John Austen - Art Nouveau Illustrator influenced by Aubrey Beardsley

John Austen

1886-1948

This post looks at one of the Golden Age's least known illustrators and yet one of the most artful.

The Golden Age of Illustration ran from approximately 1870 until 1920 and was a time when books were illustrated with the effort and talent seen in matserpeice artworks. Top nakes included Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. 

John Austen produced relatively few artworks, dedicating his time and skill to each work to truly make it his own. He was heavily influenced by the art-nouveau illustrator Aubrey Beardsley whose works were sometimes macabre and sometimes erotic.

Below are two of the best

example of Austen's works. Maybe these beautiful images will influence you to go in search of his works.

Everyman

1925

Hamlet

Circa 1920 

 Thanks for reading and I'd love it if you could share this with people who might be interested!

The Illustrations and Art of Charles Heath Robinson - An Antique Books Guide

Charles Robinson is one of the most notable Golden Age illustrators - a group of book illustrators recognized for their talent and popularity between 1870 and 1930 (approx). He is one of three brothers, with the other two also being illustrators - the renowned William Heath Robinson and the lesser known Thomas Heath Robinson.

He is also perhaps the best line-artist, capable of producing beautiful art-nouveau line drawings of immense detail, along with bright and energetic colour illustrations too. This post aims to showcase just a fraction of his repertoire for you, in the hope that you too might come to appreciate the talent of this extraordinary illustrator. I shall display his renowned black and white illustrations for various fairy-tale stories along with the popular colour plates that have helped to make him a household name in children's book illustrations.

Blog article about the Golden Age Illustrators:

http://anantiquebooksguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-golden-age-illustrators-arthur.html

Blog article about C. Robinson's edition of Alice in Wonderland:

http://anantiquebooksguide.blogspot.com/2014/09/1907-alices-adventures-in-wonderland-by.html

First up is one volume in the 'The True Annals of Fairlyand' set - a stunning series that spanned several books of various design, all featuring the beautiful black and white and colour plates in first edition form.

These books either have gilt covers (as above) or highly decorative pictorial covers - later editions generally.

The title page and frontispiece are usually intricate and feature a colour plate in most first editions.

Illustrations throughout are then in black and white, showcasing C. Robinson's strength as a line-artist.

'The Suitors of Aprille' is a rarer title and more obscure but no less beautiful.

Here are the pictorial covers that are so sought after in early editions.

Note again the double-title page/ frontispiece combo and the intricate line-drawings.

'The Happy Prince' is a work by Oscar Wilde and features a beautiful colour plate as the frontispiece.

The covers are striking yet simple.

The illustrations is in typical art-nouveau fairy-tale style.

Another 'Annals of Fairyland' title, this time a slightly later edition yet featuring all of the beautiful illustrations.

The covers hide the beauty inside.

The title page is ornate and similar to the other titles above in that both pages are lavishly illustrated with monochrome line-drawings.

Many chapter pages feature full-page illustrations of incredible intricacy.

And now, Charles Robinson's finest work: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,

The first edition of this book is dripping with C. Robinson style and is perhaps the best illustrated edition of Alice in Wonderland, rivaling even Arthur Rackham's acclaimed edition.

The covers are gilded intricately.

The title page embraces the playing card theme that comes into the book near the end.

The colour plates are simple but bursting with vibrancy and suit the innocence of the tale perfectly.

The line-drawings are nexpectedly beautiful, with incredibly intricate scenes as usual.

Thanks, as ever, for reading and please share/ take a look at my other posts if you found this interesting.

Kay Nielsen - Fairy Tales and Illustrations - An Antique Books Guide

 

Kay Nielsen 
Danish Illustrator
1886-1957

Kay Nielsen is one of the world's greatest ever book illustrators.

Often ranked alongside Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, Kay's artwork reflects the core principles of the Art-Nouveau movement and remains one of the finest examples of book illustration ever produced. The Golden Age of illustration, running from the 1880's to the early 1920's was a time when books became artworks and illustration was really transformed into an art form. Previously colour and black and white illustration could only be simple affairs with basic shading and creativity limited by the printing and engraving process.

With the invention of the new four-colour printing process, Kay Nielsen became one of the true illustration pioneers and produced an array of glorious dream-like colour illustrations for books ranging from Andersen's Fairy Tales' to the renowned 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'. Characterized by haunting ethereal scenes with elegant costumes, exotic backdrops and fantastic creatures, his illustrations have gained such acclaim that a single illustration taken from one of his books can be sold and framed.

Now coveted amongst collectors, Kay Nielsen's few and sought-after books offer a glimpse into a time when days of work went into a single illustration and books took years to illustrated.  Perhaps because of the time care that went into the illustrations they still look beautiful today. Below I have selected two of Kay's best known books and I hope that this tribute illustrates the best of his work for you to appreciate. Each illustration could provide an essay's worth of analysis and description but I think that I will let the pictures themselves do the talking.

East of the Sun and West of the MoonIllustrated by Kay Nielsen
George H. Doran publishers
Circa 1914

Hans Christian's Fairy Tales
Illustrated by Kay Nielsen
Garden City Publishing Company
Circa 1920