Edmund Dulac

This is the second in my mini-series about illustrators of the past. Edmund Dulac (born Edmond Dulac, October 22, 1882 – May 25, 1953) was a French book illustrator prominent during the so called "Golden Age of Illustration" (the first quarter or so of the twentieth century).
Born in Toulouse, France, he began his career by studying law at the University of Toulouse, but also followed classes in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, switching full time to art after he became bored with law, and also having won prizes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He spent a very brief period at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1904 before moving to London.

In London, the 22-year old Frenchman was picked up by J.M. Dent and given a commission to illustrate the collected works of the Brontë sisters. He then began an association with the Leicester Gallery and Hodder & Stoughton; the gallery would commission paintings from Dulac and then sell the rights to Hodder & Stoughton, who would publish the books (one book a year over many years) while the gallery would sell the paintings.

Books produced under this arrangement by Dulac include Stories from The Arabian Nights (1907) (including 50 colour images), an edition of Shakespeare's The Tempest (1908) (including 40 colour images), of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1909) (including 20 colour images), The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales (1910), Stories from Hans Christian Andersen (1911), The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1912) (including 28 colour images and many monotone illustrations) and Princess Badoura (1913).

Dulac became a naturalized British Citizen on Feb 17 1912. During World War I he contributed to relief books, including King Albert's Book, Princess Mary's Gift Book, and, unusually, his own Edmund Dulac's Picture Book for the French Red Cross (1915) (including 20 colour images). Hodder and Stoughton also published The Dreamer of Dreams (1915) (including 6 colour images) - a work composed by the then Queen of Romania. In 1995, Ann Hughey compiled a bibliography - Edmund Dulac - His Book Illustrations: A Bibliography, which lists over 800 editions of works that include illustrations by Edmund Dulac.

After the war, the deluxe edition illustrated book became a rarity and Dulac's career in this field was over. His last such books were Edmund Dulac's Fairy Book (1916), the Tanglewood Tales (1918) (including 14 colour images) and the exquisite The Kingdom of the Pearl (1920). His career continued in other areas however, including newspaper caricatures (especially at The Outlook), portraiture, theatre costume and set design, bookplates, chocolate boxes, medals, and various graphics (especially for The Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate). Halfway through his final book commission (Milton's Comus), Dulac died of a heart attack on 25 May 1953.

Beach Luggers

For a number of years now I have been going down to Hastings in Sussex and photographing 'abstract' details of the fishing boats known as Beach Luggers; so called because they are literally drawn up onto the shingle beach each day by cable and pushed back into the sea by tractor.
The images I produce remind me of abstract expressionist paintings of the 1950's, particularly what became known as 'Colour Field' work by American painters such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. Here are some of my photos of beach luggers interspersed with examples of the paintings.

A painting by Barnett Newman:

Beach Lugger:

A painting by Mark Rothko:

Beach Luggers:

Another painting by Mark Rothko:

Beach Luggers:

A painting by a contemporary 'colour field' painter Sean Scully

(I'll post a blog on Scully's work soon).

Beach Lugger:

Oiva Toikka

I think the glass birds made by Oiva Toikka are my favourite glass objects. If I could afford them I would have a modest collection of them. They're reasonably expensive and older 'deleted' designs are highly collectable.

Oiva Toikka (born 1931) is a Finnish glass designer. Born in Karelia, he is renowned for his designs for glassware for Iittala the Finnish design company. Originally trained in ceramics, he took up glass design later in life. Along with his designs for glassware, Toikka is most known since 1973 for his designs for the Iitala glass birds series. Toikka's designs are executed at the glass factory at Nuutajarvi.

Toikka, though known for his glass designs, has also enjoyed success in a number of area creative outlets. He has worked as a stage and costume designer, generally working with Finnish director Lisbeth Landefort although in recent years, he has also been associated with productions by the Finnish National Opera. Through the years, he has also contributed textile designs to the Marimekko collections from time to time.

Toikka, though known for his glass designs, has also enjoyed success in a number of area creative outlets. He has worked as a stage and costume designer, generally working with Finnish director Lisbeth Landefort although in recent years, he has also been associated with productions by the Finnish National Opera. Through the years, he has also contributed textile designs to the Marimekko collections from time to time.

