Quentin Blake (b. 1932)
'Darwin's Beetles'
2016

Pen, ink, watercolour paper, signed.
277 x 390mm

An alternative version from a series of designs produced by Quentin for window blinds installed at Cambridge University's Museum of Zoology in 2016. The blinds are visible from the outside of the David Attenborough Building on Pembroke Street; the designs showcase Quentin's humour and love of the natural world and depict museum specimens including a Finback Whale, inspired by the 70-foot skeleton held by the museum; the Aldabra Giant Tortoise, patiently posing for its portrait; and Charles Darwin collecting beetles from the fields around Cambridge.

As Quentin, explained: 'I was given lots and lots of unusual material and was able to choose among that. They gave me pictures of the creatures, but the stories that go with them were particularly good, and I chose those that had stories: Darwin and the beetles is particularly good. He had two beetles and wanted to get hold of a third, so put one into his mouth, and it spurted acid down his throat and he lost them. It's stories like that that bring it alive to people'.

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