Happy 201, Mr. Poe

It has come to my attention that Poe's 201st birthday was this past week (Jan. 19th). I'm a big fan of Poe imagery. In 2007 I put together a book collecting illustrations of his works— it gave me a new avenue to explore in regards to illustration collections, grouping by theme rather than artist. I enjoy this approach, with four titles so far, and a fifth on the way soon. But Poe will always be my first...

There are some stand-out samples in the Poe Illustrated collection. Dulac's pieces are amazing, I showed one just a few weeks ago, and I'll put up a Poe portrait here that appears to be a Dulac etching . There is some nice color work by Byam Shaw, a British Illustrator who went on to found an Art School, and Harry Clarke's nearly definitive work on Poe. Then there are some really inspired ink pieces by a young William Heath Robinson (1872-1944). Robinson was one of three successful illustrator brothers who all did book illustration. Most of William Heath's latter work relied heavily on satire, humor, and some crazy imaginative inventions. I called these images inspired because they are not his usual material or even style, he hadn't really settled on that yet at this point in his career. These pieces are highly influenced by the Art Nouveau movement that would have been going strong at the time (1900), and are more decorative than most of W. H. Robinson's latter works. He pulls off the mix of his own storytelling with the style of the day fantastically. The small book these pieces came from contains scores of beautiful line pieces, Including some incredible full page plates. Here's a couple of my faves, and a link to the whole thing on pdf.

http://www.archive.org/details/poemsillustrated00poeerich

There's a lot more to tell about the brothers Robinson. I'll try to get back to W. H., Charles, and Thomas Heath, in the near future.

Before Rackham, Pyle, and Pogány, there was Crane.

Happy New Year. I've been away for a bit, holidays and all that. Let's get back to business. Books in the pipe- a selection of Maxfield Parrish imagery is going through final press stages, and my book on H. J. Ford is about ready to head to the printer. A few weeks ago I announced an upcoming project on Walter Crane (1845-1915), and promised a peek at what makes him interesting. Let's get to that now.


-----
The thing that makes Crane stand out the most, is that he was one of the first—predating H. J. Ford, even. His early children's work changed and developed as printing technology did, with heavy lines and flat color at first, where the work of his last two volumes more closely resembled the fully rendered paintings he produced in the latter part of his career. All throughout, he was a great advocate of the decorated book, and produced many publications that showcased his skills from title-page to end.
He did not look back to the Pre-Raphaelites, they were his contemporaries. While an illustrator trying to enter the fine art market is a rare and difficult task now, Crane did well in both areas, concurrently. His imaginative work ran the gamut between nursery rhymes to classic mythology. His styles ranged from simple line to full-blown oils to design and patterns. He was in-step with the active art scene of the day, but found commercial outlets that made him highly successful.
-------
There is a LOT of material on Crane out there, but here are a few of the better links to the tip of the iceberg-
Crane at Artmagick
at Artcyclopedia
At the Elizabeth Nesbitt room

The H. J. Ford poster...

As promised to my "Lucky 13"...you know who you are... I'm excited about the new H.J. Ford project, and I selected an image that showed up here on VIEW a few weeks ago to show just how much intensity still exists in these 100 year old ink drawings... Here's the poster, formatted to 11x17, though posted here as a hi-res jpg. See what you can do with it. And a very Merry to you all.

Jeff

The More Sophistocated works of Dulac

When looking at the main players in Golden Age illustration, there are a number of different schools to look at. The Brandywine is a school all unto itself. There are illustrators of the same era, like Charles Dana Gibson and Howard Chandler Christy, who created imagery of the day, not the fanciful stuff I tend to look at here. The European group, was a whole different entity. When looking at children's book work, fairy tales, and gift books, the British publishers really had a firm hold on the best illustrators at the turn of the century. Leading that charge was Arthur Rackham. If there was any other persona that might even approach him, it was Edmund Dulac.
Last post I put forth a selection of images from one of Dulac's earliest books—a self-written project at that—which had some great characters, beautifully simple compositions, and brilliant palettes, but lacked the sophistication his later works would obtain. Here I will show you some of that range, from a few of my favorite Dulac books.

Bells is an image I found on a greeting card back in 1979. Even as a teen I found that image riveting. I filed it away, only to come across it decades later, in an AMAZING book of Poe's poetry, that contains dozens of beautiful color plates by Dulac. When the book was handed to me, it sparked the notion that a book of images inspired by Poe might be possible...It was the first book I was able to do on a number of themes.

From the same book is the image from the poem Eldorado— I wanted to use this image on the cover, it was turned down because the publisher wanted a scene that had more recognition as a famous Poe tale....

Dulac loved to do work with Eastern influence. Later in his career, his style actually resembled that of Asian print works and paintings. He did many versions of The Arabian Nights, and stories that originated there. These are two of my favorite plates. Notice the smile on her face as she boils the thief alive... many wouldn't even notice his writhing hand...

In all his fairy tale work, this piece from Andersen's "The Wind's Tale" really catches me. The space, the soft color, and the way he has actually managed to draw the wind. How cool is that?

------------------------

I've kept you all waiting a while. Tomorrow there will be a small Seasonal gift from V I E W to you—I have a mini-poster for my new book on H. J. Ford's work. It was designed to print 11x17. Let me know if the post works, I may be able to do more in the future.
Ring out those Solstice Bells!!

Jeff