paintings on the east wall, depicting what those skeletons would have looked like.

Lewis York, an art professor at the School of Fine Arts, suggested that Rudolph Zallinger would be up to the task.

In 1942, Rudolph Zallinger was hired to do this work, but he proposed to do a large-scale mural, rather than small individual paintings, yielding a panoramic timeline.

Rudolph Zallinger spent 6 months doing research, then created a sketch nearly 7 feet long, quite similar to the finished result.

Rudolph Zallinger painted it using the fresco-secco technique, most often used in the 15th century.

Rudolph Zallinger spent a long time researching and studying historic photos and their every detail to capture the moment of that fire.

In 1961, Rudolph Zallinger began work on the 60 by 5.5 feet mural on the south wall of the Hall of Mammalian Evolution in Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History.

However, this wasn't the only assignment Rudolph Zallinger received from Life.

Rudolph Zallinger first illustrated Ley's book, Worlds of the Past, published in 1971.

Rudolph Zallinger illustrated the book Dinosaurs for Golden Press in 1960.

Rudolph Zallinger's first award was an honorable mention for the Prix-de-Rome in 1941.

Rudolph Zallinger received the Addison Emery Verrill Medal for "outstanding contributions to the field of natural history," which was presented to him by A Bartlett Giamatti at a ceremony in the Great Hall on February 29,1980.

Rudolph Zallinger was the first non-scientist to receive this medal.

Rudolph Zallinger was given Doctor of Fine Arts by the university.

At 69 years old, Zallinger received the James E and Frances W Bent Award, which is given annually to a faculty member of the University of Hartford for "unusual creativity and innovation in the pursuit of his or her scholarship".

Rudolph Zallinger's wife was an American artist and children's book illustrator for dozens of books.

Rudolph Zallinger died on August 1,1995, of cancer in Branford, Connecticut.