The ring upon thy hand — / … ah, be implored! / For Wotan fling it away! (from Götterdämmerung) One of the many beautiful and sensitively realized illustrations the brilliant “Golden Age” British illustrator Aurhur Rackham did of the stories from Richard Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” series of operas. From this set on Wikimedia Commons. For […]
Illustration from Wagner’s The Valkyrie, Arthur Rackham From The Golden Age Site. Another beautiful classic from the Golden Age of Illustration. They don’t call it the Golden Age for nothing. For more, see my previous posts on Arthur Rackham, and here and here.
Rhinegold and the Valkyries, page 28, by Arthur Rackham Image from Wikimedia Commons For more on Rackham, and additional links to images and resources, see my most recent post on Authur Rackham.
Arthur Rackham was one of the greatest illustrators of the turn of the 20th century Golden Age of Illustration, that is to say one of the greatest illustrators of all time. Though many are familiar with his beautiful illustrations for Rip van Winkle (images above, top), which established his reputation, and Gulliver’s Travels, as well […]
British book illustrator Arthur Rackham, who was active from the late 1800’s to the 1930’s, was one of the all time great illustrators and one of my favorites. He was particularly noted for his illustrations of children’s books. Whatever he tackled, Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, Rip van Winkle, The Wind in the Willows, […]
William Heath Robinson, who signed his pictures “W. Heath Robinson”, was an English illustrator, cartoonist, author and watercolorist known in particular for his wry cartoons and his series of drawings depicting unlikely and complicated contraptions for accomplishing mundane tasks. Here in the U.S. we associate the latter with American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, but Robinson was […]
Discovering art that you love by artists whose work is new to you can be a little like meeting a person to whom you’re romantically attracted — there’s an initial rush of infatuation that is so pleasurable the feeling can be addictive. Growing up in northern Delaware (in a house a few hundred yards from […]
Since its inception, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA has sought to expand its focus from a single artist to a relevant context and then more broadly to illustration in general. In that spirit, the museum, through its associated Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, has just launched a new web-based project: Illustration History: […]
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a new museum, scheduled to open in Chicago in 2018, that will house a collection of art owned by film director George Lucas. The collection and the museum are dedicated to art that, like film, is narrative in some way, telling stories whether overtly or by suggestion. This […]
Along with Alan lee, John Howe and the Hildebrant brothers, Canadian illustrator Ted Nasmith is one of the artists most associated with bringing to visual form the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It’s difficult now to see past the look established by the extremely popular movies, but that look was largely developed from existing sources in […]
Niroot Puttapipat is a London-based illustrator who uses the handle “Himmapaan”. His work shows his admiration for Golden Age illustrators like Arthur Rackham, Howard Pyle and Edmund Dulac, as well as natural history and paleontological greats like Charles R. Knight. Puttapipat works with a nice balance between detailed rendering and graphic shapes, particular in his […]
More “selfies” from the hands of artists from the past. Nary an iPhone among them. Images above (links to my posts): George Hendrik Breitner, Amedeo Modigliani, Arthur Rackham, Marie Bashkirtseff, Cornelis Visscher (with detail), Frédéric Bazille, Lorenzo Lotto, Pieter Claesz (with detail).
William M. Timlin was an English architect, illustrator and painter who spent most of his life in South Africa. In addition to his gallery art and periodical illustrations, Timlin wrote and illustrated a personal book project, originally intended for his son, titled The Ship that Sailed to Mars. Timlin worked on the project for two […]
It’s been a while since I checked in on fantasy and concept artist Ed Binkley, so I thought I’d pull back the deep forest undergrowth and see what’s happening under the leaves. The good news is that Binkley has posted additional images to his blog and his Holy-Men and Monsters gallery. Binkley’s wonderfully textural evocations […]
There is a sub-genre within Victorian painting, Golden Age illustration and contemporary fantasy art that is sometimes called faerie art or fairy art. It dwells on those imaginary miniature denizens of woodlands and fields who are often portrayed with pointed ears and gossamer wings. As much as I like some of the former two categories, […]
Cory Godbey is an illustrator and animator based in Greenville, South Carolina whose work utilizes elegant lines, stylized drawing and deep, carefully limited color palettes to achieve wonderful effect. He makes use of these strengths, as well as a rich imagination, in his illustrations of classic children’s stories as well as contemporary themes. I particularly […]
Based in Madrid, Spain, Felideus (pen name for Juan Parra) has worked as an art director, animator, screenwriter and graphic designer for film and video productions, and is now a freelance illustrator, designer and writer. As a writer and illustrator, Felideus has worked on book projects and in comic books. He works both in traditional […]
Scott Gustafson’s richly textured and intricately detailed illustrations are steeped in his admiration for great illustrators of the Golden Age like N.C. Wyeth, Normal Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and Arthur Rackham. Though he has had numerous commercial clients in his 25 year career, his fondness for those great classic illustrations, and the classic stories they often […]
Joe Fenton started in sculpture, moved into concept art for the film industry and then transitioned into children’s book illustration. He also creates the large scale drawings shown above, which I assume are gallery pieces. For these, Fenton works initially in a detailed graphite drawing, then works over that in ink and acrylic or gouache. […]
Heritage Auctions is an auction house that, like Sotheby’s, puts images of their items to be auctioned, notably including artworks, online in relatively high resolution. Unlike Sotheby’s (and Christie’s), Heritage doesn’t constrain its hi-res images to a zooming box; instead giving you a high res image that you can view as a whole. The tradeoff, […]