Henry Chandler Cowles & Pitcher’s Thistle

Oil on canvas, 30"x40"

This painting portrays Henry Chandler Cowles, a founder of modern ecology, during his fieldwork in the Indiana Dunes. Cowles developed the concept of ecological succession through careful observation of how plant communities change over time, often beginning with fragile, wind-shaped species growing directly in sand.

Here, Cowles is shown attending to pitcher’s thistle, a rare Great Lakes dune plant and one of the species central to his studies. Rather than presenting a formal portrait, the work focuses on the quiet act of attention itself: a human figure embedded within the landscape he sought to understand, not dominate.

The painting emphasizes restraint, atmosphere, and relationship—between scientist and subject, between human presence and a living system in motion. The dunes are not depicted as static scenery, but as a shifting environment shaped by wind, time, and succession, mirroring the ideas Cowles helped bring into scientific consciousness.

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