Category: Bookshelf
On My Bookshelf…The Arabian Nights
The Arabian Nights, with illustrations by Detmold. This Folio edition was first published in 1924.
Edward Julius Detmold was born in 1883 in London, with a twin, Charles Maurice. They were both prolific Victorian illustrators and precociously talented – their watercolours being exhibited in the Royal Academy at 13. Their familial interests in both natural history and Japanese woodprints nurtured their talents and both these and Art Nouveau elements can be seen influencing their work.
This is a more sparse book, illustratively speaking, and again a very different style to the art of my other Folio editions of classic children’s literature. They are soft and muted, almost representing the hazy heat of the Arabic fantasy world.
Certainly the love of depicting animals is clear, and these stand out even amongst the main characters – 8 out of the 12 plates has an animal as the focus.
On My Bookshelf…Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales
This week it’s another of my treasured Folio editions, the classic Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, as illustrated by William Heath Robinson.
This is the 1918 version of the tales written between 1835 and 1872. It was this book that first introduced me to William Heath Robinson’s illustrative work and the main reason I like this book.
Robinson was born in 1872 to an artist family, including 2 brothers who were also illustrators. He’s actually most famous for his humourous cartoons, particularly of eccentric machines and gadgets.
Although there are several colour plates, for my tastes I am much fonder of the more numerous black and white illustrations. Much of the illustrative content of this book is populated by cherubic little plump children amid pastel pastoral scenes, but as a cartoonist there is also much humour in Robinson’s work. The animals are particularly charming.
It altogether lacks the darkness of Rackham’s Brother’s Grimm, but then that’s down to Andersen I suppose. Still there’s a modernity I like, and an inventive interpretation in many characters which is adorable.
Thanks to Wikipedia
On My Bookshelf…The Lion’s Cavalcade
Hurrah it arrived!
Every bit as lovely as the other two.
The story is not quite along the same formula as the previous editions (bugs have a rave up, birds get jealous, have their own rave up) though I won’t split hairs. This time we have a grumpy lion but one who won’t lower himself to imitate such riff raff.
Leonis, King of the Jungle, was feeling low and jaded.
All the radiant colours of his inner rainbow faded.
Instead he decrees there shall be a Cavalcade. I’m not sure why that’s different. But it makes pretty pictures.
The Lion’s Cavalcade was of course illustrated by Alan Aldridge, in collaboration with Harry Willock alongside verses by Ted Walker. First published in 1980, it is based on the 1808 poem The Lion’s Masquerade and Elephant’s Champêtre credited to ‘A Lady’. How charming.
I’m almost tempted to say the detail and humour in these illustrations surpass the two prequels.
Still a lovely combination of light and shade, there are not only beasts but also little demons and gargoyles in many plates. When the Cavalcade finally begins:
All huge events of HISTORY
Went past, as though they’d never cease:
Creation’s every mystery
Of Love and Beauty, Harmony, Peace –
Till Demons of Black Havoc and Satan’s Law
Dragged Rhino in as Mars, the God of WAR.
Transmogrified, the Tiger Lily prowls
Through thickets where the watchful Dog Rose growls
At Puss Moth poised to spring on dainty paws
From ripe Crab Apples armed with pincering claws
Finally, after the sour faced Lion remains unimpressed, it is piggy who saves the day. Dressed up as a porcine King of the Fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, no less.
On My Bookshelf…East of The Sun and West of The Moon
First off, let me start by saying it’s hard for me to put into words how much I love this book, and Kay Nielsen’s work. I have aways had a big fascination for all the great polytheistic mythological traditions, but Norse mythology has, for me, a particular strange and other-worldliness. The fact that this particular volume of Old Tales from the North is illustrated by Nielsen makes it especially precious to me. To that end, even though I have taken photographs of my favorite 8 plates from the book, I have found much better images of some of them online, so I use them here, with links to their sources. Just because, if you don’t know his work, I don’t want your first introduction to be through my crappy camera-phone snaps. They’re way too brilliant for that.
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe’s Norske Folkeeventyr (Norwegian Folk Tales) first appeared during the 1840s. the majority were translated into English by Sir George Dasent and his Popular Tales From the North was published in 1859. 15 of them appear in this 1914 edition illustrated by Nielsen. It is a fabulous book, full of trolls and giants and bewitched talking polar bears.
Kay Nielsen was a Danish illustrator, born in Copenhagen in 1886. Born to a theatrical family he had his artistic training in Paris before moving to England in 1911. He illustrated many volumes of children’s fairy tales including the Brothers Grimm, Hans Anderson, and Charles Perrault. In 1939 he went to Hollywood and worked for Disney for 4 years, completing works for Fantasia and concept art for The Little Mermaid that would not be used until 1989.
There is a sad end to Nielsen’s life. He returned to Denmark in 1941 after being let go from Disney, but found there was no longer a demand for his work. His final years were spent in poverty. Before his wife’s death a year after his, she gave his remaining illustrations to Frederick Monhoff who in turn tried to place them in museums. However, none – American or Danish – would accept them at the time.
In researching this book and Kay Nielsen himself, I find in several websites that he is considered one of a ‘golden triumvirate’ of illustrators along with Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac (not that they’re weren’t several other wonderful and celebrated illustrators working at the time too). This is interesting as I find his work very different to the others. One of the reasons is that the colour images for East of the Sun and West of the Moon were reproduced by a 4-colour process, in contrast to many of the illustrations prepared by his contemporaries that characteristically utilised a traditional 3-colour process.
But it’s more than just technicalities. I am reminded of Erté and Harry Clarke – the long elegant characters with angular features, the big scale landscapes with these tall inhabitants, the detail in the clothes and fabrics. Very Art Deco, ahead of their time. I think it’s tragic that Kay Nielsen’s popularity diminished in his lifetime, but I hope that there is still a stong love for his beautiful, haunting work amongst his fans now.
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