Venerable Clock

One of the most beautiful clocks in the world is in Prague at the Old Town Square, and is an astounding 600 years young. Follow this link over to Histories of Things to Come to see an INCREDIBLE video clip celebrating the venerable astronomical clock's anniversary. And then stick around to read the rest of the blog and follow its links. To me, this blog is one of the most interesting stopovers I make every day.

Once Upon a Time

Ann Macbeth — Once Upon a Time — 1902

Ann Macbeth was best known in her time for outstanding embroidery and needleweaving, wielding a needle like an illustrator wields a pen. But she learned to use the pen first, sharpening her drawing skills before turning to textiles. Her drawing samples are very hard to find — the one above rendered when she was 27 years old, while a student at the Glasgow School of Art, yet starting to teach in the embroidery department.

Nocturne

The Belle Époque, French for Beautiful Era—the turning of the 19th century to the 20th—was a graceful time, graphically. So many examples abound from this time.

If I could go back anywhere in time, it would be from that era up to the early 30s, assuming I could avoid the war. . . and the depression . . . and the influenza . . . well, okay, I'd be real careful, armed with a detailed history book and lots of local currency. I would want to visit with Einstein and then peruse all the book stalls and newsstands, and then, and then . . . I dunno, shoot Hitler or something.

H. Granville Fell — Nocturne — 1897

When and where would you go? What would you do?

Cigarettes Egyptiennes

There was a time when advertising, and even the act of smoking itself, was a refined and aesthetic experience . . .

Charles Loupot — cigarette brand poster — 1919

The hand-drawn typography is superbly appropriate.

Mad for Mingo

Norman Mingo was the main cover artist for Mad Magazine, during my formative years. Who knew back then that he was a mainstream illustrator . . .

His Mad covers are definitive and classic. His original cover paintings are selling for HUGE amounts of money!

Here's an interesting bio blurb about Mingo from Wikipedia:

Norman Theodore Mingo (20 January 1896 – 8 May 1980) was a commercial artist and illustrator. He is most famous for being commissioned to formalize the image of Alfred E. Neuman forMad.

A prolific magazine illustrator in the Norman Rockwell vein, Mingo resided in the Chicago area for numerous decades before latterly retiring to Tarrytown, New York. In his pre-Mad years, he worked as an illustrator for various advertising agencies and magazines, including American Weekly, Ladies' Home Journal and Pictorial Review. He provided a bikinied pin-up girl for a 1946 Mennen Skin Bracer advert, signed with his distinctive Mingo script. In addition to pin-up art, he also illustrated for paperbacks (Pocket Books) and paper dolls (Deanna Durbin).

In 1956 Mingo answered a New York Times ad for an illustrator, and was selected by Mad publisher William M. Gaines and editor Al Feldstein to create a warmer, more polished version of a public domain character the magazine had been using. Previously, the magazine had printed a rougher image and redrawings of the character, which were randomly dubbed "Melvin F. Coznowski" or "Mel Haney" in addition to "Alfred E. Neuman." The pollyannic simpleton had appeared in many guises and variations since the 1800s, including in dental advertisements that assured the public of minimal tooth-pulling pain. Permanently named Alfred E. Neuman, the character became Mad magazine's mascot with issue #30. In November 2008, Mingo's original cover featuring the first "official" portrait of Neuman sold at auction for $203,150.

Norman Mingo crafted several Mad covers in 1956-7 before leaving the magazine. He returned to Mad in 1962 and painted most of its front covers until 1976. His last Mad cover appeared on issue #211 (December 1979). Fellow cover artists Jack Rickard and Bob Jones have remarked that Mingo was the only one who could paint the Neuman character perfectly 'on model' every time.

A born again Christian, Mingo began signing his covers (executed in watercolours) with the ichthys beneath his name in 1975, beginning with Mad #174.

Although Mingo has been named as the artist who created the definitive Neuman face, he created a dramatic variation in 1979—after the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. With an exaggerated version of the meltdown in the background, on the cooling towers, Alfred abandons his trademark grin and says, "Yes...me worry!"

Semi-retired when he took his first Mad magazine cover assignment, Norman Mingo was the only veteran of the First World War ever to write or draw for Mad.

Armchair Dreaming

I often wished that Norman Rockwell would have painted more historical, or even fanciful artwork, more in the vein of Mucha. Ah well—but he did offer hints of what that would look like. This Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover is dated late winter, but its content might as well be for gathering autumn.

Armchair dreaming in front of the fire is a lovely activity that I highly recommend.

The sparkling spoon atop the medicine bottle is a superb detail

Chivalry echoes deep throughout the ages, and these days is lost in the tumultuous banality of everyday life, but forever resides in quaint volumes waiting to be rediscovered by empathetic souls.

As a boy, I found the above old Saturday Evening Post at the bottom of a stack of meaningless ephemera, in a book shop. Then later that same day, in a different store, I found the quaint 1895 volume below tucked in a dark corner just waiting to be rediscovered—not identical to Rockwell's rendering of the book, but close enough to spark my youthful sense of wonder.

Such were the days of my youth.

Raise the Barr

I really like George Barr artwork. It has an expressive sense of wonder that is so important to making fantasy stories come to life. The beautiful elven encounter below works so well with its decorative border.

Stroll through Mr. Barr's website by clicking here.

And below, a tip of the hat to Lew Jaffe at bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com for sending over this nifty bookplate, quite some time ago, in response to a George Barr post.

Time to Start Gazing

Apologies once again to Jack at his Enoch Bolles site, but I just have to post one more cover with a gaze that just Bolles me over. This cover has been posted elsewhere, but this is my scan from my file of favorite covers.

