There are still treasures to find

While I'm still tied up in a crazy amount of work, I've had to find a way to mention some of the things that have happened this past few weeks—and—share an amazing Golden Age find with you.

In the last week I spent four days at Illuxcon, in Altoona, PA. If you are unfamiliar with the name, it is a convention focused on art—particularly—that of the genre coming to be known as Imaginative Realism. (A term made relevant by the esteemed artist and author James Gurney) It is traditional work that is featured here; while digital imagery maintains a presence in lectures and discussion, original paintings are the stars of this show.

I mention the show here because almost no other audience than the people working in this field has a greater appreciation of the art I discuss on VIEW. There is a lot of cross-referencing and respect for Golden Age material. The mission of Illuxcon, it's benefit and support to those working in the field, is unsurpassed. If you are a fan of this material on VIEW, you would undoubtedly appreciate and enjoy what they are doing at Illuxcon as well. You can check them out at http://www.illuxcon.com/

Next years show is being moved to the Allentown Art Museum during the month of September. Sign up To their facebook page here.

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A while back, I introduced you to the French artist Maurice Boutet de Monvel, and his book The Story of Joan of Arc. Now I have news of another French illustrator and a magnificent book published in 1910…    A good friend recently emailed me that she had stumbled on a book at a library fundraiser that she thought I would really like. I kept my expectations low, as I'm often directed towards books I’m already aware of, but this turned out to be the kind of thing I’m hungry for. Thanks, Mary.

Maurice Lalau (1881-1961) appears to be well-regarded in France, but it is not a name I have come across much before. (Dover does print an edition of East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon that contains a few of his illustrations, but they do not compare in quality to these)

The book that seems to be one of the highlights of his career is this Heinemann (who was also publishing Rackham at the time) volume titled The Romance of Tristan and Iseult. It contains 20 color plates, and some beautifully drawn illustrative cap letters.  Text by Joseph Bédier. The color work has some brilliant range for the period, the draftsmanship—especially the architecture—is remarkable, and the emotion behind these illustrations might bring more comparisons to J. W. Waterhouse than other book illustrators of the period. While The Romance of Tristan and Iseult appears to be quite scarce, I’m not the first to blog about it, and if you thirst for more of these images, the whole group has been posted here. (where you can also find some comments about the color in my Dover books…I think I may need to address that one week…)

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Still looking for three more followers until the book giveaway. Sign on if you haven’t, and comment or message me that you are interested in free art books…