IBIS Journal 1: Aspects of Illustration
Journal 1 contains the first in-depth studies of two important illustrators working in the early part of the 20th century, Willy Pogány by Robin Greer and Alice B. Woodward by Geoffrey Beare, together with a comprehensive analysis of the illustrations to Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market" by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. The journal has 144 pages finely printed on ivory paper and has a sewn binding. It has four full-colour plates and is handsomely presented in full colour laminated covers.
Willy Pogány was born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1883. Having studied in Budapest, Munich and Paris, he had established himself as a talented and original illustrator in London publishing circles by 1906, and in the years from 1907 to 1915 produced a series of important and influential illustrated books, including The Ancient Mariner and the stories from Wagner's Tannhaüser, Parsifal and Lohengrin. With the outbreak of WWII he moved to America, where he worked not only as an illustrator but as mural artist, designer for theatre and film, and decorator of theatres and hotels. In America his work as an illustrator included a series of popular books by Paidraic Colum retelling epic tales and a wide variety of other volumes for both children and adults. He died in 1955. The journal assembles such biographical material as exists, publishes a comprehensive bibliography of his book and magazine illustrations in both England and the US, and reproduces a selection of his work, including some striking but long forgotten illustrations for magazines.
Alice B. Woodward was born in Chelsea, London, in 1862. She had four sisters and two brothers. Her father was keeper of geology at the South Kensington Museum and she and her sisters often provided drawings for books and articles written by her father and his colleagues. She studied at the National Art Training School and the Royal College, and also at Westminster and the Académie Julien, Paris. She exhibited paintings (of scenes in Normandy and Norfolk) and designs for process reproduction at the 91 Art Club, a Chelsea club for women artists. She took lessons in illustration from Joseph Pennell and Maurice Greiffenhagen and her connection with Pennell led to commissions from Dent and Macmillan to illustrate children's books. For Dent she succeeded Aubrey Beardsley as illustrator for the last two volumes of the Bon Mots series. However, it was for Blackie that she did her best black and white work, illustrating a series of outstanding children's books between 1896 and 1900 including To Tell the King the Sky is Falling, Adventures in Toyland and Red Apple and Silver Bells. She continued to contribute to annuals and school primers until the 1920s, but from 1907 her main publisher was G Bell & Sons for whom she illustrated The Peter Pan Picture Book. For this she provided 28 coloured plates and it has been continuously in print from 1907 to the present in one form or another. This was followed by the stories of two of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas and a number of children's books all with coloured illustrations. Amongst the last of her books was a volume of Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals which she illustrated in 1930 when she was 68 years old and for which she provided an atmospheric set of watercolour illustrations that capture the mystery of these ancient tales.
In her comprehensive analysis of the illustrations to Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market" Professor Lorraine Janzen Kooistra explores the varying approaches to the illustration of this enduringly popular work from its inception to the present day. From the first designs by Dante Gabrielle Rossetti, through the beautiful and haunting illustrations of Laurence Housman, to Kinuko Craft's 1970s images for Playboy she traces the changing responses of artists to the text over the years. The piece includes details of a newly rediscovered edition with illustrations by Willy Pogány and the first publication of a wood engraving by Hilary Paynter.
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