Continuing last week’s mission into the stacks, betweensocksandphilosophy requested “anything to do with King Arthur.”
Aubrey Beardsley was just barely into his 20s when he illustrated L’Morte D’Arthur and died only a few years later leaving behind iconic Art Nouveau illustrations for works by Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe. L’Morte D’Arthur was issued in twelve parts from 1893-1894 so The University of Iowa copy is bound into two volumes, “1893” and “1894.”
The birth, life and acts of King Arthur, of his noble knights of the Round table, their marvellous enquests and adventures, the achieving of the San Greal, and in the end Le morte Darthur, with the dolourous death and departing out of this world of them all. The text as written by Sir Thomas Malory, and imprinted by William Caxton at Westminster the year MCCCCLXXXV, and now spelled in modern style. With an introduction by Professor Rhys and embellished with many original designs by Aubrey Beardsley. [Edinburgh, Printed by Turnbull & Spears] 1894.
Poe Visualized by Harry Clarke
From the 1919 deluxe edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Harry Clarke reached deep into those dark, flinching corners underneath the bed and ripped out the grotesque horrors that lurked within, creating these macabre illustrations that accompanied Poe’s disturbing classics like “The Pit and the Pendulum” and the “The Telltale Heart” perfectly. In the same vein as Stephen Gammell’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark monstrosities decades later, these illustrations are sufficient evidence that while some stories can be even more frightening when left to your imagination, it takes a truly visceral artist to give those shadows form and really scare the bejeezus out of you.
(via: fastcodesign / io9)
Harry Clarke
Henry Patrick (Harry) Clarke, Ireland’s most renowned stained-glass artist, was born in Dublin on March 17th, 1889. His father, Joshua, arrived in Dublin from Leeds in 1877 and established a decorating business. The business, Joshua Clarke & Sons, later expanded to include a stained glass division. The young Harry grew up with a studio at the back of his home at 33 North Frederick Street. In 1903 Clarke’s mother, Brigid, died at the age of forty-three, when Harry was fourteen years old. This event greatly affected Harry, as his mother had been his closest confidant. He left Belvedere College and became apprenticed to his father’s studio (Bowe: 1994).
By his late teens Harry was studying stained glass at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In 1911 he won a gold medal from the Board of Education National Competition at South Kensington, London, for his window the Consecration of St. Mel, Bishop of Longford, by St. Patrick (The Irish Times: August 19 1911). This was the first of three consecutive gold medals that Harry won at the National Competitions for his stained glass panels.
Harry set about getting commissions in stained glass. Laurence, know as ‘Larky’, Waldron, a Nationalist MP and Governor of Belvedere College, became an influential friend and patron of Harry’s from the summer of 1912. In 1913 Harry went to London to secure a publisher for his book illustrations. By Christmas of 1913 Harry had secured his first commission from Harrap & Co., to illustrate the Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. It was published in 1916.
Although Harry did some work for his father at the Studios, he began to work on his own commissions for stained glass. Between 1915 and 1918 he created nine windows for the Honan Chapel. These magnificent windows were central to building a solid reputation for Harry’s skilled craftsmanship and originality. Other important commissions followed for windows in churches throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom. Harry also continued to illustrate books for the London publishers, Harrap, including Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1919) and The Year’s at the Spring (1920).