Arne Jacobsen

I was thinking about great chair designs the other day, and realised that while many classics were designed by famous chair designers - Robin Day in this country, Charles and Ray Eames in America, many other famous chair designs were by architects, notably of the Bauhaus school - La Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe for instance. I thought I'd explore the art of chair design over a number of postings starting here with (and continuing the Danish theme) the Danish architect and product designer Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971).
As an architect and an industrial designer, Jacobsen always strove to achieve grace and coherence. In the process, he emerged as the single most influential Danish architect of the 20th century and the designer of such modernist classics as the Swan, Egg and Ant Chairs as well as the stainless steel, abstract-shaped cutlery which the director Stanley Kubrick chose as timelessly futuristic props for his film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Jacobsen's buildings are iconic in themselves. Here are a couple I really admire:
Aarhus Town Hall 1937-1942:

Texaco gas station 1937:

From the 1950s onwards Jacobsen, or "the fat man" as he was called, was the dominant figure in Danish architecture, but outside Denmark he made his mark as a furniture and product designer. In 1956 Arne Jacobsen was given the task of creating a high-rise building for the airline company SAS. Placed in the centre of Copenhagen, it was to contain an airport terminal as well as a hotel. The building was divided into two sections, - a low horizontal base, containing the lobby, airport terminal, restaurant and bar and a high-rise containing the hotel rooms.
Room at the Royal Hotel with 'Egg' chairs:

With the Royal Hotel, Arne Jacobsen created a ‘total environment’. Besides the building, he designed the furniture, lamps, textiles, wall panels, tableware, door handles, - everything, right down to the little ball at the end of the pull of the roller blinds! The furniture was an absolute ‘tour de force’. Modern furniture icons such as “the Egg”, “the Swan”, “the Drop”, was first presented here, and their full, sculptural shapes constituted an interesting contrast to the angular, stringent building. A number of pieces was subsequently put into general production, but a large portion were only produced for the hotel, for which reason they remain very rare.
The 'Swan' chair:

The 'Drop' chair:

The stackable and ubiquitous 'Ant' chair beloved of cafés and restaurants around the world:

An office setting with Arne Jacobsen furniture:

Arthur Rackham

This is the first of an occasional mini-series I'll post about illustrators of the past. Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. The illustrations here are from Lewis Carroll's Alice books.

Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.

In 1892 he quit his job and started working for The Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. His first book illustrations were published in 1893 in To the Other Side by Thomas Rhodes, but his first serious commission was in 1894 for The Dolly Dialogues, the collected sketches of Anthony Hope, who later went on to write The Prisoner of Zenda. Book illustrating then became Rackham's career for the rest of his life.

In 1903 he married Edyth Starkie, with whom he had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in numerous exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. Arthur Rackham died 1939 of cancer in his home in Limpsfield, Surrey.

In one of the featurettes on the DVD of Pan's Labyrinth, and in the commentary track for Hellboy, director Guillermo Del Toro cites Rackham as an influence on the design of "The Faun" of Pan's Labyrinth. He liked the dark tone of Rackham's gritty realistic drawings and had decided to incorporate this into the film. In Hellboy, the design of the tree growing out of the altar in the ruined abbey off the coast of Scotland where Hellboy was brought over, is actually referred to as a "Rackham tree" by the director.

Iceland

Last in the mini-series of Norse countries with Danish connections is Iceland. I was going to say it's not just volcanoes, but actually it pretty much is. A bleak and barren land with a majesterial beauty of it's own. It's too far north for trees to grow, which is something I'd miss for sure. Iceland is a land being torn in half. At the rift, you can move between two tectonic plates: the Eurasian plate on one side and the North American plate on the other. Nasa image of Iceland:

Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km2 (39,769 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Reykjavík, with the surrounding area being home to some two-thirds of the national population.

Iceland is volcanically and geologically active on a large scale. The interior mainly consists of a plateau characterised by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate despite its high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle.

According to Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island. Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter.

Over the following centuries, people of Norse and Gaelic origin settled in Iceland, from 1262 to 1918 it was part of the Norwegian, and later the Danish monarchies. Until the 20th century, the Icelandic population relied largely on fisheries and agriculture.