Ad for Etsy Organ in House and Garden, Franklin Booth

American artist Franklin Booth, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was known for his marvelously intricate pen and ink illustrations, a style that came largely from the young artist confusing images in magazines that were done in wood engraving with pen and ink drawings.

Here, he pulls out the stops (oh, how I delight in that pun) in his illustration for organ manufacturer Estey Organ, printed in House and Garden magazine in 1922.

Booth has created a stunningly beautiful fantasy of the music that will come from the organ — with lines that follow both the volume of the forms and the direction of movement and action. I love the swirls in the hair and the sheen of the draperies.

In addition, all of this modeling and rendering is done at an entire level of values that separates the cloud of imaginings from the darker rendering of the “reality” of the woman and the organ!

Wow.