Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patricks predecessors






This is just a quick stop-by. I'm loading the car/truck/vehicle to get to Lunacon In Rye, N.Y. tomorrow. But it has been on my mind all week that back in December I commented that I'd put up some more Celtic myth work from Stephen Reid, for St. Patricks day. So let me stick to that. Here's to the old gods.
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As promised, I have more Celtic mythology from Scottish illustrator Stephen Reid. (1873-1948)
When I last mentioned his work, back on December 18th, I had just gotten my hands on one of two volumes of Celtic themed work that Reid did over a century ago. In what I can find of his other works, very few of them achieve the fluid forms that these pieces seem to capture, and his palette is diverse enough, yet still totally natural. This group of images is from the more recent acquisition—and a really tough one to get a hold of—Cuchulain, The Hound of Ulster, by Eleanor Hull, 1910. (Which seems to have also gone by the title The Boys' Cuchulain)

It seems that there were many reprints, and it is certainly easy enough to find a print-on-demand copy these days, but finding an early edition with all 16 plates in color, that's a challenge. As luck would have it, even this copy, showed up missing a plate. So close.

Jeff

1 comment:

Larry MacDougall said...

Beautiful - thanks Jeff.