The Lady of 1000 Lovers

A hale and hearty hello to our cyber friend Jack over at the web log dedicated to the art of Enoch Bolles, which you can jump to by clicking here. I certainly don't mean to intrude on his territory, but he actually said I could, so I'm posting a 1920s Enoch Bolles cover that seems quite different from Bolles' usual portfolio of light and spicy pin-up covers.

What may lack in action here, to me, is made up for with the mood and atmosphere of the painting. The use of the light source's color and direction indicates that these two are in front of a fireplace, but what's going on? Is she dead, alive, swooned? And he looks worried, like things ain't goin' well. Yada yada.

I catch a hint of a J.C. Leyendecker influence, not just in their features, but also in the paint modeling. I like the darkness and warm coloration and the dame looks pretty alluring as well. Go see Jack's site for a lively romp through all things Bolles.

Smile

This has got to be one of the most bizarre magazine covers of the 20th century. The name of the magazine translates as Smile, and I translate the caption as saying:

—It was the best of women

—Now, Sir, we are confident
I assume with the cannibalistic belief that you take on the qualities of the vanquished eaten. Oy.

Auguste Roubille —Le Sourire — July 10, 1913

Read the comments for a more accurate translation.

Autumnal and Mysterious

Though it has nothing to do with Fall or Halloween, here is an enigmatic illustration that feels autumnal and mysterious.

This drawing by Alfredo Montalti (1858-1928) is originally from C'era una Volta, a book of Italian fairy tales, published in Milan in 1885. This scan is from a rescued page from a decimated L'illustration periodical, carefully kept in my image morgue for many years. I was happy to find reference to it in Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen by Joseph Pennell.

Pennell's book, originally published in 1889, has been reprinted a number of times, and is interesting, not just for the variety of old ink drawings, but also for Pennell's forthright and candid opinions on this artist or that. He especially is derisive of 'modern' illustration techniques (which to our time seems wonderfully classic). But he likes this drawing.

This is what Pennell had to say about it:

". . . this is an example of decoration applied to book illustration. Not only does it illustrate a passage in the story, but it is given with the greatest amount of decorative feeling, and in a style which proves that there is no reason why we should be dependent on the decorative methods of other times save to carry on tradition. Conventional forms are the property of the world. it may be argued that there is no meaning in this decoration. Neither to me—and I am sure I speak for all artists who are honest—is there meaning in nearly all decoration except that of pleasure in the beauty of the design. We may be told in Smith's Classical Dictionary, or in any of those useful cribs much affected by the cultured uplift artist, that such and such mysterious swirls and scrawls mean life and immortality, but we are not impressed by this hidden meaning; we only look to see if the line is well drawn—we do, but most do not; they are impressed with the details which have nothing to do with it at all.

Montalti's decorations at the side and top of his drawing are graceful. They many have been derived from old iron-work or from his inner consciousness. The result is pleasing and restful. The white circle behind the girl may be a swirl of life or the bull's eye of a target; it really is a proof that Montalti is an illustrator who knows the requirements of his art. He had used this white circle for his mass of light which draws attention to the figure of the girl; the figure of the piping shepherd is his great black, and the positive black and white neutralize each other. It also may be said that the half-decorative, half-realistic daisies at the bottom of the drawing are out of place: nothing is out of place in art if the result is good, and it is nobody's business but the artist's how it is obtained. . ."

Petronius and Eunice

Mucha's artwork is astounding by any measure.

This is Quo Vadis, referring not to the biblical references of Jesus, but to Petronius and Eunice of 'the narrative of the time of Nero' by Henryk Sienkiewicz (any ancestral relation to Bill?), who received a Nobel Prize for literature in 1905.

Eunice is a fictitious household slave who has fallen in love with her master, though he learns of her devotion at the moment portrayed here.

Alphonse Mucha — Quo Vadis — 1902

C-C-Conan

Did I mention how I jump all over the place on this here bloggy thingy?

John Buscema. Conan. 'Nuff said.

Crazy Society

Good Lord, look at the waist on that young lady, and Vogue was setting the standard for women in 1909, as in the decades since. What a crazy society we live in.

Ruination

This book has been around the block and then some. It has a nice cover illustration by Paul Emile Becat, but I can't show any of the interior pages, as most of them are fused together, having survived some flood or other. It's still pretty, even in its ruination.

Song of Solomon

A plate from Sir Wm Russell Flint's 1909 Song of Solomon.

I am the rose of Sharon,

And the lily of the valleys.

As the lily among thorns,

So is my love among the daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,

So is my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow

with great delight,

And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house,

And his banner over me was love.

Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples:

For I am sick of love.

His left hand is under my head,

And his right hand doth embrace me.

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,

By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,

That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,

Till he please.

Almost a Swipe

This comment came in on the last post referring to Privat-Livemont:

Artman2112 said...

that's very nicely done but man, that figure is so close to the one in Mucha's "Gismonda" that it could almost be called a swipe!

Good point, and here, you can see for yourself . . .

Mucha — Gismonda — 1894

Exposition Internationale

Once again I'm in deadline crunch phase. I'll post here and there some individual images that have been scanned and waiting, but I won't have time for much explanation.

Here, a poster by one of the grand masters of art nouveau, following in the immediate wake of Mucha's upswell of technique, Henri Privat-Livemont. This image was created in 1896, for publication in 1897. Very majestic.

Privat-Livemont — Exposition Internationale — 1896

Solomon and Sheba

There's just something about a Roy Krenkel drawing that grabs my imagination and just won't let go. There are so many Krenkel drawings out there, waiting to be discovered, that it's like a treasure hunt to gather them together.

Roy Krenkel — Solomon & Sheba

So Much Happier

I'm telling ya, there's a lot of validity to this idea. It's like having your cake and eatin' it too. Most of us own too—much—stuff!