Charles Darwin HMS Beagle Cartoon Naturally Selected for Auction

Charles Darwin is back in the news for the second time in as many weeks. The Origin of Species was just voted the most influential academic book of all time. Now a watercolor from 1832 depicting Darwin and the crew of the Beagle is expected to fetch between $75,000 to $105,000 when it is auctioned by Sotheby’s on December 15th.

The painting is attributed to Augustus Earle, who was hired as a shipboard artist, reports the Guardian. It shows Darwin examining specimens being hauled aboard the ship. The painting’s title is Quarter Deck of a Man of War on Diskivery of interesting Scenes on an Interesting Voyage, and it is believed that Earle painted the cartoon to amuse the Beagle’s crew, many of which dismissed Darwin’s work as ‘absolute rubbish’. This is not the first piece of Darwin memorabilia to go to auction this year. In September a letter that the naturalist wrote repudiating the Bible was sold for almost $200,000.